List of things to not fuck up as a newfag:

If you're free to play DO NOT spend your diamonds on anything that isn't backyard slots (you start with 2 and can go up to 5 for 1600), dockyard slots (you start at 150 and gain 10 per 200) and second backyard floor (500). Those are your priority. I know the costumes are pretty but the above things will last you the entire time you play the game and are VERY worth it.

NEVER roll outside events, except for one daily roll (or three during events if you've already gotten everything and don't need dupes either); Light will be fully compensated, Heavy and Aircraft partially. The reasoning behind this is so you can save your limited cube income for when you actually need them during events.

Early into the game (first month or so) DO NOT LB your ships until they're close to level cap (70/80/90), or you risk running into severe fuel consumption problems; later on you can start LBing newer ships just to save dockyard space. LBing increases fuel consumption if you are not aware.

Upgrade equipment you use on your ships to +3 ASAP in the first week of play, go up to +6 afterwards except for aux equipment - only go up to +6 on the very good ones. Upgrades are very substantial and will make your life much easier.

DO NOT upgrade past +6 on anything that isn't absolute top tier. Purple plates are rare and consumed at alarming rate; consult equipment tier lists and wiki equipment lists (min stats, sorted by DPS) to see what weapons are better than others (RARITY DOES NOT ALWAYS EQUAL GOOD)

DO NOT get rid of ships you won't want to use - you'll need commission slaves, about 40 of them to be safe with roughly even hull class distribution

Ammo Counter (5/5 default) halves your damage output when depleted - run 2 fleets as soon as you have enough decently levelled ships so one fleet have at least one point left for boss node. Your second fleet is available to you once you've completed 1-4 so you should take advantage of it. It’s mandatory for later worlds and hard modes in events.

Following on from the previous point TAKE ADVANTAGE OF FLEET FORMATIONS. Line ahead can be used in most situations but if you find that you’re too squishy then take advantage of double line, it will increase your fleet evasion by 40% at the cost of 20% firepower and torpedo.

ALWAYS go straight for boss node (guaranteed equipment blueprint, sometimes exclusive ship drops), except for one sortie to fulfill the 3 star condition of sinking all enemies on the map.

There exists a second tab for commissions on the left (there are people who haven't noticed it for months). These commissions will unlock randomly as you fight and can offer anything from drills to oil to diamonds.

Every day at 10PM JST 4 long commissions will spawn in the second tab mentioned above.. These commissions are 6-8 hours long and often reward large amounts of oil. They are very much worthwhile, especially if you can time it with your own work and/or sleep schedule.  These 4 commissions will only be available for 5 hours until 3AM JST so be sure to do them if you can.

Canteen and Merchant can and should be upgraded every 10 levels. Self explanatory really, these increase your passive income of gold and oil so upgrading them is a priority.

Shiranui's shop updates at 12PM JST, 6PM JST and 12AM JST. It's NOT recommended to buy anything from her store early on as you simply do not have the income to support it BUT she randomly provides tier 3 skill books and occasional heavy discounts on desirable items (T4 boxes for example). Grab the skill books you may need, most important ones being the red skill books, only if you can afford to and be sure to check in to her shop throughout the day to see if she has any good deals going otherwise save your gold.

Scrap unwanted Rs and above for medals (remember you need 4 copies total or bulins for limit breaks, 5 if the boat has a retrofit). Medals can be used to purchase things from the medal store (including an SSR that rotates every 2 weeks) so this is very useful as a newbie to build up your roster. Save Ns as reinforce fodder until you're near full and have no ships you want to spend it on, then scrap some of them as well

Priority of reinforce fodder to save for later: Torpedo/Reload > Firepower > Air Power. There are an abundance of DDs that need upgraded and a full set of fodder DDs will give a bote +15 or so torpedo. Some botes want over 100+ before they're satisfied. As you can see it takes a while. Firepower and Air Power is lower priority because each CV or BB will provide much more FP or AP than a DD will give torpedo. Eventually your entire fleet of 200+ botes will be fully upgraded for both FP and AP but will still be lacking on torpedo and/or reload upgrades.

Equipment boxes can be upgraded to a higher tier at a ratio of 5:1. You can only convert up to a maximum of purple boxes. You cannot upgrade purple into gold. NEVER open the white and blue boxes. The ONLY possible time you would want to do this is if you want fire extinguishers and you will not need those until around world 10.

Do your daily raids (3 to 12), hard mode (3 sorties) and exercises (15) every day. It may sound like a lot but you can be done in less than an hour. Doing this will let you build up your resources of mental modules, skill books, upgrade plates, equipment boxes, core data and PvP points. Core data can be spent to acquire rare and powerful equipment. PvP points can be spent on gold boxes, 2 SSRs, gold/purple bullins and cubes. As you can see, very important resources.

YOU CAN DO ALL DAILY RAIDS ON SUNDAY. There are endless amounts of people who don't realise this and have gone months without noticing. Don't be that guy.

Whenever you can't survive or 3star a particular stage go back to earlier ones that drop equipments and/or ships you want and grind them - you'll get some levels as well. Alternatively if you can clear the stage but struggle to 3* you can reduce the danger level so you take less damage in future runs. You can read up on the danger level mechanic here - https://azurlane.koumakan.jp/Combat#Danger_Level

Do not underestimate level advantage in this game. By being levelled higher than the enemy you will not only take less damage but you will also deal more. This stacks up to a maximum of 25 levels of difference. Take advantage of it when you can and don’t be afraid of grinding for a little bit to take the edge off some of the maps if you find yourself being beaten around a bit.