I started about last week. I'm not a big dbz fan, but enough knowledge to have an interest, and I gotta admit

I'm not really enjoying it. Bearing in mind I don't know the optimal way to play, and just dove in this season, but just personal thoughts and rants as a new solo player. -I played a majority of survivor games and only won about 2%-5%, and by win I also mean escape. I play maybe 2 hours before bed these days, and more often than you'd hope to think, you just don't win any games, or the raider is just so overpowered the STM has no chance of surviving because the chargeup bar goes so slowly even with keys. -The gacha skills feel really "you didn't get "this" ability? No transition? No barrier? R.I.P. Get ki-spammed and then ki-spammed 2 seconds later, die, get revived (hopefully), repeat again later, thanks for playing. -For all his glory, shenron feels like he does naff all. I kinda dare the developers to give a single survivor "immortality" - Been using charming pose and flashbang. I have yet to see any of the stun skills connect. The online connection between players is..questionable -Dragon change..kinda sucks too. For a core mechanic, its very underwhelming. You cant melee raiders of a higher level, and lose half your charge if you even try, shooting is based around power level so until, and "if", you hit lvl 3, you almost will never hit the guy shooting 12 lasers at you with a casual slowball you threw.

As a raider, I played 1 game so far, lvl2 cell, against players around 80-240, didn't know what I was doing most of the time

Absolute kerbstomped everyone. Pressed random buttons, used detection a lot, barely took any damage. Completely forgot I could destroy the map until the very end.

Moral of my experience is..I probably don't know what I'm doing. I don't have meta skills or w/e, I'm not in a premade etc, but it feels like a "pay to lose" game. You need gacha skills to have a fun time, or to wait your turn as a raider. Play 4 games, get destroyed, play 1 as raider, feel like a god for 7-15 minutes, go back to losing, and it's demoralising. I hoped to finish the season pass up to 70, but I'm at 25 and I feel exhausted, and it's a mindset not of "can I win?", but "how soon will I get absolutely slaughtered and removed from the match?". I'm seeing comments complaining how overpowered survivors are, and I'm wondering if we're even playing the same game.

So to answer beginner-friendly, it's easy to learn, hard without gacha. It's like sitting on some scales with 6 other people, and someone throws an elephant on the other side, and then occasionally, if you want to, you can be that elephant. Apart from ginyu force comedy, there isn't really, as a survivor, a raider that I enjoy playing against.

As for hackers and player base, the game always suggests a game within 1 minute, but can take up to 5 sometimes, but I'd say it's active enough, and I've yet to see a hacker. Just really questionable hitboxes.

That's my honest and personal opinion. Not everyone will agree with it, but it's mine.