Welcome to he- I mean, whatever this game is. Happy-fun-sword-laser-space-handlebars. Two.

The first thing you should do on the forums is read this with both eyeballs. That probably sounds ridiculously simple to you, but over half the people who post and make threads in these forums have never seen the rules or knew they existed. Magical.

That depends very heavily on personal preference. If you want to spam mindlessly and get no enjoyment from the game, go be a clone. Ask anyone willing to explain what that is if you want to try it. Otherwise go with whatever you want, though you should probably focus on one weapon type first: sword, gun, or bomb. If you want guides see here. Primary gunners and bombers are rare.

Cobalt is the easiest armor set, shield, and a weapon for each type but tends to be looked down upon for being weak. You get the full 2* set (helmet, torso, shield, bomb, gun, and sword) for free from doing the mission mainstream, and eventually get the recipes to upgrade all of them to 5* (highest rank) also for free. You still have to get all the materials and energy to craft, but the recipes are free.

However, the armor (helmet and torso) parts are very underpowered compared to basically everything else. You would be better off getting Wolver, Gunslinger, or Spiral Demo depending on your weapon type of preference.

The shield is usable but not necessarily viable; if you want pierce defense from a shield go with Ironmight line (starting with this) or the Snarbolax shield (boss token reward from Snarbolax, starts with this) for slightly less defense than Defender but a sword damage bonus. If you choose not to use swords at all do not get the latter because it will not benefit you if you are not using swords. Even if people tell you a sword bonus helps you while not using swords. That makes perfect sense.

The sword, Calibur, is good for starting out. A lot of people are probably going to tell you to get Brandish and spam its charge like a sissy, but Calibur is basically the spin attack from Legend of Zelda on the charge; it also deals pure normal damage making it universally versatile. Be careful with the spinning charge attack, it will push enemies away from you and possibly knock an enemy about to attack into an ally possibly hurting them.

The gun, Blaster, becomes Valiance; in my opinion this gun is the greatest sidearm for bombers and gunners, though moreso for bombers. To put it simply, Valiance (and apparently the whole alchemy line after being buffed) can push enemies away about one space regardless of how close they are to you (but you still have to hit them). Again, clones will tell you Pulsar is where the funk is, but that pixie wand can only pushback once the bullet expands. That only happens if you are too sissy to use your sword which will deal more damage or are running away like a baby. Sure, Pulsars are good against turrets, but if you are using a sword you can just trick a turret into firing one way then move out of the way a couple seconds before it even fires while standing right in front of it.

The bomb should probably be avoided for now but reapproached later if you decide to be a bomber, but Blast is still a reliable offensive explosive. It offends everyone and flips off all the parents. All three of the Cobalt set weapons deal pure normal damage, but Blast lines tend to have an obnoxious animation which annoys everyone else in your party mercilessly. If you absolutely have to use it, though there are other options, try not to go too crazy with it or go solo.

For more information on individual equipment I recommend this because I made it. Be sure to check the list of guides if my writing style offends you or your culture, or whatever other reason. Maybe you left the water running. If you decide to take up bombing I will personally help you get started, though someone else is probably going to entice you with brownies and promises of grandeur with less boring words and more vomiting lasers everywhere.