Questions for the early players
 

There are several locked chests on Tutorial island, are there any lockpicks here? If not, where is the closest lockpick salesman?

Swam out to the island in the bay and found a teleporter stone for this island. How do I use it to get back? If I take my boat off the island and then teleport back to it, am I stuck if I don't have a 2nd teleport stone yet?

I've got some plants that say that they're used to raise stats. Do I just eat them or is there some alchemy involved? With that in mind, there is a ritual potion that increases the effect of other potions. Shouldn't I drink the ritual potion before ingesting the plants that increase a skill?

Thanks!

Lockpicks can be bought in Antigua.

Just click on a teleporter-icon on the map-screen to beam to the teleporter from anywhere. No need for two stones.
You can't teleport between two different maps.
On the map-screen select the Goto Ship-button - then sail to the next isle.

Normally stat enhancing potions made out of plants are better than the pure plants
alone in PB games. I think this is the same in Risen 3 - I have no recipes yet.

1. You can buy a lockpick on any other isle/land. On some you have to solve a trader's quest first, on some you can buy it as soon as you land.
1.1. Make sure you buy only 1 (one) lockpick as it's unbreakable and buying more than one won't up your skill but is a loss of cash.
1.2. Do not force or chase lockpicks but rather make a screenshot or write down where locked chests are. Some are very difficult and you'll have to return for them later (max I've seen so far was 120, but I'm still in prefaction game).

2. Someone didn't play Drakensang The River of Time, am I right? Fasttravel works almost exactly like there. The difference is you need to unlock the hot spot with an item instead of just discovering it and you can initiate "teleport" from any spot.
2.1. You'll find more teleport stones than teleport sites so don't be afraid to unlock a "portal". Often a teleport stone is somewhere near the portal, so do the exploration part. In prefaction game, dunno about after.
2.2. Hidden explained the global map, I'll just add that you can use lower left icon if you want to see the spot of some quest target that is not on the island you're currently exploring.

3. Do not eat plants that permaboost something. Hoard those and wait till you learn a proper recipe (for example you can buy two such recipes from mages' island alchemist).
3.1. Do not use shadow lord hearts unless they're purified by shaman as you want the health (blood) perma bonus from those. I haven't seen a recipe for that so you'll probably have to talk to that shaman for each heart you cut out.
3.2. Dunno about ritual potion mixed with perma bonus potions. Will try later (I didn't mix any perma potion myself yet, but I got some as rewards).
[EDIT]No, ritual potion doesn't make permanent bonus pots stronger. Soul potion for example will boost your magic +5 with or without ritual potion.

Big hint for early players (assuming there will be more after me)…

This is one of those games that starts out hard but gets easier as you gain power. Quite a bit easier, actually. Normal is a good challenge at the start of the game but, once you learn a little magic, it becomes very easy. Luckily, the difficulty setting can be changed at any time. USE IT! I kept mine at Normal for far too long, expecting some PB were-warthogs to parachute in and ratchet up the difficulty.

I also didn't figure out the thief's hand (voodoo spell) for a long time. When you purchase the spell, it is treated as a WEAPON for your right hand! Equip the 'weapon' and wield it to use the spell. It's quite handy for cleaning up after you've finished an area off. (The swarm spell also acts as a weapon.)