TechLevels
The game is setup into different levels of technology you can need to learn as you progress. It isn't a straight linear path through all the technology, but some technology requires access to other technology in order to achieve. A Masonry Bench for instance, requires iron ingots to make, so you need to learn to smelt iron or borrow a Masonry Bench someone else placed in game.
Sticks and Stones
You start the game at this level. You can get sticks from woody plants and you can dig softer materials by hand or with a digging stick made in the crafting spot. You can make wattle from sticks for building walls and doors of a hut. You can use the weaving spot to make wicker or woven bags and baskets and clothing.
Dye and colours
Dye allows you to add colour to bags and clothing. No technology depends on it and no technology is needed to access it. There is no need to master dye making to survive in the game.
Adze and softwood
An adze is a primitive cutting tool. It can be used to cut softwood trees. This provides you access to soft wood crafting of materials made from logs via the Chopping Block. Wooden storage and water pots are craftable with the Chopping Block.
Pottery
Wet clay can be made into clay storage and water pots. A cooking pot is also available for making soups. Pottery needs to be fired in a kiln to be useful. There is no need to use pottery in the game now since you can instead access wooden storage and water pots. There is no equivalent for a cooking pot currently, but it isn't the only way to cook food.
Brick Making
The first building material you can make that doesn't fall (not counting thatch) is mud bricks. This is achieved through the Brick Maker's Bench. It also gives you access to clay bricks which need to be fired in a kiln like pottery. Access to none-falling bricks makes it possible to make more advanced ovens needed for cooking and smelting. It makes it possible to make Kilns that don't fall apart after each use.
Iron Smelting and Anvil
Iron smelting is a long and slow process. You need to collect iron boulders which must be crushed with the hammering station. You need to crush 2 boulders to get 1 block of crushed Iron. This Crushed Iron needs to be roasted in an oven then brought back to the hammering station to produce Roasted Iron powder. Again it takes 2 roasted Iron to make 1 Roasted Powder block. Roasted Powder then needs to be combined with 4 charcoal blocks to produce Smelting mix. Smelting mix then needs to be smelted producing an Iron Bloom. You need to take the Iron Blooms back to the hammering station to produce an Iron Ingot. Again, it takes two Iron Blooms to produce 1 Iron Ingot.
So, an Iron Ingot requires 2 Blooms, which Requires 2 Iron Mixes. 2 Iron Mixes requires 2 Roasted Powder and 8 charcoal which each required 2 crushed Iron; so 4 crushed Iron. 4 crushed Iron require 2 Iron boulders each, so 8 iron boulders for each Iron Ingot. You need 4 iron ingots to make an anvil needed to make iron products like tools. That's 32 boulders to get your anvil. A pickaxe then requires another 2 iron ingots, so anther 16 boulders. So a total of 48 boulders are needed to get to a pickaxe.
If you're lucky enough to be able to borrow an anvil from someone, you can get to Iron level with 16 boulders. This will give you an iron pickaxe you can use to dig iron ore directly making it a little easier to collect enough boulders to build your anvil.
Hard Wood and Carpentry Bench
Once you have mastered Iron smelting, you will be able to produce an axe which can chop hard wood trees. Hard wood lets you build more advanced wood products via the Carpentry Bench. Wooden Doors, Chests, Rope Boxes, and other items are now possible.
Masonry Bench and Carved Bricks
The Masonry Bench lets you carve bricks from harder materials like limestone, basalt, granite, etc. These blocks can be used with Mortar to hold them in place so they wont fall.
Spinning Wheel and Loom
The Spinning wheel lets you bundle Cana plants for Retting. This is the process of soaking the Cana bundles to rot away cellular tissues of the plant leaving the fibre behind. The Spinning Wheel can then be used to spin Cana into fibre for use in making cloth with the Loom. This cloth can be made into clothing and bags of superior quality to what can be made in the weaving station. There are two sets of clothes available; winter and summer. The cloth bags hold more also. You can also make a better mattress from cloth which restores energy even faster then the primitive bed. Rope boxes are also possible using the stronger fibre from Retted Cana.
Advanced Tech
The ancient abandoned city below the surface has artefacts left behind by the lost inhabitants of this planet. It's not clear what happened to them, but they obviously had technology beyond our ability to comprehend. Some of it can be found and figured out however. Creating it is beyond our ability however.