How do you know you are ready to leave the training camp and go to Haven?

I've managed to get through Sparrow Camp twice safely. Once with a party, once alone.

Since its a point of "no return" I don't want to leave to early. I still only got the basic equipment, but its at level 9.

My impressions of the crafting system:

http://img12.imageshack.us/f/memereview.jpg/

I seriously don't understand why the crafting system is the way it is.

I can buy recipes. They're not cheap, but I bought some.

I can gather ingredients. Well, I can gather some ingredients as the RNG deigns to hand them out so I'm missing some ingredients of most of the recipes that I bought. I guess I'll get the remainder later.

Maybe. I don't trust the RNG of any MMO to be cooperative.

Well im trying to decide which one would be the most beneficial when im soloing gates. I have a Fiery Vaporizer MKIII Bomb so I was thinking of getting one besides fire. Anyone have any suggestions? I have a spark of life and the Voltech MK III Alchemer is on sale in the shop along with the MK II of Cyrotech.

Say, could we get ultra unique variants in 1* items?
Or do we have to craft 4/5* items to get an Ultra Bonus on something?

Well I just got a Sealed sword but I already have a Vile Striker and was wondering if it was worth going through the trouble of upgrading it or if I should sell it to upgrade all my other things which I have been needing to do for awhile. Also how much do Sealed Swords normally go for?

What are the recommended guns right now? I always used my autogun and just when I got the fiery pepperbox they nerfed it and I think it sucks right now

Is there any good single shot gun? Not like the magnus that get you stucked on your ground, but like the Blaster with which you can move while fireing

I made a friend of mine join the game.
He wants to be a kind of "tanker" so he wants to be able to take hits and shield while a dps with my gun.
I was going to tell him to take the whole plate set and shield but since every gate now have a lot of fire/electric/freeze damage, what do you think I should tell him to take?

I'm not sure if it was there previous, but after the 3/1/2011 patch, I noticed a new recipe under the Minerals category while looking through all that I can craft.

Apparently I can craft a red shard...
Into a red shard.
But eats up 2 energy and some crowns for the crafting process.

What is this for, even?

I have heard varying opinions on these swords and was wondering which one would be the better buy in the end. I like how the Wild has charge time reduction and attacks fast/looks cool but I heard the Dread has good damage + poison but if I don't need to poison an enemy is it worth it?

Hello. I am relatively new to Spiral Knights, and I have a few seemingly not-so-obvious questions. I apologize for my ignorance if any of them have been answered elsewhere, as I must have missed them.

1. Is every Guildhall the same? If not, how do we change them?
2. Are guild Ranks preset? If not, how do we change them?
3. Do we need to earn gate-specific Tier Passes in order to instantly jump to a certain floor of a certain gate?