Join us! It's a great value for money game.

The starter gear is actually pretty good, you will be able to contribute right away and handle everything on lower difficulties. You unlock the more specialized weapons over time but I used the starter guns and stratagems until level 15 with no issue and was always filling a role on my teams.

You have to unlock the higher difficulties by completing groups of missions at your highest option, so you will not be outclassed by any difficulty level at the start. A low level player in a high level lobby just means they've succeeded on several missions before, so it is not a negative for the team.

I do know trolling on the trivial difficulty became a thing, but it's much rarer than high level players joining to chill out and share equipment with newbies. If you're being trolled (and it is rare), just leave, they can't follow you or find you again.

If you do buy the game some tips:

• there are multiple currencies, they are not a pay to win obfuscation mechanic, so don't worry about that. They let you upgrade different things at the same time.
• Samples help you unlock upgrades to your ship, they are always shared, not everyone understands this, so at low levels sometimes people steal them, it means nothing for the team.
• All rewards are shared equally by your team, always
• medals help you with your Warbond (like a battle pass, they appear in the acquisitions tab), they do not expire or go away, and only the premium ones can be purchased. You can unlock the premium Warbond by saving your Super Credits, you don't have to buy them, you aren't behind for not having them.
• warbonds are how you unlock armor and primary weapons, but most importantly Boosters, which are team buffs you equip.
• Requisition is used to unlock new stratagems, there are no best stratagems, they're all useful depending on play style. The only broadly one considered better than another is the laser guard dog vs the liberator one.
• you can find samples, super credits, and medals in mission by investigating points of interest, so exploring is the path to upgrades
• teamkilling happens, just use the emote wheel to apologize and move on, nobody cares or tries for revenge unless you're especually eggregious.