Do you guys have any good strategy for starting characters? going to the caves seems almost suicide with any character I make.
I'm not the best player, heck I suck quite badly, however I've been in the starting area for quite a while so I'm pretty sure I know what I'm saying.
1: Steal from all the town's chests.
Argvye's house: push Argvye until he is behind the corner of the left wall outside. Then you may start stealing.
The house immediately up-left from your starting position: Close the door and steal.
The first house down-right from the elder's house: Close the door and steal.
The house right of the house above: Once again, close the door and steal.
Re: Fliching from the Elder: Push him into the upper right corner of the far left 'square' of his building. He won't have LoS on you when you loot his table and chest, and you can safely walk away with everything Irudad's not wearing.
Also, to get Tam(the trader)'s chest, knock down his wall(CTRL+direction to attack a wall with melee attacks) and push him outside behind the wall. Make sure he doesn't have a LoS on the chest.
2: If your character is REALLY weak, go on a killing spree in the swamps until you're level 3 or so. Otherwise, this is completely optional. The enemies are quite easy. The Glow fish always drops a corpse and it's worth a decent amount if you choose to sell them. The Glow pads are really tough but they're completely immobile. And Crocs may be somewhat more difficult than glow fish, but they're more rarer.
3: Go to the Red Rock. The enemies mostly consist of those s guys and the normal and hunter ones which are quite weak individually. The main threat is the Lovers, seed spitters, and the rare s warriors, shotgunners, brutes, and warlords. Also the rare unique s might be a problem, but it's quite unlikely that you'll find them. The money you can get from the loot in the Red Rock is huge. You may also find something worth wearing if you're lucky. Tip though; once you hit the bottom level(4) don't go down the river too far. If you do go down the river a little, make sure you don't go up any stairs or go too far down the river as the enemies get nasty quite quickly.
4: After you finish the watervine eater quest, go to the Rust Wells and complete Argvye's quest.
After these you should be pretty strong. There's also a ruin generated near the Joppa, likely directly east of Joppa. There, the enemies are quite difficult, but the loot can be great if you're lucky enough(Chaingun comes to mind).