# VRChat Basics Guide

This guide is being prepared for the Lazy Lions community as we get close to their anniversary party to take place at the Private Island established in 2021!

## Account Setup
A) Make an account directly on the [VRChat Website](https://hello.vrchat.com/). Do not make your account through Steam
B) Download the VRChat game in the [Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/) client
C) Once you have made your account, launch the VRChat game through Steam and use the login credentials you created to login

***IMPORTANT NOTE: You will need to access The Private Island world in VRChat through a PC. It is not compatible with Mac or Oculus.***

## Menu Navigation
When you login, you are brought to your home world. You can set your home world to be any world in VRChat that you like. Unless you have changed it, you load into the default world.

The VRChat menu looks like this:


We will take a look at each important section for getting started.

### Avatars
On the main menu, click on avatars:

Clicking into avatars will bring you to the avatars menu. Here you will find avatars that you have uploaded to your account, avatars that you have favorited, and if you scroll down you will see some default avatars and legacy avatars to choose from.

Notice in the bottom left corner below where it says "Avatar Details" this pertains to my currently equipped avatar (displayed right above it) -- the green circle there indicates my avatar is rated "Good" in terms of optimization. If you click that "Avatar Details" button it will display various optimization stats for you.

The most important thing in regards to avatars is using an avatar that is not rated "VERY POOR" for optimization while attending a large gathering or party. The general rule of thumb in VRChat communities, especially in the VRChat rave scene, is that VERY POOR avatars are not allowed. Below is an example of what you will see next to your "Avatar Details" if your avatar is rated VERY POOR.

Any avatar with a Red Circle icon + a "!" in it is VERY POOR, and is fine to use at small gatherings, but they are not allowed at large gatherings because with a lot of people in one room, these avatars will cause the entire instance to lag and detract from experience of the event.

Avatar optimization rankings hierarchy:
1) Excellent

2) Good

3) Medium

4) Poor

5) Very Poor

Different clubs have different policies about how to handle people who show up to their events in VP (very poor) avatars -- some clubs will kick you on site, some will ask you to change, etc. Some require all users attending to use avatars ranked Medium or better, or even Good or better. In general it best etiquette to know the rules of the community whose event you are attending and show up in proper attire.

***For the Lazy Lions birthday party, we will be asking users to be using avatars rated POOR or better.***

### Social Menu
In the main menu, click on the Social Button:

This will bring you to your social menu where you can see a few things:

A) Users who are in the same room / instance with you (the screenshot below I was in a room by myself)

B) Online Friends -- all of your friends who are online, listed alphabetically.

C) Scrolling down under Online Friends are groups of "Favorites" that you can organize and add users to / remove users from. You can organize your favorites however you choose to, you get 3 groups of favorites you can name as you choose and you can fit up to 64 users into each category. If you have VRChat+ then I believe you get more favorite user slots and more groups of friends that you can organize them into.

D) In the top right corner is a search button which you can use to search for users.

***If you want to join or invite one of your friends, click on their profile in your social menu and use the Join or Invite button***

### Other Menu Items to Know
In the main tab of the main menu (designated by the rocket icon circled below) there is a "Go Home" button and a "Respawn" button. Go Home will send you to your home world and respawn will port your avatar to the loading point of whatever world you are in. They can be helpful if you need to quickly leave the world you are in, or if you get stuck in the world and need to respawn.

In the "Notifications tab" of the main menu (circled below) you will see any pending invites to worlds that other users sent you, and friend requests other users sent you.

In the "Audio tab" of the main menu (circled below) you will see volume settings where you can adjust various audio levels. World pertains to audio generated by the world, voices from users talking, avatars pertains to things people attach to their avatars such as an animation with some sort of sound effects or music.

The "Settings tab" of the main menu (circled below) can be used to adjust various UI settings which impact how things are displayed to you.

### Party Host Information
On the VRChat website, you can use the main search bar to search for users. Here we are searching for Nine's account, named "NineLL"

Click the result for "NineLL" and you will be brought to Nine's profile page on the VRC website. Here where you see the "Unfriend" button you will see that, for users who are not your friend, it is a "Friend" button instead. You can use that button and the VRC website will send the user a friendship request which you can accept in game or on the website.

NineLL VRChat website profile link: https://vrchat.com/home/user/usr_d9ab280f-a61e-4ad2-848e-4a9391fe3b3a

Arashi VRChat website profile link:
https://vrchat.com/home/user/usr_edafdf20-2b2b-4eb1-a7e0-ca298133fb0f

Send Arashi and Nine friend requests prior to the party, so that when the party is going, you can join on us!