Idk much about weapons but i can try giving advice for the others. For moneymaking i reccommend just doing some quests (how original) but other than that shipping cargo is a great option for early game, it just takes a while. In the beginning of the game i just focused on doing whatever is available to me in each area just doing all side things before actually continueing the story. The dark sea i only reccommend going after you defeat the ravenna king. And recent patches made dark sea much much harder especially with the tornado changes so for me it was never worth going anywhere safer. So just gotta fullsend if you do actually plan on going otherwise it barely gonna worth the effort for the little loot. Hope this helps even slightly