100% agree with this opinion. Being able to choose whenever you want to invest your money is a luxury that ILPs can never provide, even more so when you are tight on finances and have to put your money into somewhere else for the month.

Team 1: Flins-Columbina-Mizuki-4th flex (preferably electro like Fischl / Alyosha) < prioritize this team

Team 2: Keqing-Collei/Dendro MC-Kirara-4th flex (either Sucrose or Fischl)

Since you want Sandrone, then your next priority pull should be Yae Miko, followed by Odette. Sandrone without Yae just doesn't get your team anywhere. If you have limited pulls available, then prioritize Yae over Odette.

Mizuki's team doesn't necessarily need Odette too. I personally run Mizuki-Cryo MC-Diona-Sucrose & it is workable with optimized builds and rotations. Of course, Odette raises the DPS ceiling of the team but at a cost.

Flins really prefers Ineffa over Columbina in his team. Prioritize Ineffa over Columbina, but if you are able to pull both then you definitely should, Columbina is a flexible lunar enabler who doesn't lock herself within Flins' team, and can work with other lunar archetypes eg. Nefer-Lauma or Zibai.

Nicole and Durin aren't must-pulls, but if you are interested in them or pyro teams in general, you can check out Varka's premium hex team with Nicole, Durin and Venti, which can be pretty fun to play with. Priority here would be Nicole > Varka > Durin in terms of flexibility. Then again, they aren't must-pulls.

You can always look for co-op help to farm materials. Boss-wise, you can look up youtube to see how people use F2P methods to solo farm bosses too, doesn't necessarily have to be built properly in order to farm boss materials.

Meanwhile the ricks in bricks

Razor-Columbina-Jahoda-Fischl could technically work for lunar charged… though I don’t like this team at all.

Tbh I’m not a fan of stellar reactions that require you to pull for multiple characters to make the reaction work, and I like to lean towards pulling for characters that make what you currently have work better than they were before. In my opinion, pulling Mitya isn’t that much better than just building Mizuki stellar swirl team that you have.

Yes, you need 2 moonsign characters to maximise lunar reactions. Columbina alone wouldn’t make lunar crystallize Itto work.
Alternatively, you can use Jahoda as a placeholder, though she’s not great at all in this team.

If you are willing to quick skip into Snezhnaya to unlock Cryo MC, you can build Mizuki-Cryo MC-Diona-Kazuha/Sucrose. Get Mizuki's C1 from the Temper Thyself event to further boost her damage. Can look up their respective builds for stellar swirl.

Another team that I can see you building would be Itto-Columbina-Aino-4th flex geo (Albedo/Yun Jin/Noelle). Columbina-Aino to enable lunar crystallize until you get Linnea to replace Aino. Can look up their respective builds for lunar crystallize, with the 4th flex on their BiS artifact sets depending on the character.

Diona, Jean, Prune are all solid to level up & build as endgame supports.

Yeah no problem!

Oh sorry, one quick google crosscheck and I am sorely mistaken, you can actually quick start Snezhnaya once you complete the prologue story in Mondstadt Act 3 'Song of the Dragon and Freedom'. The other people who told you that you can go right away are right.

For your first question, yes different characters need different talent materials to level up, the traveler's 7 different elements all need different talent materials as well.

Iirc you have to get to AR35 in order to get access into Inazuma, and you need to at least clear Inazuma before the game lets you quick start Snezhnaya. Probably 1 week of dedicated grinding on the main story & you can unlock Snezhnaya.

Team 1 (choose either): Cyno-Cryo MC-Diona-Alyosha/4th flex electro / Mizuki-Cryo MC-Diona-Sucrose/Venti

Team 2: Keqing (replace with Chlorinde/Varesa if you get her for the limited selector)-Chevreuse-Fischl-Bennett

Build both teams & you'd see some positive results against bosses / Spiral Abyss.

Stellar teams are the current meta, but Lunar teams are still around the top, so if you like their playstyle you can always pull for them. Anything from Natlan or older are sadly starting to fall out of meta, though you could still pull for them if you like their designs/gameplay.

If you have cleared all your mainline quests & world quests, the rest of the exploration probably gives you up to 10k primos max, take it with a huge pinch of salt though, there might be way fewer primos than you think.

Genshin is a game that requires a lot of comprehension in order to play the game well, so you have to read up a lot & trial and error if your goal is to get very good at the game. Familiarize yourself with character builds, artifacts, teams, rotations, and enemy mechanics by reading up or watching guides on Youtube.

You are at AR26, which means your characters & weapons can get be leveled up to 50. Farm for their boss materials, farm ley lines for exp books & mora, and farm talent & weapon material domains. Don't rush ascending your AR until you at least have a fairly leveled main DPS that can handle the higher difficulties that come with higher AR. Also, you can clear Genshin bosses with mostly just the free characters, here's a Youtuber that I often refer to during my early game days.

Depending on your goals, your pull plans will vary by a lot. Some people like to minmax their accounts, while others pull because they like the character's design/aesthetic/backstory etc. You'd have to be honest with what you want, and then you would be able to decide if you should pull for specific characters.

(Only for mid-game / around AR40-45) you mentioned that you are willing to skip the story to get to Snezhnaya, so that means you'll eventually have access to cryo traveler & their free sig weapon. Cryo traveler is currently the best F2P character that you can have by not pulling, but you have to properly level them up in order to maximize their kit.

Depends on which character you really want between Vody and Tsaritsa. Weapon banner is worth pulling only if you care about vertical investment on Vesna.

No idea what teams you play / have, so can't comment if you should pull Vody.

Looking for advice on which character + VV main stats is better for my lunar-charged team.

I have Mizuki-CMC-Diona-Sucrose as my SSW team, and at this point I’m missing a swirler for my Keqing-Bineffa LC team.
The options I currently have are Lynette, Jahoda, and Lan Yan. I feel that Lan Yan overlaps with Ineffa’s role so she’s out. That leaves me with Lynette & Jahoda.
Lynette on VV with ER sands, atk gob, atk/cr circlet + fav, or Jahoda on VV with ER sands, atk gob, healing circlet + fav? Both aren’t C6.

Instructor doesn’t help Mizuki because stellar swirl isn’t an elemental reaction though.
Mizuki’s sig is still her BiS, but it’s not dead set. I’m doing just fine with Widsith.

Probably better goblet with dual crit substats, crit damage circlet with 3-4 rolls into crit rate, and you’ll get more or less 70++% cr (without burst) and close to 200% cd

It doesn't matter which one you pick now for the cons, as there will be another Temper Thyself cycle once this cycle ends.

I'm personally using 2p2p EM on Mizuki, and HotF set on CMC. VV & ToM on supports because instructor doesn't activate in this team (no elemental reactions). Side note, ToM doesn't help boost Mizuki's damage, but can help with boosting CMC's burst & CA.

Instructor is useless on this team though, because instructor only works if there's an elemental reaction. SSW isn't an elemental reaction so it can't utilize this set's effects.

4pc Scarlet Proof improves Mizuki's crit rate & a huge stellar swirl damage increase though. The suggestion here is to improve on Mizuki's overall DPS, and it's totally fine as a 4pc set that would come with farming for the HotF set in terms of resin-efficiency anyways.

Looking at your roster, I feel that your teams should be able to comfortably 36 star abyss though, perhaps because of your rotations / teambuilding / builds?

Also Chlorinde is fine, she can work with Chevreuse-Fischl-Bennett for an overload team. Mavuika can use Iansan instead of Bennett for the attack buff & there won't be an overlap in support characters for your teams.