The World Tree Gas Mask paradox, and the raid that breaks it
The mask that protects you from the radiation costs a resource you can only mine inside the radiation. One lightning raid solves it.
The World Tree opens with a genuine catch-22: the Gas Mask that lets you survive the irradiated biome costs 30 Paloxite, and Paloxite only exists inside that same biome. There's no way to prepare around it in advance.
The answer is a single lightning raid without the mask. You take continuous HP loss the whole time, so you go in light: a fast mount, full heals, a straight line to the first deposit, exactly 30 Paloxite, and back out. Grab World Tree Holy Water if it drops on the path, but never detour for it.
Once the mask is crafted at the Ancient Workbench, the biome becomes farmable — and the reflex that separates a smooth farm from a frustrating one is drinking Holy Water before you reach a deposit, not after. Its aura is what stops the resources from vanishing.