This guide's primary goal is to assist you in the various health threats you may encounter in early gameplay. The two easiest ways to die early on, especially if you're new to the game, is starvation and hypothermia.
There are several ways to die, however. You can be killed by the various monsters you will encounter, mostly Spitters and Rippers, or you can be killed by a person suffering a psychotic break. You may be unlucky enough, or stupid enough if you're like me, to walk off an ice ledge and fall to your death.
With all this being said, I will try to keep this guide up to date as more new ways to die are encountered, and there will likely be more. Now let's jump into the nitty gritty details of how to avoid death.

The most common ways to die are from hypothermia, starvation, and falling to death. Hypothermia is the most common way to die. The easiest way to avoid this is to try to stay near shelters and make sure you have enough sticks to be able to make a fire or two. It is also a good idea to get the fiber coat early on to help keep you warm.
Starvation is a serious threat to those new to the game. It is best to either keep food in your inventory or to keep a fire for cooking grubroot as you find it. That's all there really is to avoid starvation, other than staying close to home (which only works if you have food stockpiled).
The last environmental death is falling. The one guaranteed way to avoid dying by falling is to avoid high places. You simply need to be careful around ledges. And be aware that unexpected lag can throw off hte controls and cause unfortunate accidents.

NPCs are common and can kill you fairly easily. The monsters are the most common. To avoid being hit is fairly easy with a bit of practice. All that you need to do is block and roll. It's the same for hostile NPCs.