Giovinolo said:
"I kinda prefer guns"

Athresh said:
"If swords are your thing then wolver will be your best bet"

Please, the guy said that he likes guns so do not force every new player to become wolver clone because, as much as swords may be efficient or fun, they are not the only valid gear in SK. Yes, you can defeat every level and every boss without having wolver gear.

Giovinolo, read the wiki page "Damage" to learn the monsters' vulnerabilities and resistances to different damage types. Then get yourself a piercing weapon, an elemental weapon, and a shadow weapon. Carry two of these at a time, or all three, once you have a weapon slot upgrade. Use them on the correct monsters, to deal huge damage.

Since you're interested in both swords and guns, I'll recommend this hybrid setup: piercing sword and elemental gun (and then shadow sword). The reason is that swords can have trouble against turrets, and so you want to use guns on turrets, and the single best damage type against turrets is elemental.

I strongly agree with the other posters that you should avoid the Cobalt armor line, and its shield. Choose gunner or sworder armor, that gives offensive bonuses.

First of all there are no such things as Swords Path or Gunslinging Path in this game. No choice have to be made. Think outside-of-the-box of usual classes, skills trees, spell paths and other such things, so overused in most RPG. You can use any weapon you like, any time - changing your loadout from pure swords to pure guns or pure bombs and anything in-between. Wise and experienced players usually mix and match weapons types in theirs loudouts to maximize their gaming experience, fun factor and performance. If you use swords mostly because they are occasionally convenient it doesn't mean that you are ought to have Wolver Set.

Checking the Damage rules on Wiki, as suggested by Bopp, is essential for every beginner. Later on though do not hesitate to experiment. There are situation that you may prefer using weapon that is neutral to given monster - for example I find Polaris efficient against Devilites and Valiance against Greavers. I know that there are players who favour Hail Driver for Devilites, and Shivermist Buster is very efficient against Trojans and Devilites alike. Damage is not the only factor in weapon choice, there are other factors like statuses, special abilities, speed, combo length. But yea, Damage lore is a good start.

@Fradow
Ok, I have to admit your arguments are sensible. I see your point so I'm not going to argue.
Probably I was just trying to see the bigger picture.

Anyway, just for reference, arsenal that allowed me to get to the core for the first time contained only five 5* items (Nameless Poncho, Grey Feather Cowl, Dread Skelly Shield, Valiance and Callahan) and three 4* items (Grey Owlite Shiel, Volt Driver and Venom Striker). No fancy trinkets. No Arsenal Stations back in those days too :-D

To be honest, I'd just jump to FSC if I were you. Ask to be taken on runs, offer to share your winnings (just with one of the people in the lead) and craft yourself a blitz needle. Use the 30K crowns you'll get from beating it 10 times and vendoring a piece of ancient to buy said blitz needle. A lot of "good" players that you'll see will be glad to take you on a run with them for 1-2000 crowns or so.

I hope so. Sure, someone who has beaten FSC a lot may be able to do it in 2* armor that doesn't even protect against most of the damage there, but I think people usually do it in 4* or 5* ele/shadow armor first, which is much more forgiving of mistakes. Especially for someone who has been playing only a WEEK! *cough* elitist advice *cough* :D

Supermind apparently recommends Aegis over Barbarous Thorn Shield. For pure bombers or gunners, I agree. But anyone who uses swords with any regularity should certainly choose BTS over Aegis. The offensive bonus is really valuable.