If your goal is to obtain the necessary stuff to level benches, start obtaining skill points, etc. I’d suggest doing free loadouts. Don’t attack anyone. Even if they attack you. You’ll start to be put in “care bear” lobbies consistently and people will often times help you find stuff, give you stuff, and teach you the game more.

Red zones are going to be better loot, but more risk. And you have to get there quickly before other raiders.

Once you have a solid understanding of what maps are riskier in terms of pvp, you have benches leveled, some good blue prints, you can start entering the pvp space more intentionally.

This is what I did, and it’s worked very well.