Coming from designer Greg Wohlwend...

“The core skill of the game is about… not worrying too much. The game asks you, how chill can you be in the face of certain death? You have all these things chasing you and scaring you and you’re not even close to prepared after playing even 5, 6 hours of the game. Hopefully after a couple of hours you’re getting better at rolling but you’re not even close to the level that you will get after like 5 or 6 hours.

But you’ll be better served by taking it slow and maybe sitting still for a second, and thinking about what you’re going to do before you do it as opposed to just with a twitch reaction

Plant check points early and often, don’t be afraid to plant checkpoints. I know it’s sort of like eating your vegetables, but plant your checkpoints. If you’re really struggling to get through the forest, just focus on getting through the forest once and planting checkpoints to do so. Get the crystals, plant checkpoints. Work and church."

These suggestions are definitely ones you'll want to follow when first taking on the game. Then after you've put in some hours...you'll still want to follow them!