Have fun!!! Welcome to the Anomaly, traveler.

Tip: you can pick up an exosuit inventory upgrade at every unique space station (the upper left next to the exosuit tech merchant). They will increase in cost as you get them, but having inventory space is a must. Then, focus on upgrading your multi tool.

The game's purpose is the journey - not the destination.

Do the Community Expeditions. They only come around once in a while, and there should be one currently active for a little while longer. You get good stuff with them, and this one in particular is especially good, imo.

Just create a new save. They are set up so that you will get upgrades and inventory slots as you go. When you're done, you can then roll it into a normal save with everything you collected and unlocked. Great way to jumpstart the game and get cool loot!

You cannot 100% the game no matter how hard you try. And anything you miss will still be there, somewhere. So you might as well enjoy the parts you enjoy, and don't worry about the parts you don't. There's no wrong way to play.

Following the main story plot (see your quest logs) will help you unlock stuff. So probably do that first, but don't rush. :)

It's not a particularly challenging game unless you choose to make it so. But by default it's mostly just hanging out and exploring. You don't need to min/max, you don't even need advice. You will learn everything you need to know, and anything you learn late, won't have been a big deal to not know for a while.

Putting stuff in your tech slots gain small bonuses if things of the same type are touching. And purple slots gain bigger bonuses. There are best possible ways to arrange all that stuff, but you'll be fine if you put stuff in the worst possible order too. It's all gravy. Play around with it, see if you can make bigger numbers by placing things in different places, but no need to obsess with it. Unless you crank the game up to maximum difficulty, you will be strong enough with no bonuses.

Making money and nanites ends up being incredibly easy, and really the only barriers are knowledge. You actually probably are better off not knowing the easiest ways, the game is more fun when you don't have infinite money and resources yet. Slowly learn them over time on your own.

If you think you might get to a point where the game will feel "too" easy, make sure to start the game with custom difficulty and with the ability to alter difficulty choices later. So at any moment you can decide to change something to be less boring. Or the other way, if something is too tedious or hard, you can always turn that specific aspect to a different setting too.

Edit: If it's an option for you, the game plays and runs great in VR now too. A few bugs here and there still, but very playable.

You learn 1 word from every npc you meet at space stations. So take the time from your very 1st space station to talk to everyone.

Explore the galaxy. (some of) The procedurally-generated worlds are amazingly beautiful. You can make pets with fauna by feeding them and eventually they will bond with you.

Read the recipes and ingredients notes.

Pick up the gravitino balls

Fuck around for a while til you get bored. Probs more fun with friends and all doing stuff together.

At some point you will be given a choice to receive a huge freighter, basically a mobile base, or materials. Don't take the freighter the first time. If you wait until the second time they offer you one, it'll be higher in quality than the first one.