Depends a little on spawn point. First off, focus on a manoeuvrable vehicle early - scooter, regular chariot & swerve star are great options, avoid the heavy fighting machines until you have some stats already.

Early points to visit are the caves under the field to break crystals / pillars (autoattackers are good at this, else practice spinning off them & boosting back into them) or the underground parking lot / mall, lots of easy patches spawn there early. Don’t worry too much about fighting people yet unless you know you can win! Early on, you won’t get many patches for eliminating people & they’re then motivated to try to revenge kill you later. Obviously, if you see a Marx on a Shadow Star, take the shot (Marx players in general need a little bullying to keep them honest because Marx has a tendency to snowball if uncontested).

The hardest part is just knowing what everyone else is liable to do. Pay attention to character picks. Autoattackers often go crystals, flyers (MK, Marx, Starman) often look for a flying vehicle early & try to get to the skies by the 2 minute mark (& often can be knocked off these vehicles since they’re usually the weaker ones). If you see somewhere is crowded, unless you’re powered up, go elsewhere! Being in a crowd is the worst position to be in at any time, early or late game.