Good Set Early-On in the Game?

By "set" do you mean just armor, or a complete loadout of armor, shield, and weapons? Ideally you would coordinate the entire loadout, because then you can choose armor that gives your weapons offensive bonuses.

So what kinds of weapon do you want to use? Swords? Guns? Bombs? A mixture of swords and bombs? What? This is really the big personal choice that you make in designing your loadout.

The cheapest items are the Cobalt/Defender/Calibur/Blast lines. You get their recipes free by completing rank missions (which you should do). But free is not always good. The armor is some of the worst in the game. The weapons are decent but not very interesting. So, even though they are cheap, don't spend your resources on them. Rather, spend a little more to get items that you really want.

While you think about all of that, here are some links:
my detailed armor guide
my detailed sword guide
the semi-official Gunslinger Guide
the semi-official Bombing Guide

By "set", I mean the complete loadout of armor, shield, and weapon, yes. And to your second question, I mean a mixture of sword and guns, that is what I am somewhat decent at. I've seen the bombs, not really my type of weapon to use for the entire game, unless I can get my hands on a really decent one, then I'm sticking to sword and gun.
I've heard about the Brandish path, my friend has one, that is a Night Blade. Seems like a cool sword, but he said, "It's not worth it". So, I don't know what alchemy path to take. Thanks for the responses.

Your Regards, yours truly,
~Jay/Volkver

for armor, you should always pick something with at least a small offensive boost. as you are asword/gun hybrid, you can pick the wolver line (end it in vog cub for FSC), padded line (sacred firefly sentinel or shade is great for FSC, but not that great beforehand), original gunner armor line (the sashes) or chaos for overall boosts and lots of status weakness.
for shield, I would go with something that has two status resists or offensive boosts. owlite would be a good choice.
for weapons, you should have two weapons that both deal differnt non-normal damage. you could for example go with a nightblade and an elemental blaster. even better would be if you get four weapons so you have two guns and two swords of different non-normal damage.
of course that costs a good bit, so going with plain calibur and blaster would be a cheaper alternative, albeit a weaker one.
and no, nightblade isnt not worth it. at 5* it gets a major damage boost, being on par with two hit swords in damage per hit.

I mean a mixture of sword and guns...

Check out the Mixing Weapon Types section of my sword guide for advice on pairing swords with guns. Some popular answers are:
* Combuster and Blitz Needle
* Acheron and an elemental gun
* any sword and Iron Slug

For armor, consider Chaos (and Black Kat, when the next Kataclysm comes around). But also consider pairing one piece of sworder armor with one piece of gunner armor.

I've heard about the Brandish path, my friend has one, that is a Night Blade. Seems like a cool sword, but he said, "It's not worth it".

The consensus is that Nightblade/Acheron is one of the most over-powered swords in the game. And it's easy to use. I use mine all the time. In my opinion, your friend is...wrong.

Yeah, I think so too. He's a pretty powerful dude... ish. Maybe compared to his other swords maybe? He's an all-offensive. What type of Elemental gun would be good? I'm planning to go the autogun path, my friend recommended, "The Grim Reaper".
Yeah, it's quite wrong, haha.
Neueragon, I'm planning to go the Wolver path for my armor. I think it looks amazing, when it's the Skolver, yet, isn't pricey either :) Thanks for the info.

Your Regards, yours truly,
~Jay/Volkver

skolver isnt that useful in FSC later on, as it protects against neither elemental nor fire.
for guns, grim repeater is great, but blitz is MUCH more useful for FSC later on. as an elemental gun, you have several choices. if you want one right away, you can go with the elemental blaster or an alchemer (alchemers are a bit hard to use though), else you can farm a T2 boss and get yourself a pulsar or an antigua and upgrade those to their elemental lines.

He's a pretty powerful dude... ish. Maybe compared to his other swords maybe? He's an all-offensive.

Most advanced players in this game are heavily oriented toward offense. No, Acheron is not weak compared to his other swords. Acheron is one of the most powerful swords in the game (depending on the situation).

What type of Elemental gun would be good?

Well, Nova Driver and Storm Driver are powerful and fun. They have a steeper learning curve than most of the other weapons in this game. But that just makes them more interesting to me.

Some players like Arcana. It's not bad, but it's kind of boring. Wildfire and Polaris can be very useful, but you have to use them carefully, due to the huge knockback. Argent Peacemaker is mediocre and very boring. For more information, do a Google search for something like "elemental gun site:forums.spiralknights.com" (without the quotation marks). You will find many threads.

I'm planning to go the autogun path, my friend recommended, "The Grim Reaper".

You mean Grim Repeater. It's a good shadow gun. So are Umbra Driver and Winter Grave.

Neueragon, I'm planning to go the Wolver path for my armor. I think it looks amazing, when it's the Skolver, yet, isn't pricey either :)

Skolver is good armor, although Vog Cub's defense is more useful in Firestorm Citadel, where you will eventually spend a lot of time farming.

I don't understand some of your statements about price. Most armor in this game costs the same amount. For example, Skolver, Vog Cub, and Chaos all cost the same amount. Some armors are slightly more expensive, because you can find the recipes only at Basil. But don't let that stop you from getting them, if they're what you want.

The only armors that you should be disqualifying right now based on price are: Perfect Mask of Seerus, Shadow Lair armors such as Snarbolax, and event armors such as Black Kat Raiment.

Yeah, I meant the Grim Repeater, sorry, I was in a rush and couldn't check for autocorrects.
Well, Bopp, technically, by "pricey" I mean by the amount you pay. I tend to lose interest in playing more levels, when I'm so close to The equipment price. Maybe you understand, but don't worry about that. I will do more research, but asking more fellow players tend to give me more knowledge rather than searching it all up. Thanks for the help, Bopp.
I will search those guns up.

Your regards, yours truly,
~Jay/Volkver.

Well, Bopp, technically, by "pricey" I mean by the amount you pay.

Skolver Coat and Chaos Cloak have exactly the same availability (Hall of Heroes), exactly the same costs (in terms of orbs and crowns), and similar material requirements. The same goes for their lower-star precursors.

Anyway, you'll figure it out. Or, if not, then feel free to ask more questions here. Happy travels. :)

Really early in the game, there's nothing better than your cyclops cap, fencing jacket, zapper, and maybe heavy hatchet. You get all of those for free. Save your credits for 2* gear.

Once you get access to 2* gear, all the above comments apply.