For those that want to clear without cheating:
Slugs make for an excellent early training dummy. you can spawn them in in the area north of the starter zone. 30 slugs completes a quest that speeds up your growth a bit. just be careful about the huggers, as they regen stamina stupid fast and have the most annoying leap of the lot, as it targets where you are moving to, not where you are; so just moving perpendicular to the foe won't dodge the leap like it does with slimes and wasps.
When nights falls, you can abuse the rezoning and spawn mechanics to farm the higher level slugs. Like all foes slugs don't attack when their stamina is low, and all foes spawn with zero stamina. you can abuse this by repeatedly rezoning into the swamp until you get a nearby slug spawn and no huggers. then just punch it to death before it has the stamina to fight back.
Best stat spread is honestly roughly even IMO. Strength gets you kills, dex gets you stuns which are MUCH faster then kills on tougher foes, agi gets you a tiny bit of stamina but mostly gets you move speed for dodging. Con gets you out of shit if you get grabbed while break free is on cooldown. You could neglect con while you're farming slugs to get a bit more punch power, but once you're past that you'll need the struggle power to save you if break free is on cooldown.
Break free is the best skill bar none, take it asap and never swap it out. It instantly frees you no matter the foe AND zeros their stamina which can net you a kill opportunity sometimes. The combo one is a close second and should be your next pick, as this doesn't take the active slot and lets you spam punch- the second hit of the combo pulls hit foes to you and spamming it gets you stuns really fast. Just mind your stamina.
Once you're level 10-15 head east and kill the flower, it can be stunned with a few good hits and with break free and decent con should be survivable. It will give you multiple levels per kill.
Slug boots, and wasp stinger are both good equipment. Boots give speed after a dodge which keeps you un-molested and is a lifesaver against orcs and orcesses. Stinger gives armour penetration which seems to boost damage against the tougher foes. I also like the sweatband from the shop too as it means more stamina.