I mean I'm surviving-- level 12 but damn this game is rough I find. I feel like my weapons shoot corn and these dudes r just eating my bulletts. Can anyone give a noob some advice as to what guns I should get my hands on, what abilities to level up or areas I should go to please!!!!

Play on easy?

finding .308 or .45 ammo is tricky, but weapons that use them tend to hit harder. Energy cells and shotguns are also quite decent and have a bit more common ammo, and the laser musket you get from an early quest is a capable weapon if you ration your ammo.

All that said, pretty much any weapon can be modded to be good, but having a 4 int and gun nut is pretty much a requirement in this game. with very little effort, even your starting 10mm gun can become very capable.

Also, as Haggar said, diffuculty level can affect how hard the game feels, it may be a good idea to knock it down a level, especially if you started on the higher levels.

What difficulty do you play on? I haven't been to far but on survival I was lucky enough to get a nice legendary pistol early on. Diamond city had some decent weapons to buy as well. As for perks..gun nut is essential(for survival atleast) in my opinion.

tgm, god mode

Basically, the further from Sanctuary hills you go, the tougher it gets. Stay out of the southern part until level 40+.

10mm pistol and .38 pipe pistols won't run out of ammo in the early game.

Play on Hard, veryhard and survival are require highly optimized builds/weapons to excel in rather than just doing whatever.