Valheim is the only survival game I enjoyed. It automatically puts new usable things in your hotbar, there are lots of tips on what to do, and a giant bird that also fly in and lets you know what is going on. You can’t starve to death and building is really straightforward.

Starting areas are not deadly unless you make some bad decisions. Doing regular and obvious stuff like finding shelter and making a fire protects you in the meadows. The first few biomes are not grindy at all unless you want them to be, but it does get a little bit later on. I like replaying the first five biomes as the maps are dynamically generated and can vary widely.

I bounced off a lot of survival games before that one.