So yeah, exactly what the title says. I'm a semi-newb (I did about 14 DKs like 4 years ago and stopped playing for a LONG while, didn't have a hyper ring so there went the account), and the island seems to have gotten a lot more vengeful in that time. I amped up my rank to 2 after my first DK, and level 14 is proving insurmountable. Every time I get close, some creature crits me 3-5 times in a row. Kittania's bank was closed most of today and so I lost all my req and had to spend the next day just to get back up to where I was. It's happened 5 in-game days in a row now, and it's incredibly frustrating.

The worst part? I have absolutely no idea what I was doing 'wrong'. From level 1-14 I could search for really big trouble with little worry. Now I can do the same maybe 70% of the time. So I got a bunch of ZAP grenades, starting hurling them first round and used timed combat. Nope, died to a Seventy-Headed Hellhound anyway in less than 5 perfect-timing rounds - I was crit for 90 damage on the last round, with a health bar of 142. This is with the Chainsaw and Invis Suit. I just lowered my rank back to 1 and will stop searching for really big trouble: Kittania was about to be overrun and I wanted to beat the clock. I might not get that chance again for a while.

So as a newbie again this is really frustrating. I can't increase my offense or defense any further, so I have no idea what I should be doing. I'd love it if crits couldn't occur more than once in a row, but failing that, please make the conditions more transparent. Did the crit occur because I had a -def net buff? Or was it only that high for the exact same reason? Do level 15 monsters hate me more than any other monster on the island?

(yes I was paying attention to the strong attack warning)

Just to start, the skill "Taking it on the Chin" is the skill that measures how much stamina you lose when you take damage greater than or equal to 10% of your max health in one round. The higher that skill is the less stamina you lose.

Okay, now to address the actual stuff you talked about...
To be honest, this sounds like just a bit of bad luck.
Your strategy of ZAP grenades was a pretty good one. I'm surprised to hear it didn't work.

Really big trouble searches for monsters 2 levels ahead of you. (Even if you're level 15.)
Big trouble searches for monsters 1 level ahead.
Trouble is at your level.
And whatever the last one is searches 1 level below you.
So, there's no shame in looking for easy fights!

Also, here's some suggestions on how to increase your survivabilty.
- Clans have some of the best buffs in the game. Considering joining one. (Shameless advertising: QQQ is always accepting and has full buffs!)
- The drinks in bars are pretty dang awesome. Experiment and see what they do.
- Cookies!
- Talk in Character Chat. A lot of the "veteran" players tend to hang out there and can give lots and lots of tips on specific problems.
- Don't give up!

Thanks for the tips, I'll see about that clan tonight :p Still, even if I get lucky later on and somehow blast through level 15, it would be awesome if advice on avoiding immense spikes in damage could be given in-game by an NPC! If the 90-dmg hit was a regular attack for example, should I be pumping my base def or my bonus def, crossing my fingers and trying again, or deflating my ego and taking on easier fights? I mean, if monsters 2 levels higher were consistently smacking the living daylights out of me I'd know that maybe I should find something else to do. But I'm actually winning most of the time, and it feels immensely frustrating to lose so much effort over and over due to bad luck.

If you have to fight in an outpost where the bank is closed and you've built up more req than you're comfortable carrying, buy some expensive items in eBoy's, which never closes. Sure, you're not going to get the full value back when you need the cash, but it's a lot better than losing everything, over and over again. I blush to remember how long it took me to figure that one out.

Or, if you're not stuck in one particular outpost -- because of a Dan quest, for instance -- you could move to another one where the bank isn't closed (NewHome is always safe), and rely on truancy to meet your master.

By level 14, though, requisition isn't usually a problem. It's the setback in experience that hurts! We've all been there. You can't entirely prevent the big hits no matter how you play the odds, but there are some things you can do to make them happen less often. Sometimes all it takes is a small tilt in the probabilities to make a huge difference in your success rate. I'd echo all Zoinks' suggestions! Also, the cheapest fix is monster repellent, from eBoy's. One squirt of that stuff lasts all day. Sometimes it makes all the difference.

And for future consideration, let me recommend saving up your cigs to buy the Zombie Donkey mount from New Pittsburgh. It is really good protection right off the bat, and just gets better and better.

Hey, thansk I'm giving it another shot. By my utter bloody-mindedness you shall fall, Drive!

An extra 2 cents:

If/When you can become a Joker, buying up grenades is a good place to sink your cash. When you sleep, they get converted and you can sell back. This is pretty much a guaranteed winning proposition because the price of Improbability Bombs are always higher than grenades, afaik.