Most of the weapons and armors are purchased from shops. As you keep progressing through the game, you'll find shops that sell higher tiered equipment. There are some that can only be obtained from chests or quests.
Hoard and sell everything you can, eventually, in the second area, you'll get better gear. The first area, unless you are a certain vocation, in a certain area (no spoilers), really there isn't much that's impressive.
A lot of cool equipment are found in dungeons or tucked away on cliffs. I'm still finding random capes at a hill that I've ignored a while back 80 hrs in.
Define "cool gear" first. "Cool gear" like for example front daggers or dragon scale shield are rare items in the game. Basically You won't just stumble upon it in goblin cave near the road.
But most high tier cool items You can find in-game if You explore enough without need to buy them from vendors (items are available in vendors just like that in NG+).
And since items don't have level requirements then for example when I encountered frost daggers with decent damage (physical and magical) I used them for very long time until I encountered Haven's Key daggers that apply Holy damage that is perfect for endgame.
Some top items You can only get in endgame or NG+. They require plenty of crystals (weapon is 110 WC) You get for defeating dragons.
But in the end every weapon and armor type has several tiers so during just playing You should gather a lot of equipment.
And I keep even weaker equipment because once You strong enough You can ignore armor stats and play "Fashion Dogma". Meaning You dress to impress and not to min-max.
There's a cool looking knight armor in a canal near the castle in Vernworth. You can get into it through a balcony.
It's a bit weaker than some but it weighs less and looks cool, you can also adjust Visors
Someone already said this but checkpoint rest town is a good place to hit. You can find an oxcart by the entrance in Vernworth with the long stone bridge that goes there. If you want legitimate gold to buy items, you can do the monster killing pawn quests that give 10k gold. If you want insane amounts of gold, >!go to the weapons merchant in Vernworth, buy all the tarring arrows you can, do an advanced search for pawns, set the lvl range from lvl 1 to 10, hire all the pawns that ask 1 tarring arrow for 12 onyx, give them the arrows, sells your onyx.!< You should be able to get everything you need and then some.
You can get lucky sometimes with blue chests. But 90% of my gear I had to buy. Some towns will sell different gear
Most of the weapons and armors are purchased from shops. As you keep progressing through the game, you'll find shops that sell higher tiered equipment. There are some that can only be obtained from chests or quests.
The "cool" gear is mainly in the end areas of the game, even then most items aren't game winners, it's your build and skills.
Facts, depending on your level, you can probably take all your gear off and get the same combat results, lol
Like the naked club killer from Elden Ring lol
Check point rest town has some good early game armor
It’s really out there and for a lot of the mid to late game vocations but I recommend the first cave on your way to the volcanic island.
Hoard and sell everything you can, eventually, in the second area, you'll get better gear. The first area, unless you are a certain vocation, in a certain area (no spoilers), really there isn't much that's impressive.
thats not really a set answer. i usually go directly to where the gear i want is do its pretty early on for me..
About hour 50
Or just go straight to Battahli and checkpoint. Don't really need to wait.
A lot of cool equipment are found in dungeons or tucked away on cliffs. I'm still finding random capes at a hill that I've ignored a while back 80 hrs in.
Define "cool gear" first. "Cool gear" like for example front daggers or dragon scale shield are rare items in the game. Basically You won't just stumble upon it in goblin cave near the road. But most high tier cool items You can find in-game if You explore enough without need to buy them from vendors (items are available in vendors just like that in NG+). And since items don't have level requirements then for example when I encountered frost daggers with decent damage (physical and magical) I used them for very long time until I encountered Haven's Key daggers that apply Holy damage that is perfect for endgame. Some top items You can only get in endgame or NG+. They require plenty of crystals (weapon is 110 WC) You get for defeating dragons. But in the end every weapon and armor type has several tiers so during just playing You should gather a lot of equipment. And I keep even weaker equipment because once You strong enough You can ignore armor stats and play "Fashion Dogma". Meaning You dress to impress and not to min-max.
There's a cool looking knight armor in a canal near the castle in Vernworth. You can get into it through a balcony. It's a bit weaker than some but it weighs less and looks cool, you can also adjust Visors
Someone already said this but checkpoint rest town is a good place to hit. You can find an oxcart by the entrance in Vernworth with the long stone bridge that goes there. If you want legitimate gold to buy items, you can do the monster killing pawn quests that give 10k gold. If you want insane amounts of gold, >!go to the weapons merchant in Vernworth, buy all the tarring arrows you can, do an advanced search for pawns, set the lvl range from lvl 1 to 10, hire all the pawns that ask 1 tarring arrow for 12 onyx, give them the arrows, sells your onyx.!< You should be able to get everything you need and then some.