Are you running flight? You can win on any propulsion type but flight is often recommended as the most consistent for a first win. You're fragile and have low support but you can leave enemies in the dust. If you do this, try to get prototype flight units from the haulers on -9 and -8 because non-prototypes are extra fragile and have lower support. With a collection of hackware you can reliably find exits with Access(Main) and Access(Branch) on terminals. Another hack that may not seem immediately useful is Enumerate(Maintenance) which shows you the location of all the maintenance bots on the map. You don't really care about those bots but the paths they take give you a general layout of the entire map, a real lifesaver once you hit Research.
Are you going to branches? Caves branch ends have a variety of things that can help you: items, intel, schematics, even alignment with other groups. I don't recommend imprint for beginners because it disables terminal hacking but it is good to try at least once. Warlord is a more popular choice. He has a lategame drawback now but on flight it may not matter that much. Something else that Caves gives you is a way to get rid of alert for free. You can try to alert purge with hacking but you can always do it by leaving the complex for a while. You need to be prepared for the possibility of an ambush at the start of a caves map, but again on flight you leave them in the dust. The second map in a caves branch has an early exit back to the complex so you want to go all the way west unless you're in really bad shape. If you visit caves regularly you're unlikely to get those frequent assaults in Factory, though the little Spotter drones might cause an increase in search patrols if they scan you on your way back through Proxy Caves.
Instead of sensors you can take Farcom from the Exiles, with the bonus of being allowed to take one of their possibly lifesaving prototypes with you. Farcom is free sensors against all hostile bots in the complex--it doesn't work in caves so keep that in mind, and you need to be careful which exits you take when you get to Research. Once you consistently reach -3 Farcom becomes less desirable as you may really want to see what's in those mysterious research branches, but getting those built-in sensors and playing with those prototypes is both fun and helpful.
