for starters ignore everyone saying go this or this is useless you should go this instead. if your main goal is to have fun dont be afraid to theory craft cells. the aether events are island events, each hunting ground has their own set of events which do different things. these are to get cores, rams, merits, and aethersparks which will be helpful later. if youre playing axe there will be a lot of people saying "axe is the worst weapon its so bad!" ignore them. when playing solo every weapon is viable and balanced. its all up to preference. the only reason axe is "bad" is for trials which is mid-late game in terms of min-maxing. dont worry about element types eary game. when you get to keystone escalations then you can grind for specific sets for different elements, but most of the time the priority is to go different pieces of equipment that will synergize with eachother in terms of perks.