Classic Mode and Daily Mode are both permadeath, yeah. There are two other modes you can play that are more forgiving, but I like churning through character builds lol.

The whole thing is a brilliantly constructed weird-science-fantasy mashup in a post-post-post-apocalypse landscape that has been twisted and mutated and is full of ancient machines and such.

I kind of mention it in this video indirectly, but the setting uses Water as the primary form of currency - it's heavy to carry, you also need to drink, and you have only as much storage for water as you have waterskins. So you end up needing to do trades for various expensive trade goods or artifacts (guns, grenades, gadgets, tonics, etc).

When you're looking at the map, a good rule of thumb is that the further to the Right you go, the harder the mobs are. Secondly, the deeper you go the harder things get. You can get very very deep into caves. I'm not sure what the "bottom" is, because I usually die before I am 15 z-Levels deep lol.

You can do various water rituals with NPCs now and then to gain secrets, skills, or even add them to your party as companions. There's traders wandering around the world and the depths, and there's a complex relationship system with basically every entity in the world. If you hate fighting Oozes, you can work to increase reputation with oozes and then you don't need to fight them, for example.

It's honestly among the most complex and yet easily approachable games I've played.

I'm trash at it, and I've barely scratched the surface after almost two years of playing... and I love it.