A lot of challenges are kill-based, so regularly cycling out weapons will be surprisingly lucrative.
Get in the habit of periodically checking the list of challenges as you play to get a sense of what you’re close to completing and what you should focus on. These include distracting enemies with rocks, crafting items, and killing a few enemies with the sawblade launcher, which is one of the first weapons you get in the game.
There are a number of very simple challenges that you can farm when you first start the game to build up a respectable pool of points. No, we’re not talking about New Dawn’s difficulty levels – rather, Challenges are simple achievement-style activities that you complete as you play the game, which will give you skill points to unlock perks.