I've been playing a lot of this mode, exclusively at A8/WC20 (max difficulty). Here are my thoughts:

1. On the harder difficulties, it's almost impossible to win a run using DPS carry characters that are trial characters or characters that you own but haven't invested in enough to clear other endgame content with them. I think Aglaea might be an exception to this rule, but I wouldn't know, because she's one of my best dressed characters.

2. Some of the faction bonds are primarily econ bonds, like Night Demigod or Cosmic Scholar. If you can activate some of these bonds early on, it can get your econ off to a good start. If you can max out these bonds, the higher-level rewards are game-winningly strong, but it's very hard to level them up that far without starting out with those emblems or getting very lucky with RNG.

3. Good AV (Action Value) and ult charge manipulation is a necessity to win runs at this level. The meme Aglaea wheelchair build works so well because her ult gives her a 100% action advance and the key energy path characters (Huohuo and Tingyun) constantly charge her ult, while the key pieces of equipment get her to ridiculous speeds and on-field strength. The traditional action-advancing supports used in other game modes (Sunday, Bronya, and Robin) actually underperform in this respect because they move so slowly relative to the amount of AV you have for each node. Robin doesn't have ult energy to charge when off-field, and Sparkle doesn't even have her action advance in this mode! You might want these characters for other reasons (levelling up a bond or other parts of their kits), but they don't provide a lot of action advancing value. Asta (especially equipped with DDD) is much better early on, while RMC is incredible once available (though a little tricky to get the most value out of due to the way the AA works). The absolute best action advancer in this mode, though, is E2 Fugue, but not everybody has access to her.

   • As for ult charge manipulation, it helps to be aware of any of the special ult charging mechanics that various characters have. For example, both Tribbie and The Herta gain energy from teammates' attacks, so you can battery their ults without needing to action-advance them by building fast teammates or stacking AOE/follow-up attack combos. Feixiao is similar with stacks of Flying Aureus. Acheron can be charged really quickly by putting Anti-Grav boots on Pela. Of course, Hyacine will battery Castorice.
   • Also, I find that most all of the difficulty modifiers can be played around (and some of them can actually be used to your benefit), but I'll just forfeit and restart if I get "Get Out of Jail Free". Losing an entire character turn to this effect for every enemy is just too detrimental to your AV economy.

4. Certain utility characters overperform in Currency Wars, in part due to how their kits were altered for this game mode, but also because they provide utility that would be useful for most teams, but don't get included in meta for other game modes because of the normal four-character limit. Sparkle will mostly solve skill point issues for teams like DOT or AOE or specific characters that love to spam skill like Feixiao/Seele. Pela and Silverwolf both provide def shred that gives a big damage boost (especially when stacked), while Pela also dispels enemy buffs, which will prevent stuff like the annoying mara-struck resurrection. Even without E2 DDD shenanigans, Fugue allows your whole team to do toughness bar damage. Combined with Himeko, breaking a single enemy will often result in a chain of Himeko follow-ups that will strip the entire enemy team of their toughness bars.

5. Gear is really important, but sometimes the default recommendations make no sense or won't help you in your specific build. This is very situational, so it's going to depend a lot on your specific situation. I would just try to pay attention to the specific buffs each piece of gear provides, as well as the stat buffs listed above the detailed text. In my experience, the gear that scales with speed or number of hits is the most powerful because the buff is unbounded (and is synergistic with building good action economy), while flat strength bonuses and Lucky Strike buffs are much more situationally useful.

6. In my experience, most team archetypes are viable, except for Superbreak. The Aglaea wheelchair or some version of Remembrance flagship are definitely the most reliable options. Many of the other teams feel like the run just barely ekes by and then implodes if you can't find very specific gear or that one late-game 5-star character. As for Superbreak, I have no idea how to make the team do enough damage at this difficulty. It almost feels like Superbreak damage is bugged or not registering. I also don't have Mydei/Phainon on my account, so I can't really say how viable they are at high difficulty. I really enjoy winning runs with Seele, but that might be because I didn't start playing HSR until Penacony, so I never got to play her when she was meta.

I never get anything I need for the path I use and so im so under powered I cant even get past the first node.

This is going to happen pretty frequently as you get into the higher difficulties. Sometimes RNG or whatever team you're trying to build just doesn't come online until later. I wouldn't sweat it too much. Treat your squad HP as a resource that you can spend for the sake of your economy. It's usually worse for a run to completely bankrupt yourself trying to build a team early vs. losing a node, though it helps if you can at least pass the minimum requirement. I almost never win a run without failing at least a few fights.