The game gives you several 1* weapons towards the start of the game. Of these, which do you find most appealing? The point of your receiving them is to get a feel for the various late game items, which to some extent mirror those 1* weapons.

If you like the feel of...
-Hot edge/static edge/any other 3 hit sword = Brandish lines (Combuster/Voltedge/Glacius)
-Heavy Hatchet = Divine Avenger or Gran Faust
-Punch Gun = alchemers
-Stun Gun = also Alchemers (Of these, I would go for storm driver)
-Firecracker/that ice bomb = haze bombs; you'll want voltaic tempest and ash of agni for damage, as well as probably shivermist for FSC sometimes. Venom veilor is nice too, and if you like lockdown/bomberman/really like bombing you'll want to make an electron vortex.

Then you'll want to check out an item called an autogun. If you like the feel of it, you should craft a blitz needle at some point for FSC. If you don't like the feel of it, you should craft a blitz needle for FSC anyway. Because thats what people use in the late game for vanaduke. If you really really like the feel of it, craft a volcanic pepperbox and then later a blitz needle. But don't make a blitz immediately, because both of the T2 bosses resist it.

Once you decide on your weapons, you should find some weapons to go with them. You'll be better off if you have things to support your things.

If you wanted to use.... ....get a
Brandish lines... valiance or argent peacemaker.
DA or Gran Faust... Valiance or, if you really like jelly king- argent peacemaker.
Haze bombs.... Leviathan blade or sudaruska/triglav or even a cutter
Alchemers.... sudaruska/triglav or leviathan blade or even a cutter

You can also mix and match things a bit. There is no right way to go about crafting things. But there is a wrong way, and that includes crafting the iron slug, winmillion and several bombs with the word "shard" in their name. Don't make those. Don't make nitronome before status bombs either; nitronome is good, but is hard to use at first. Make status bombs first. And make a wrench wand, just for swagger. No don't, wrench wand is a waste of crowns. But all that swagger....

As far as armor goes, you've got a few basic choices:
-Various Flavors of Class armor
Most players enjoy buffing their favorite genre of weapons in whatever way they see fit. This means getting something like a nameless poncho if you're a gunner or a volcanic demo helm if you're a bomber. Most players are swordies. Most players make some combination of skolver and vog. You can also be a hybrid with something like chaos.
The full list of "viable class armor" is:
-Skolver
-Vog Cub
-Justifier
-Volcanic Demo
-Nameless
-Shadowsun
-Seerus
-Chaos

Googling any of these along with "Spiral Knights Wiki" will return a wiki page with information regarding them.

-Cobalt Armor
If you don't care about having any sort of "real armor" and just want to get through the game as soon as possible, making cobalt armor is viable. This will get you crappy+boring stats that don't really help you much.. but it will also get you gate clearance to T3, where you can farm for crowns before quitting the game. Fun stuff.

-Be a hipster
If you don't like the idea of having the same armor as everyone else, you can sacrifice your weapon bonuses for more interesting, flavorful bonuses that aren't nearly as useful. This includes:
-Damage vs some random monster
-Random nonsensical stat boosts and decreases, like poison, fire, global attack speed increase low and negative fiend on a shadow armor.
-Buffs that sound nice but don't do much if anything. See "Movement Speed Increase"
-A plethora of defensive options that will make your knight play badly and die.
-Resistances to statuses that are never actually seen in game, or are extremely rare and relatively non-threatening. See "sleep" and "curse".

Like the pioneers of off brand and strangely overpriced coffee, you too can like it before it was cool.

Hope that helps! <3 Fehzor

Chaos Cloak
Divine Veil
Grey Owlite shield
Magma Driver then Blitz needle
Acheron and glacius

Ditch magma driver and acheron at 4*, but continue using them as 4* weapons for whatnot. Start crafting a blitz needle and a glacius at that point. Craft Divine Veil first. You'll want the 4* magma/acheron for dealing with all of the non-FSC content in the game. 4* weapons are half as expensive as 5* weapons.

You've still told us essentially nothing about yourself, so we have nothing to go on. There could be an answer to your question only if there were one set of equipment that was clearly the best for all players. This game isn't perfectly balanced, but thankfully it's not so unbalanced that there is one set for all players.

The key decision you must make is: Do I want to play with swords, guns, bombs, or some mixture? If a mixture, then what mixture? If bombs, then do I want to be a fast-damage bomber or a support bomber? Only you can choose your "character class". Fortunately, there is no right answer, and you can change your mind at any time.

Once you decide your character class, then choose armor with offensive bonuses suitable to that class. Read the relevant guides (Bombing Guide, Gunslinger Guide, or my sword guide). Ask follow-up questions.

You didn't ask "what would be the best to go for", but rather "what set you should work toward"? The difference in meaning is negligible --- certainly smaller than the imprecision inherent in your question. And you've still told us nothing about yourself. Bye.

Chaos Cloak
Chaos Cowl
Swiftstrike Buckler
Combuster
Blitz Needle
Umbra Driver

You are now perfect. Also, the game will be kinda boring.

All equipment is cool to work towards at some point.
Drivers do excellent damage but require some basic skill to use, and can be used to do trick shots. Warmaster Rocket Hammer is fun to play with and does a great deal of damage in the right hands, but also requires skill. Dread Venom Striker and Wild Hunting Blade are somewhat less high in damage, but are entertaining to mess around with. Blitz Needle is highly efficient but a pain to get used to. Brandish lines in general (other than Cautery) have a high damage output and are easy to use, but can be somewhat dull. Putting your enemies through the washing machine and tumble dryer will help out your allies a lot if you use a Vortex, although setting it up for solo use can be a little trickier. Winmillion is entertaining and looks cool with hipstr points but does not have great damage output. Troika lines' charges are basically like setting up a massive bomb with a couple of heavy swipes as a normal attack. Valiance is mediocre damage with mediocre pushback but easy to use. Pulsars are all too often used without skill but make good utility sidearms for those who struggle with turrets. Catalysers are epic to play with and make big booms everywhere, although they take a little patience. Haze bombs are always decent, although Ash of Agni and Voltaic Tempest probably only count as fun if you are a sadist and want to watch the world die. Nitronome lines can be epic troll fodder. Shard bombs take some skill to use efficiently, but can be reasonable weapons so long as you're not trying to kill the Roarmulus Twins with them. Callahan gives amusing noises when you knock monsters on their butts, up until the point where you get Greaver rushed. Pepperbox and Plague Needle are like slightly less powerful versions of Blitz, but way underrated and still not the most interesting to use after the suction turned into pushback. Dark Retriwhatsit is spinny purple orbs in a circle which mauls turrets and jellies and is fairly enjoyable to use. Flourishes are easy to use and damage efficient, but fairly dull and look ridiculous because nobody ever took a guy with a toothpick seriously. Leviathan is mediocre damage and mediocre fun usage. Fang of Vog is a slower cross between Combuster and Leviathan Blade. This is just a list of weapons.

Are you trying to be efficient or to have fun? What kind of weapons do you prefer to use? We do ask for a reason; it helps if we have some vague outline of what you like, otherwise we're just flinging random suggestions into a black hole and having no idea if we're hitting a target or not.

...okay, maybe that's just my collectionist instincts speaking then :B

ok, rookie, if u are on a tight as hell budget, here is what u do.

Get the allrounder sets, these set will provide u with medium resistance against all the damage type, u will take additional damages against all the damage type but u will never be too weak against any type of damage, these are some of the combination i made, feel free to choose the one that have the bonuses u want:
DIVINE VEIL+SKOLVER COAT(highly recommended)
med sword damage bonus, med fiend bonus, med resist against freeze, shock, fire and curse.

DRAGON SCALE HELM+DREAD SKELLY SUIT(this set makes u look like a DRAGON BORN!)/DEADSHOT MANTLE
dragon+skelly=med beast bonus, max poision resist, med fire resist, med freeze reist
Dragon+deadshot= med undead/beast bonus, low handgun ASI, med fire med curse med poison resist

SILVER MAIL+VOG HELM/GREY OWLITE HOOD/VOLCANIC DEMO HELM/NAMELESS HAT
vog+silver=med undead bonus,med sword attack speed bonus, med poison resist, med curse resist, med fire resist
grey+silver=med undead bonus, med shock resist, med fire resist, med poison resist,med curse resist
volcanic demo+silver=med undead bonus, med bomb charge time reduction, med fire resist, med poison resist,med curse resist

For shield, get plate shield's upgrade, if u are palnning on going to RJP shadow lair, make it into an iron might, if u think u will do vana run alot, choose volcanic plate. If u reckon plate shield is not ur liking, get dragon scale shield and choose its STONE TORTOISE upgrade. Both of these shield are considered as the allrounder shield. And if u can't even afford those, GET DEFENDER's 5* UPGRADE, the almighty aegis!( all recipes are rewards form missions, save u up to 30K crown of recipe money ), this bad boy will allow u walk through spike trap like if they weren't even there( aegis take almost 5 hits before breaking on a spike trap )

For swords, if u have anymoney to spare, get a branish and make it into a GLACIUS, never combuster(all of the vana's minions are fire resist), night blade(unless u r doing alot of jk run)or voltededge( PvP award, u have to play about 200 games to get the recipes) If u are still super poor, get the leviathan blade(again, recipes are free from the mission, save u 40K of recipe money), don't even get its cousin the coldironvanquisher, it will cost u 35K more and only get a 30 damage bonus on undead and 30 damage less against everything else. If u got some jelly gems( 20 of them to be exact ) get a sealed sword and up grade that badboy into an avenger, Note, recipes are not obtainable from hall of heroes, but some people sell them on AH for a high price, so it is up to u.

And finally bombs and guns, this is where u need to smack all ur money saved from my previous instruction on, bombs and guns all have very specialized damage, that means they are more situational than swords, choose one type that u prefered and make a shadow and an elemental version of that weapon type. Avoid the allrounder bombs and guns they gave u in the mission, they are useless, ( blaster is like a peashooter and blast bomb feel like a fire cracker ).

IF U CHOOSE BOMBS, GET:
-elemental, freeze bomb->shivermist buster ( vana killer )
-shadow,darkmatter bomb->ionised SALT bomb ( uber good against jellies and gremlins )

IF U CHOOSE GUNS, GET:
-elemental,PULSAR, (u will get this gun via beating T2 boss, R twins 5 times(15 tokens)) up grade it into the kilowatt pulsar and so on
-elemental/shadow,alchemyer line upgrade
-elemental/shdow, antigua line upgrades ( u will need to beat T2 boss,JK 7 times(20 tokens))

ALL THE OTHER BOMBS/GUNS ARE EITHER USELESS or allrounders(lack damage bonus against certain enemies) or EXTREAMLY situational, make them later when u had the money, for now, what i mentioned are the only things u need to make, now onwards knight! Good luck on ur stay on planet cradle

My Playstyle:the SURVIVOR
This is style which i am into, not aggressive, slowly enter an area, never get too close to the mobs, feel free to retreat to the room which u came from, this method will help u survive in the hell beneath cradle, the deeper u go, the more dangerous it gets, some tanking tactic will evetually become obsolete and u will be stearing at ur health meter more and more, shield more and of course, DIE MORE.
To achieve a safe, low risk playing style u need the following:
A shadow armor set( by set, i mean the armor and the helmet ), i recommend skelly, but if u wanna look fabulous like me, feel free to get the angelic raiment( WARNING: ANGELIC ARE UBER WEAK TO FIRE )
An elemental armor set
A piercing set, i recommend quicksilver or the wolver line, the jelly lines look lame and they have the most useless status resist, of course, if u r tight on money, feel free to get the colbalt set. (4* upgrade will do, 5* on piercing is meaningless)
-wearing the apropriate armor on the appropriate level will help u survive, and a SURVIVOR NEVER TAKE CHANCES.
Shield wise, a SURVIVOR need at least 2, one for shadow and one for elemental.( skelly/crest of almire+owlite shield)
For weapon, IT IS THE PULSAR, this gun can push back mobs, do splash damages, if u happen to stuck on a beast or gremlin level, u may also want a shadow gun(again, if u r poor, get the blaster, it will do just fine) in ur arsenal, sword wise, levi will do...

This survivor build is highly recommended if u wanna be the one that stand before all ur fallen teammates and be their savior and also, this build help those who has a laggy computer like me, EVERY TIME when engaging mobs, stay IN A DISTANCE AND let the pulsar push them back while do splash damage, while the enemies are pushed back, move towards them, this way, the consecutive shots from the pulsar can push the mobs even further. If u encountered Kats or deviltes( the ninjas of the under world ), run as far as u can, keep double the distance as u normally would with constructs or jellies and let the pulsar's bullet do the splash. For devilites, spread out ur shots into a net ( shoot one first, and one slightly to the right and one slightly towards the left ) this way, it increases the chance of hitting those buggers. U can also hit a Kat from a long distance with out aggroing his firends with pulsar. pulsar's elemental upgrade the polaris is the turrent buster, on solo, u can finish off a turrent of the same tier in 3 hit and the turrent will be way to shocked by the polaris to fight back.

As for sword, like I said, u won't be needing it alot once u got used to pulsar, but a sword is always good to have, use its charge attack to repel foes so ur pulsar bullet have enough space to expand before the impact. Levi is a cheap option for those who hate swords just as much as me( my computer lag alot, it is impoosible for me to fight with swords efficiently), its charge attack will keep enemies at bay and does the same damage to all enemies u will encounter in cradle.

Finally bombs, only shivermist, it stasis the enemies so u can retreat to a safe positon to fire the pulsar. No more needs to be said.

That sounds like a good sworder-gunner hybrid. The only "weakness" is that, in most situations, an elemental gun tends to be more useful than a shadow or piercing gun, because of turrets. If you equip your elemental gun with your elemental sword, then you have only elemental weapons, which is not a great setup in most situations. But this setup will work well in Firestorm Citadel (Glacius and Blitz Needle), and you can make it work elsewhere too.