New to F/GO and was wondering if anyone could offer some good advice?

First spam the story until Camelot I recommend about level 60-70 specially with Chloe, and Altera. Don't spam events much until you reach level 100, but yes participate when you want, just focus on it a bit, but don't forget the story since you might find yourself not leveling up or being able to finish the story due to AP problems raid events does need so, still it isn't much a big problem, so go freely. When you finish London the fifth singularity or reach level 100, raise your best servants or what you use most in this case most likely Altera and Chloe to level 90 or max levels and that is best since you might see yourself teaching Camelot.
That's the usual progress, IMO.
Altera is an AOE, and me having her at NP3 I'll say this. Her NP might not be so great, but she defeats most current sabers with her massive 17k or 18k at third skill level 6 buffed attack stats and becomes a crit servant in the future who could get crit stars those think that increase your crit chance. Thats a lot of thing to say, honestly, she's one of the best in AOE (hits every enemy) NP right next to Salter, so yes she's really worth it, but if you didn't like her and want some ST (hits only 1 enemy) try for Musashi, but in this section we have a tradition.
Always say that you should save for Merlin.
If you want to make the game laughably easy go roll for Merlin, that's it.
Also find yourself a rider and Herc put them in the backline for Bond points.. I recommend Ushiwakamaru or trying for drake for riders and Herc for berserker if anything and everything fails Herc, Heracles would be there.
Also get this 5k Mana prisms ready for Chaldea lunch time since bond points would be an important part in the coming Solomon chap.
Sorry if this was confusing, just ask more if you want.

Altera is pretty decent, as beginner servants go. However, in this game, stars don't make the servant. If you have Cu Chulainn, you have one of the best servants in the game. I recommend reading the tier lists on this website to get a better idea on how to effectively use your servants. As far as banners go, save for Merlin. Always save for Merlin. Prioritize support over dps. Waver is pretty good if you have him, and Hans can be used as a replacement. Jalter is coming soon, so if you wanna roll for that, do so. Next should be merlin and musashi and king Hassan. All three are really good servants so pick and choose I guess. Good luck!

Any SSR is worth leveling, that's why they are SSR. Then you should max level Ushiwakamaru, Hans Christian Andersen and Mash (best F2P supports), also Cú Chulainn, Robin Hood and Gaius Julius Caesar are great servants
You should check 1-3 stars tier list in this page, so you can know which servants are worth leveling

Don't forget to level Euryale and Medea. They make the game a lot easier. You should also level David.

More importantly, here is how you should make friends:
Always send a friend request after using someone's servant. Try to make as many friends as you can, which means always look for new friends while you are on easy quests. Prioritize friends who have NP2 servants, grailed servants, and max limit broken (MLB) craft essences. MLB CEs are denoted by a small yellow diamond.

You are looking for friends with MLB Mona Lisa, MLB Golden Sumo, and various Heroic Portraits. You are especially looking for friends with Kaleidoscope, especially MLB.

This game heavily depends on access to specific CEs and specific servants. You need friends with Zhuge Liang (Waver), Tamamo-no-Mae, Gilgamesh, and Jeanne Alter. Therefore, first find a bunch of friends with Waver and Tamamo by switching to Caster class when looking at friends. Tap confirm support to explore all 9 of their support servants. This saves a ton of time. Not everyone will accept your request, but eventually you will have 50+ friends.

To become more likely to have your requests accepted, setup your support team and equip various CEs. Those CEs don't need to make sense. Do max level whatever gold characters you have and put them in support list. That's how we know you are more likely to become a useful friend to us later. The best time to go friend hunting is during events. Equip an MLB event CE onto a max level character and you will get requests.

We have a discord. Join us if you'd like.

https://discord.gg/rBGEjUh

My advice? Git gud. Dark Souls memes aside, if you want, you can add me. My ID # is 162,121,836. My support honestly isn't that great (except for my level 98 Jeanne, which is by far my highest level servant), but it should at least be enough to help with the first few singularities.