see if you can join a newb helping guild, that might do the trick.

Missions are probably the best place to start. You get some okay Tier 2 gear from them as well as free recipes. However, don't make the mistake of thinking that Cobalt, Blaster, Calibur, and Blast Bomb (the gear the mission system gives you) is the only stuff you'll need. You'll definitely need different (and better) weapons and armor.

I suggest all Brandish lines aside from Cautery Sword as well as the Sealed Sword lines and the Flourish or Snarble Barb lines for swords (I'll only get into swords in this post since they're the most common weapons, but be sure to check out guns and bombs too). Brandish upgrades to 4 useful 5-star (5*) swords: Glacius (Ice), Combuster (Fire), Voltedge (Shock), and Acheron (no status effect, but it deals shadow damage instead of elemental like the other 3).

Sealed Swords are "Heavy" swords which means that they only have a 2-swing combo, but deal more damage per hit. Best way to get it is through killing the Jelly King 7 times. Divine Avenger and Gran Faust are its 5* upgrades. The first deals elemental damage and has a charge that shoots out a 3-pronged ghost-sword awesomesauce attack.

Gran Faust on the other hand deals shadow damage and has a chance to apply the Curse affect (causes enemy's attacks to hurt them) on the second swing and also on the charge. However, the charge only shoots one ghost-sword and has a chance to curse YOU. (I'm sure there's a Soviet Russia joke in there somewhere...)

Please note that any upgrade recipes for armor or weapons bought with boss tokens will need to be either found in the Clockworks from Basil or bought at the Auction House from other players for a much higher price.

As for the fencing foil-esque "toothpick" swords, the only real difference between Flourish and Snarbly's Barbly is their appearance, accessibility, and charge attack. The Flourish line is available at normal recipe price from the Hall of Heros (a series of missions that occurs every so often throughout your mission progression), whereas the Snarble Barb is another boss token item. At their 5* levels they are Final Flourish and Barbarous Thorn Blade respectively. They both have a 3-swing combo that begins with a quick swipe followed by 2 quick lunges forward. The charge for the Flourish is 3 lunges forward and essentially focuses on a single enemy. The Snarble Barb, however, has a swipe that fires spikes out in an arc a very short distance in front of you (5 at the 2* base sword and 8 at the 5* upgrade).

As for which weapon to get first, I'm not going to tell you what to do. Experiment! Fail! Fail again! Maybe win eventually and revel in your huge success! But above all, remember that this game is not about fun, it's about complaining about CE prices. Enjoy your stay! Or don't. That's kinda up to you, too...

Ugh. Sorry 'bout the Great Wall of Literature. Wrote WAY more that I wanted to. But hopefully you'll get some useful info out of it with which thou canst smite thine enemies with furious might. Huzzah!

Haha! Get a Charmander!