You'll see a yellow triangle in the upper left corner on the icons of items on recommended/targeted equipment. Don't throw them away, craft them!

On the right side of your screen, there's a menu of items that can be found in your current area. These items are marked with the yellow label.

You're free to pick your battles, but it's probably better to fight after crafting your weapon. If you take out your enemies, you can take their stuff!

Some areas have a teleporting booth, disguised as a phone booth, that can teleport you to any other area of the island.
Open the map and check where these devices are, marked by a double arrow on the map, and use them to move around more efficiently.

Here are some other tips created by our players themselves:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3Ol-XKNFlur3rfa1rrbB-Qtboe-_Sq8E

You can always ask the community for more tips on our Official Discord[discord.gg]

Good luck to you!