If you continue with your line of thought where skill to dodge is more important than raw defense, the Swiftstrike Buckler will serve you well as a shield. Unfortunately, it is a 3* shield. However, if you get good enough with that, when you hit Tier 3, you can just do Vanaduke runs the old-school through-the-arcade way until you have enough tokens for a 5* plate shield to meet that 'requirement' in missions, or sell it for money to build the rest of your sets.

Following the offense/skill-based line of thought, the main thing you want to consider for armor is what kind of weapons you want to specialize in.
My main use for armor is for their offensive boosts, not their defense, so I often bring Chaos Set (Medium damage/Charge time reduction for ALL weapons making it useful for any weapon type... but with max negative resist to multiple status) to Vanaduke runs.

Most people like swords, so they usually build a set from the wolver line (eventually Vog or Skolver).
Gunners tend to go with Shadowsun for the VH damage boost.
I honestly can't speak for bombers, though I see Mercurial pretty often.

Chalez, you are right that you want to optimize offense. Your discussion of your swords suggests that you are not optimizing for damage type, which is the key concept in planning gear. See my sword guide to learn more. (It also discusses mixing swords and guns.)

Volcanic pepperbox can deal with everything on an average level. It can KO the jelly king, deal enough damage on the roarmulus twins to win easily enough.... and while it might not be a blitz needle, it can certainly fill that role in FSC. In none of these situations will it be the best things ever, but it will do perfectly fine in all of them and get you through.

So given that you are on a budget, I would recommend getting a volcanic pepperbox as your only weapon, and a piece of gunner armor to go with it... preferably deadshot armor with divine hoody. This will give you a large amount of shadow defense, which will be good against devilites, your biggest concern. It will also give you handgun ASI low+undead med+fiend med, which will buff your v. pepperbox up a bit.

Then after you've got your armor set up, you should be able to take on FSC without any real shield- a defender will at least allow you to push things away from you.... you should be able to get an ancient plate shield after a few runs, which will complete your armor set to where you can take on anything.

How it goes:

Step one: acquire an autogun
Step two: practice with it until you can upgrade it to the 4* version; you'll want to upgrade it before your armor, and will want to do clockworks for a bit so that you can find the recipes
Step three: continue on in the clockworks until you can find people who will bring you into tier three so that you can hunt for 5* recipes for your items
Step four: once you've made your armor+weapon to 5*, get into FSC 10 times so that you can earn your ancient plate shield.

Note that if you are feeling particularly cheap, you can use royal jelly armor in place of the other- this will save you a bit.

I've gotten to a pretty high level of play as a F2P (well, I bought OCH, but that's it), and I've got more than a fair share of 5-star equipment, so I'll share my recipe for success. I find damage or speed boosting armors to be fine if you can dodge and block, as many others have said, but weapons and shields are a very different beast. For shields, either get the Barbarous Thorn Shield for moar damage (as I did), or get an Aegis cuz they're cheap and effective. Normal-type shields are also an option but they don't seem to really be all that great from what I've seen. I don't recommend the swiftstrike buckler but some people will swear by it. Then again, I wear full vog cub, so I see the value behind the speed, but trading your shield's strength isn't a great idea.

For weapons, I started off with a calibur-line sword and I'd say that's a great way to start. You'll be effective against everything, AND you'll learn combat skills a lot better for when you get a better arsenal. Plus, now that you earn the recipes from missions, they're the fastest way to get through. I also started with a prismatech alchemer line as a sidearm, though, and it worked out fine, but that's likely because all the major areas past tier 1 were weak or neutral to elemental weaponry at the time, which isn't really the case anymore. Specialization can come later. A leviathan blade or (as I did) a Cold Iron Vanquisher can do you pretty well against most things out there, and they're a great tool for learning the skills you'll need to wield the better weapons effectively. Learning the ins and outs of each enemy is key to going through the game and there's no better way to learn than to face them with the rather vanilla and all-rounder weapons. Once you've got some skill built up, you can take your favorite picks out of the many lines available to you.

Mixed set with sword emphasis is probably best for you. Barbarous Thorn Blade, Argent Peacemaker and throw in an Acheron (or Gran Faust) and you're all set. Or, like Eternal-Lancer says, you could leave your Dark Thorn Blade as is and make a Leviathan as your primary sword for now. Lastly, trinket slots are a pretty good investment once you can afford to make the modules; they only cost 100CE and two non-playing days per month to maintain.

Some mixed sets:
Divine Hood + Skolver Coat is the classic all-rounder with emphasis on swords
Grey Feather Cowl + Radiant Silvermail is an alternative mix and match, albeit more defensive.
Shadowsun + Dragon Scale is yet another mix and match, emphasizing guns.

If you don't mind having less defense against a particular type of damage (piercing from jellies and wolvers is relatively easier to avoid), you have even more options. It sounds like you are a 66% swords, 33% guns type of player, which gives you lots of gear flexibility. Players that emphasize more than 50% guns or bombs are usually more restricted, due to the lower damage output (in order to be more effective, DMG boosting gear needs to be taken into account). If you lean even more heavily toward swords than I assumed, you might also consider a Polaris.

If you don't use bombs, the damage bonus from the Chaos set is the same as the bonus from wearing one piece each of Shadowsun and Skolver. So, how much do you like charge attacks, and how much do you like not-being-on-fire? The Antigua series all have pretty poor charge attacks, especially if you hate the Autoguns.

The other canonical "I hate making 5* equipment" set is Divine Veil + Skolver Coat. All four defences, plus the four most relevant statuses, plus some random offense bonuses, plus it looks cool. Never the optimal choice for a given floor, but never a bad one.

For weapons, Valiance and the Leviathan Blade are perfectly respectable weapons that you can take anywhere. You won't get as much damage as the guy with a sword for all occasions, but the knockback effect is unique to those weapon lines and very useful. Plus, the recipes are free.

For a slightly higher investment, you could look to acquire 4 weapons: a sword and a gun of the same damage type, and one sword and one gun for the other two. That way, you can bring a sword and a gun for any combination of two damage types, depending on the monsters you're likely to face on that floor. Sounds like you're set on DTB, and there aren't many piercing guns. If you like AP and want more of the same, you might want to pick up a Blackhawk and your favorite weapon from the Sealed or Brandish line.

I use swords & guns too, and I have all the stuff you're considering getting.

A few things:
1) Sword damage bonus > gun damage bonus. This is because the base damage from the sword is larger, so the bonuses will be as well. You are going solo, so extra sword damage can make the difference between killing things in 3 swings vs 4 swings. Gun damage bonuses will mean you could kill something in 7 shots instead of 8. For the times you're going to be playing it safe (gunning things from afar) it won't make a huge difference in time. Gun damage bonuses only make sense if you are using pure guns, or are using a blitz needle charge.
2) Snabolax caps and coats can only be made after doing a shadow lair. You generally need to pay to get access, and it's harder than normal clockworks. If you can find both a good team to carry you when you have an ash tail, and someone generous enough to cover your fee, then you could consider it. Otherwise, consider the skolver since it's easier to get the recipe.
3) If you have a second computer, you can start a second account and use it separately to use it's mist. http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Energy_faq#Two_Computers_with_Free_Accounts
This is handy for a) using mist to buy trinket/weapon slots b) crafting 2* items to sell in the AH and c) paying for the elevator fee for your main for 5 levels while doubling your crowns gained from the levels.
4) Will you be unlocking the 3rd weapon slot? I find having 3 weapons as opposed to 2 just makes it easier. 2 swords + 1 gun. (BTB, Combuster + AP, for instance). If you buy it fully with mist, a weapon slot is worth it. (then two trinket slots, then a 4th weapon slot.)
5) I like AP over the Polaris now, but the polaris can do AoE damage which can be more useful. It just promotes laziness and some bad habits if you rely on it too much.

I assume you will only be using BTB & AP for your only two weapons (which is a great weapon combo), so I recommend the following:

- Skolver cap
- Vog coat
- BTS

- The vog will help give you some ASI on your btb (faster strikes help for dodging, I assume you have no asi uv on your sword) and you'll have vh damage. Missing out on max damage is not a big deal as you are solo and monsters have smaller health pools.
- Vog has fire resistance, which you will want for FSC/KoA. You will be grinding it lots when you eventually get to it.
- Obviously, you'll have no shadow defense, but it's not an issue. Devilites can by deadly even with full shadow defense, so you will need to learn to dodge them anyway. If you can manage to do an SL for free and in ash tail, then a snarby piece can be used instead of a skolver piece
- Throw in (or substitute) an elemental brandish to take out constructs and slimes more quickly than just shooting them with an AP. Even if the weapon is 3* it can be more effective than shooting a silversix/ap for a whole level. Especially for levels where you know your BTB will not be used, like the royal jelly, etc.
- IMO, skolver cap + vog coat looks better than Skolver coat + vog cap, but this is just a preference thing.

"You can either:
-Invest time figuring out how to use an autogun as you farm for your armor
-Invest time farming for crowns so that you can make additional weapons to avoid making an autogun"

I'm not going to argue with the fact that you can go through the game with the Pepperbox line as your only weapon (whether this would be wise is another matter), but this is hardly the only weapon of which that's true. You can go through the whole game just as if not more easily using only a Calibur (or Cutter, or Troika, or. . .), and it won't cost any more crowns than using only a Pepperbox. In fact, with the Cali, it'll be cheaper.

Also, good luck killing anything with Pepperbox normal attacks if they're immune to fire.

On another note, I'd genuinely be interested to see you post a vid of you soloing any T3 run with just a Volc Pepperbox. I don't doubt you could do it, but I'd love to see its supposed efficiency (time taken and health lost) in action.

It's not optimal for Vana, but it's far from the worst. Many have done it. And if we venture further afield, to the DVS, you'll likely recall that Nalrayi's record sword solo was done using a DVS. Sure, that takes skill, and practice, but you're recommending that the OP learn to clear the whole game with just a Pepperbox, which also takes skill and practice.

I'm still not sure about the shield though

If you think that you might need decent defense, then go for the perennial favorite Grey Owlite. If you're feeling a bit more offensive, then go for Barbarous Thorn Shield. An even more daring, but not necessarily better, choice would be Swiftstrike Buckler.

Remind me what it has to do with this thread? Maybe you should start your own "dream loadouts" thread instead.

Armor=Vog cub coat
Helmet=Vog cub cap
Sword=5* Brandish line(Essential)±Gran Faust and Final Flourish(if you play LD)
Gun=Argent or Polaris(For both FSC and LD)+Blitz(For FSC,Essential)
Bomb=Shiver(For FSC,Not Essential)

Why vog cub set?
Because it is very useful at FSC, grants protection against fire and lavas and Vana's all kind of attacks.(Also good at LD)

Why 5*Brandish line?
Because of their crazy damage, useful charge attacks and nice speed.

Why GF and FF for LD?
Because their range of attacks and damage makes them very useful for LD.

Why Argent or Polaris?
Because Argent's bullet speed and mobility and Polaris' shocking blast bullets makes it very useful in LD.

Why Blitz?
Because best way to kill vana is Blitz's charges, also some groups dont invite ppl without blitz.

Why Shiver?
Because it makes Vana locked and that can be easily defeated.

Why am I talking too much about Vana or FSC?
Because it is the most way to earn crowns, so If u want good gears, u need to grind FSC.

I know, it is a very common loadout, and the best loadout.

You say that as if F2Ps have a different set than premiums.

It may have taken longer, but I have plenty of 5* gear even though I never paid a single cent.