If you've been searching for that long, you're bound to have enough crowns to buy some CE with said crowns to buy Orbs with said CE that you bought using the crowns for CE.

http://wiki.spiralknights.com/User:Jdavis/FAQs#How_do_I_get_Orbs_of_Alch...

Make sure you're in the right strata. The optimal place for advanced orbs is stratum 3, however they will appear as early as stratum 1 and as late as stratum 4. However in other strata, advanced orbs will be rare because they're mixed into the pool of other orbs rather than being the largest or only orb in the pool. Try to run missions in the appropriate strata, indicated by the depth of each level.

Alternatively, you can speedrun the first depth of any arcade gate at tier 2, just try to avoid compounds. A few levels that are easy to speedrun are: Lichenous lairs, clockwork tunnels, deconstruction zones... however decon zones don't provide many boxes. If you see an arena in the first half of tier 2, try to go for that, as it'll have a very high amount of treasure boxes in it.

Look up arcade on the wiki, it will explain how icons are coded, and I think it explains what levels are what too

And since these are all beginner questions please move this to new recruits

First, I wrote a guide to address all of the "how do I get X" questions that crop up here- http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/108732

What it doesn't answer is your situation about improvement and not being able to perform. The answer to that is to take your time and have fun because what you're stuck on isn't gear, it's skill. What you can do with higher tiered gear is exactly the same as what you can do with lower tiered gear, because in nature they're the same thing- so take your time, and practice because that's fun.

The orb tactics are generally the same, just with a one stratum increase. Honestly it's typically a better price to buy orbs with energy, but make sure to make appropriate calculations on the current market whenever you do.

For elite orbs, speedrunning stratum 4 for boxes is your best bet. Luckily a few missions are good for doing just that, the 6-2 mission "Sewer Stach" being notorious for it. Luckily boss strata are always in the second half of tiers, and thus in even strata, so if you want to farm bosses for elite orbs and crowns it's a valid tactic!

As mentioned earlier in the thread, it may be a good idea to move this thread over to the new recruits section of the forums. That forum is more for getting information about the game, new and old players both, despite the name of the subforum.

As for the question in the original post: You buy them, or you spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to find them.

@#12
As #14 has stated, don't bother upgrading your cobalt equipment. I'm not completely sure about Aegis being bad, but azure guardian is... well, terrible. I would suggest getting Wolver, Gunslinger, or Magic set, depending on your choice of weapons.

On the topic of elite orbs, I agree with #13. Get to 6-2, run sewer stash(on elite mode). Shoot the crystals with your blasters for the "open gate" button, then just skip all the monsters. Don't go on the elevator. Once you find two groups of treasure boxes, press the keybind for opening the missions menu and restart the level.
Alternatively you could do jelly king elite for both orbs AND crowns, but you won't beat it without help and sewer stash is generally much more efficient for just the elite orbs.

I will use these 5 things and their upgrades... (by the way, tell me what upgrade path I should take)

Please do not plan your equipment by picking 2- and 3-star items, and then thinking about their upgrades. Instead, plan your equipment by picking the 5-star items you want. Then look back in their alchemy trees, to figure out what leads to them. By following this strategy, you will avoid getting stuck in an alchemy tree that doesn't go anywhere (e.g. Winmilion) or anywhere great (arguably some of the choices you've already made).

I'm glad that you've thought about 5-star items. In post #14 above, you will find a link to my detailed sword guide. It can give you lots of guidance about swords, sidearm guns, armor, shield, etc.

Dragon Scale Shield is a poor choice (weak defense in most situations, and no offensive bonuses). Dread Skelly Suit and Divine Veil are okay, but have you considered more offensive armors?

Triglav is okay but not great, especially for your first 5-star sword. Consider Acheron or Final Flourish/Barbarous Thorn Blade to go with your Storm Driver. Or consider Combuster/Voltedge but pair it with a different gun such as Blitz Needle. Or Leviathan Blade if you really want a normal sword for versatility against all targets.

What is the best armour for a balance between offense and defense?

Those would be the sworder, gunner, and bomber armors covered in my sword guide. Their defense is okay and their offense is good.

What shield provides lots of defense and offensive bonus?

The only shield that fits that exact description is Barbarous Thorn Shield, although it depends on what you mean by "lots". The only other shield that offers offensive bonuses is Swiftstrike Buckler, which provides terrible defense.

Sorry about that. I fixed the link.

Triglav is okay but not great, especially for your first 5-star sword. Consider Acheron or Final Flourish/Barbarous Thorn Blade to go with your Storm Driver. Or consider Combuster/Voltedge but pair it with a different gun such as Blitz Needle. Or Leviathan Blade if you really want a normal sword for versatility against all targets.

So you reccommend a Calibur upgrade, but not a Troika upgrade. Please explain?

Ah, I see. I forgot that although a Troika might have a higher DPS and defensive value than a Calibur, it's not as newbie friendly.

The Obsidian edge is a weapon that requires grinding the "Shroud of the Apocrea" event. If you've never done it, then it might be a bit of a difficulty shock when you get to it. The other part of the nightblade that works is the "Acheron", which is notorious for being the most overpowered weapon in the game as it hits like a heavy weapon but swings like a brandish.

I have a bit of a personal preference for helping new players pick out a loadout. While in tier 2 it's pretty easy to figure out what is going to cause them trouble.
For instance, be wary of what is hitting you when you shield, what is good at hitting you when you're not shielding, what enemies you have trouble fighting, etc.
Then decide your loadout based on that. My most recent prodigy went the whole divine set path, grey owlite shield, acheron, and arcana.

Personally, I've found that an acheron is good in any situation, and having an elemental sidearm (see: gun) is a great choice, since no turrets are strong against elemental damage (in fact, 2/3 are weak to it). After that, you can work on your next two weapons, ideally an elemental sword and a piercing gun, or if you now fancy yourself a gunslinger/pure swordie, a shadow gun/piercing sword. Elemental sword is either divine avenger or combuster* (however: leave these at 4* until you max out your acheron!) and either a callahan or a blitz needle* (blitz is more useful in the long haul. Callahan is more for powerful charge attacks that devastate crowds whereas blitz is great for one-shotting tough opponents).

*I recommend these more

Now for armors, I recommend filling all categories as quickly as possible. Get your offensive armor (chaos), get your defensive armor (dragon scale/divine set), get your weapon specialty set (wolver, gunslinger, bomber, new gunner armors). After you do this, then branch out and cover all status fronts. Do you have freeze resist? If not, perhaps make skolver if you're digging swords, or perhaps pursue the rare and expensive black kat set. Do you have a MSI set yet? Do you think you can run shadow lairs? If so, get mercurial demo. If not, just go mercurial unless you suddenly have enough for black kat.

After armors, fill in for what defenses you don't have in shields. First shields I recommend for players is one with fire/elemental resistance because A) you're going to shield elemental monsters a lot and B) you're going to spend a lot of time in FSC so you might as well have a fire resist shield. Grey Owlite is my go-to, however dragon scale will not do you wrong (but it will make several enemies more dangerous than they should be). After that is filled, go offensive (swiftstrike + barbarous thorn shield), defensive (plate shield), then statuses(dread skelly, grey owlite, if you can the piercing tortoshield).

TL;DR - get acheron + elemental gun of choice, preferably a blaster or pulsar. Get grey owlite shield and defense for whatever enemies give you the worst trouble (shock fiends = divine set, fire slimes = dragon scale), and don't mix and match your first set. After your first set get glass cannon gear.

Acheron: Great.

Callahan: Great.

Arcane Salamander Suit: Terrible. One of the worst armors in the game, and one of the hardest to get.

Snarbolax Cap: Great, although one of the hardest armors to get.

Barbarous Thorn Shield: Great.

Bopp's on his way to creating his army of clones. :P

IMO Volcanic Salamander is more useful. It's handy at 3 star for RJP, and then it becomes handy at 4 and 5 star for FSC. RJP killing gear, and FSC status protection on the cheap.

In this way the game gets slightly harder to match the player's progress.

The game already gets harder as the player progresses. You jump into the arcade, and continue progressing until you find your "jam". For me, I start to get a little uneasy in depths 26-28.
The overpowered setups I feel are for those who can't play anything other than the rank missions for some reason, and want to finish them as fast as possible. This game isn't such a grind when you muck around in the arcade, playing for fun rather than for completionism. But I'm an old geezer who also happens to be a hipster, so my 2 cents is probably not even worth half that.