I’ve died a lot in Stranded Deep. Most of those deaths were preventable. After too many restarts from positions I’d spent hours building, I put together everything I know so you don’t have to learn it the same painful way I did. This is my honest survival guide — no theoretical “should work” advice, just the stuff that actually helped me finish the game.
Day one priorities, in order: Find a coconut and open it (gives you both food and water). Make a stone tool (flint + stick). Find a palm tree and chop it down for sticks and palm fronds. Build a shelter — even a basic lean-to — before nightfall. Do not go in the ocean on day one. You are not ready for what’s down there.
Water is your most critical resource. The coconut water trick sustains you early, but you need a water still as fast as possible. Build it from a barrel piece + clay jug + sticks + palm fronds. Place it outdoors and it fills from rain. Get two of them running as soon as you have materials. Dehydration kills you faster than anything else in this game, including sharks.
The tanning rack changes everything. Once you can tan hides, you can make leather, and leather unlocks most of the mid-game gear. To get hides you need to hunt boars or manta rays — approach boars from the side (they charge forward) and always check which direction they’re facing before you commit. The spear is your best early weapon; the bow takes too long to craft and arrows are annoying to produce.
Boss preparation checklist: Full health, two fibrous leaves for healing, a refined spear (not crude), a raft with enough fuel to return, and ideally the Shark Repellent item if you’ve found it. Don’t fight bosses at night. Don’t fight bosses while low on water. And never — not once — fight Meg without knowing which direction she’s going to come from before she does.