I'm all for a good challenge and I have the perseverence to see things to their finish. I've been grinding away diligently, taking every 'explore' option I can to work toward beginner buildings.

That said, is there some way to gain materials more efficiently I'm missing? I might find ~4 (different kinds, one or two of each) crafting materials in 10 explores and it takes 300 of multiple just to build the first building in some cases. 

It just feels like I'm not getting anywhere and there is a hard limit on progressing. Shouldn't the first buildings be a bit more forgiving? I understand later levels being really hard but it's agonizing on newer players. I sold skins to buy good creatures that tend to win the majority of battles. I bought premium currancy and traded items. Help.

Golems. Golems are apparently the answer. (Thanks for the gifted schematics!) It's like finding the light, lol.

The higher level your pet is the bigger island it will explore, giving you overall more gains per explore. A level 50 pet will find many more resources during its explore than a level 10 pet.

That is true. I mostly just trade magic food for bulk amounts of crafting materials since even with golems and even with level 50 pets it's not quite enough to do very much.

A lot of mechanics/balancing in the game could use some tweaks.

This game is heavily stacked against new players, I do agree.