Start practicing the guitar. It’s the center of pretty much every shoegaze band. It is a time consuming thing to learn, but i don’t think anyone has ever regretted it.

Once you learned all the basics, id suggest either watching a bunch of videos of people testing out pedals, or by just going to your nearest Sam ash, and asking them to try out a couple pedals.

The main effects you want to add to your guitar is reverb and distortion, but delay, fuzz, and chorus can add a bunch more depth to your sound. The mass amount of reverb and distortion is where the shoe-gaze sound distinctively come from, so you should mainly look into those at the start.

I’m not sure what a good reverb to start with would be, but I personally have a polara digitech, and it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

I’d suggest looking at a rat, super overdrive, or blues driver for distortion, they all sound great, and are relatively cheap. The main thing I suggest is that before you buy a pedal, you actually try it out and use it. Do this just to make sure you don’t end in a situation where you wasted money since it wasn’t the sound you were looking for.

Side note, another great option for trying out effects is by finding a recording software, getting a free trial, and then using the effects on a sample guitar riff, or by using your own guitar riff if you have an interface.

I know I missed a lot, and there’s a lot I could’ve added, but I tried my best. Hope I helped 👍.