Quickstart
Quickstart without all the extras
If you are familiar or don't want the details use this mini guide below, or reference the other sections in the sidebar.
Complete the intro, or don't. I like to fight Krillin and Tien for the extra heals. You can skip the dragonball quest if you want, but if you're a race that needs a sword you might want to.
When you get to LEGENDE, go up and sw twice to get a few newbie capsules. You can also use the STUCK command to get back here till 1 mil PL.
In the east and northeast of the area is a bunch of transporters you can take to various places.
Make heavy use of HELP BAL, and HELP <areaname>, e.g. HELP GINYUBASE
DO NOT miss out on Icerian Proving Grounds, this is found to the north on Planet Furiza, north of the ginyu base, and directly north of the landing pad area. This area will train up a plethora of skills for free and let you get a head start.
Start gaining in LEGENDE, Soltari City, Sonata, or The Ginyu Base. Technically you can ride Ginyu Base all the way up to 100m or more, it is the easiest but probably not the absolute fastest.
Complete The Eternal Dragon Statue quest at about 50k PL.
Gear up with some armor from the shop at Lorren in Bear Forest and 200k-1mil mobs in Ginyu Base. Also ask around if anyone has some Kaio or Newbie gear.
Visit icerian proving grounds if you want to help raise skills. Complete the entire quest for an unlimited light that lasts until 10mil PL.
Somewhere around 1mil max you can complete the Zanzoken quest. This teaches you zanzoken and gives you a couple good items.
Around 1mil base PL complete the IT quest.
1mil PL areas like Sonata Bushido Temple and Ginyu Base, some parts of Tree of Might, and the Southeast section of Crimson City has some 5mil mobs. And in the Western Forest are various animals ranging from 1mil on up to 100mil, but they are very scattered.
When you see Ki heal and Ki Transfer on alist/slist, sonata has a quest for that!
Somewhere on your way up you'll want a bigger backpack. Resilient backpacks from Planet Plant are 100k zeni and easy to get. IT to SPACEP and go to the north to find a shop.
10mil+ areas like Lotus Temple, Majin Wasteland, Ginyu Base, Sonata Mountains, Vegeta's Castle
When you can hit 50m-100m PL, consider doing the Meteor Strike and Bodyslam quests.
25mil base do the Lotus Temple quests for wrist/ankle, finger, and neck EQ. 12% extra gains from these items if you don't have it.
Around 75m base consider doing the Blood Ruby Shard quest in Majin Wasteland for a good piece of arm eq, another 2.5% gains.
100mil+ areas. Maima is probably the most straight forward and quickest. Majin wasteland is still good. Feldron. There are some options on Mount Areukk and Z mountains as well.
1bil+ You can gain in the beginning of the billions inside Maima, the mobs go up to about 2.3b. The higher mobs are further inside the ship. If you go to the namek temple you can find mobs starting around 750m, and higher level further in. Watch out for some aggro mobs if you're not ready. (help namektemple) The mobs just up from Solrun drop very nice non layer eq that can hold you over for a while until you get better stuff. Yardrat Forest is very popular for the Yak's and Boars, also starting at 1b and moving on up towards 10b. Inside Jiya Village, within the Namekian Wilds zone, are some nameks that are 2.5b and 4b. The Polluted Delta is usable (be CAREFUL you will be set to PK red upon entering) but the mobs spawn on entry to a room so you have to be careful that you're strong enough for everything in each section. Cordican when you can start fighting 5b mobs is also great, however you'll have to find a way to breathe in space, there's a mini quest for that here thankfully. And finally you can try out Yasai Jungle which is east of Soltari City, this are has quite a few mobs starting at 1b and 2b and further into the lower 10's of billions. Yemma's Vault can be found on the north side of HFIL (IT to Cell or fall off snake way), this area seems to start at 2b. Frieza's ship is ok, but not a suggested gaining area in my opinion. As you can see starting in the billions you begin to have a plethora of choices.
If by the time you hit 500mil BASE consider killing the 750m ginyus until you get all the pieces. I believe there are 6 pieces and this can easily get you to 8k+ armor which is the cap for damage reduction.
You can also start killing Yaks and Goretusks in Yardrat Forest for the layered gear around 500m-1b base.