any main is good at the beginning. All of them can be unlocked after certain levels. If you choose fire main, then at lvl 30 i think, you get an unlock of another main of your choice but you will have to do a battle to unlock the other mains. only way to change the looks of a main is to get certain outfits, and those costs coupons or are in events that are p2w

You unlock new characters at lvl 60 (which is gonna take a long time). You don't wanna take Earth Main for start. He is terrible early on. Best pick is Lightning Main (not much to think about when u play with him). Also, always start on day 1 of the server.

F2P cannot compete with paying players.

Lightning main is definitely one of the best classes to build around when starting off. Touching on the matter of changing the main character's appearance, that can be done by piecing up specific battle armor. It certainly isn't entirely impossible, however it takes time to gather enough coupons.

Good luck :)

in early times the best mains are lightning and water main. Once you hit level 70 you can choose what to do.

Choosing main character is so big deal? If so, which would you recommend for newbie with no prior experience in game?

---Choose Lightning Main, why? .. You'll know the reason later when you gain knowledge of this game.

How one can change looks of it's character (is this P2W feature?)?

---It is one of the Features that this game have, it is not fully p2w because Clothing are basically free if you have enough patience on getting its frags for free per event cycle. (take note that the clothing is on rotation so 1 cloth might not appear the next cycle and make you wait for another 1 to 3 months)

Is there any character one cannot acquire without paying, if so, lack of them will make experience underwhelming against P2W?

---All the characters here in this game is again, basically obtainable for free, and again, it depends on your Patience. (For this questions, it is same with Clothing, you can piece a ninja from getting free frags from events, other method is by saving coupons and not spending for useless stuffs, spending cps also everytime we have a good fuku rebate

Also, I'm not going to spend a single coin on the game, so F2P for me.

---I can say that im f2p cuz i never spent a single coin, but you can be good in this game by planning ahead, as well as by choosing right decisions .. In short, Think before you Click.

.. Thanks :)

Thank you for your thoughtful insight in the matter, it've been really helpful factor, dare I say, decisive factor in my game-wise carrer! :)

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Other people I'm grateful towards too, thank you all for your thoughts and hints!