@Myst

In low levels I highly recomment to use eaither a firecracker or a Fiery Vaporizer (2 stars) vs trojans. It is surprisingly effective and since the fiery was my first self-crafted 2* item, I did learn much later that Trojans are supposed to be difficult at al (lol).

Killing a trojan with fire is of course not the fastest way, but I would say it is the easiest one- exspecially in lower level of epquipment advancement.

@OP

In lower levels I recommend to use a handgun and to learn how to evade and shield bump (don't mix it with shield bash). Start with an sword by killing some easy monsters like jellies with a sword charge and learn what these coulorful I-am-gonna-attack-you signals below monsters mean.

To be more specific:
-If a new player is using a sword, he/she is usually unexperienced, doesn't know about monster attack patterns and doesn't know how to defend him- herselfe. This leads to many deathes until they have no more sparks of Lives to revive. Using a Gun provides less damage but by *far* saves much more sparks to new players.

-Evading and dodging are important things aswell: a new player should spend some time to *watch* an enemy. Don't hestitate to kill an enemy 'somehow' and lose 50% of your health with this. Try to provoke the enemy and retreat and look how the monster behaves. Once you know how an enemy attacks and how to avoid these attacks, your own attacks improves aswell and it will save much of your health, too.

-Shield Bumping is such an epic skill. Example: In Firestorm Citadel you will often confront walls of zombies. If your weapons are not strong enough to nail everything down before it made 3 steps, you need to think about something new. Here is where Shield Bumping comes in handy.
I did get a new player (2 star stuff) in the secound depth of FSC and did just let him cross a wall of zombies straight through. While he just approches them, he shall rapidely rise and lower his shield to bump zombies out of the way, but he shall keep in mind that he *must not* keep rising the shield since the effect of shield bumb only effects at the moment of rising; keep a shield rised would only cause it to break with the first attack (at least a 2* one :P).
A new player shall know that a (literally) wall of monsters can be scattered without the necessarity to attack them.

-Shield Bash... well I would call it an advanced ability, since it requires that the Basher knows at least the Monster attack patterns a bit. So he knows that he isn't supposed to bash when a monster is going to attack (coulorfol signal at the monster's feet). A new player shall also know that Shield Bashing grants *no* invincibility.

-Dashing however is a skill new players learn first. Did you know that every monster does not know that a player even exists, if this player is in a dashing? After dashing, a monster needs to re-realize that this player exists, which takes a brief moment - or if used in a group, this monster will probably focus another player, if that other player is in range. Oh and new players should definitely learn that dashing over spikes and traps is still deadly, but this is a thing they should usually figure out themselves after trying (just saying).

-Swordies tactic requires some advanced knowledge. While you can move around like a headless chicken and still spamm bullets on enemies, you should not just slice your way easily into monsters. A new player should know what these coulorful attack signs below enemies mean and (more important) that such a visual warning even exists; new people get easily overwhelmed with Spiral Knights' coulorful setting that they don't see this detail.
My recommendation with Jellies: Charge your free calibur in a Jelly level, get close to them, but retreat fastly. You will see these coulorful (in this case red coulor) warning signs before they attack. Try this a few times and you see that jellies got actually two attack patterns: spiking through the bottom and normal close range spin. After you know how they work, mocker them with by getting close and force them to attack, after that retreat out of their attack range and watch them executing their attack. Just after they finished their attacks, get close and unleash your charged calibur.

-T3 wolvers laugh about your guns. Well, I do not say that guns are useless later, but a new player shall know that wolvers like to teleport around if you shoot.

(okay I wrote more than I intendet to, but this shall help)

Edit:
-You can charge an attack 'below your shield' by rising the shield and keep it rised, then use your attack button, while still have the shield rised. Then lower the shield while still holding the attack button. You will now charge without an initial swing or shot.

-After a sword Charge attack, you can hold your shield. A tactic that allows you to skip a brief moment of vulnerability.
For this: Charge and in the moment of executing the charge, also press the shield button and keep it pressed. You will notice, that you can move around faster than without rising your shield.

Is this meant to be a guide for new players so they can read what to do/learn or is this topic meant to tell vaterans how to teach new players?

If it is adressed to new players, we shall write things with more details, because new people don't understand shortcuts like FSC or things like Bash and Dash.

As a teaching suggestion for vaterans I would like to add another point:

Invite a new player to a level in which he certainly can not kill much stuff or in which he really *needs* to learn dodging to survive (like Jelly palace, UR or FSC). This has been better with old reviving system when you could pick him up and the new player got more than only two tries, but you can start another run and redo it again, so it still works, only not as smoothy as before.

I once threw a new player with a firecracker in the 2-Trojans-room in the secound depth of FSC. After this he never had any problems with trojans again.

Having only played for 2 weeks and just made Squire a few comments:

Sparks of life - designed for the impatient and those who are adventuring beyond their skill limits. You get 1 free revive, and in a good instance you get 3 health pills and some hearts, use them. If you cannot complete the level/mission and you die a second time *Do Not Waste a Spark of Life* just press the 'Return to Haven' button and repeat the mission after you take a break, ponder what you did wrong and properly prepare for another run. Patience and practice will help you survive.

Sprites and Minerals
The three sprite Rank Missions prior to the 'An Eternal Bond' are misleading. Those are *not* starter sprites, those are level 15 sprites (with two skills). To get to that level your sprite must have been fed 6x15=90 of their favorite mote food or 375 of the food that is not their favorite plus 15 that are. That is a total of 450 minerals of the type your sprite prefers (yellow-Seraphynx, red-Drakon, dark purple-Maraketh) or 1875 of the other two types (blue and green are not used yet). You will only get *one* sprite skill, the lowest level of the attack skill (the one with the shorter cooldown timer in the mission). That is it. The rest can only be acquired by feeding and doing missions. Minimum of 4 hours per rank because that is how long the appetite takes to build back up. SO ... If you want a sprite 'just like the one the salesman showed me', you need to run the Arcade until you have a stash of minerals large enough to upgrade that sprite.

Beware of repetitive stress injuries to your fingers. As was noted above, when you are in a room with a Boss or Arena or large mob of enemies and you cannot lead them away one by one, continuous movement makes it hard for the AI to re-target you. That also means that you will be pressing aswd keys or your mouse buttons continuously for 15-20 minutes at a time. You will get excited and press even harder. A few days of doing this, or doing it for several hours ... and your fingers *will* hurt. Step away from the game (go wash dishes, you'll be a hero) and let the swelling go down.

As nice as the music score is .... i recommend turning it off. It is designed to increase Adrenaline flow during battles and will just get you pressing keys harder and faster (not to mention humming the tune in your sleep or when your friends are speaking with you...).

Take the time to *Read The Wiki* There is a lot of good information there, created by a dedicated group of players. I especially recommend reviewing the list of missions - look at what the rewards are *before you buy*. Wait until you get the free weapon/armor/shield and try it (you can't trade them anyway). If you like it, then consider crafting another one if it breaks. Orbs of Alchemy are now harder to get (unless you are doing missions on Elite setting)

If you are upgrading your weapons in the Forge, repeat the instance you run in Elite mode. Warm fire sparks will drop from the green boxes.

Try all the mission types (tier 1-3). There is one new Gate per day, so if you like one, you can repeat it for 4 days. Doing different types will expose you to the different enemies and you can learn their attack motions. As was said above, *this is very important*. If you know when they will attack, you know when to move away or raise your shield.

Be Patient. Run a mission just using your gun. Go back and run the mission again trying to just use your sword. Do it again seeing how often you can use your shield. Practice pushing enemies away. Practice charging your sword. Practice charging your shield and hit Left-Shft to bash them. This is great with a few enemies, you always end up behind them.

Hope this info is useful to you. Biggest advice is be patient and practice ... and harvest those minerals.