How2VRChat (for residents of Hololive Global)

News: Currently planning to visit a bunch of Holo-related maps together on Sunday, Dec. 10th, starting around 5 PM Eastern

First, thanks to ruffians for writing up the original rentry that most of this is ripped from.

This overview is intended for anons who aren't necessarily familiar with VRChat and want to join instances with their fellow anons for events, etc.
If you already have a VRC account and know what you're doing, feel free to jump into the group here: https://vrchat.com/home/group/grp_ae633eb3-3090-425c-81a2-e80647cbdf26

Downloading it

You don't need a VR headset to play, but it can make the experience more fun.
You can play VRChat on:
Non-VR ("Desktop mode")

However due to platform restrictions, not every world/avatar is accessible on Quest and Android devices. So you'll want to use a PC (non-VR or VR) if possible. Generally, any decent PC from the past five years or a Steam Deck should be able to run it fine. If playing in desktop (non-VR) mode, make sure you choose the desktop mode option when launching via Steam. If playing in VR, you probably know what you're doing.

Linux users will need to use a custom version of GE-Proton.

Creating an account

You can sign in with Steam to make it easier, but for more features and faster ranking you should create a VRChat account on the website (click here to sign up) and then sign into it on first game launch.

If you already have an account via Steam or other service, you can read how to "upgrade" here.

Controls

Take some time to get used to the controls. The primary method of communication is voice chat, but they also recently added text chat as well (press Y on desktop mode). Some avatars also have expressions that you can use (press R on desktop mode). With that said, you don't have to actually talk to anyone if you don't want. Most people in the game are "mutes" anyway.

To add people as friends on desktop mode, pause the game and then click on their avatar with your mouse. You'll see a menu of options, including a button to Add Friend. You can also clone their avatar here as well.

If exploring worlds with embedded video players (i.e. for watchalongs), you'll also want to turn on "Allow untrusted URLs" in the Safety settings.

Joining worlds

When joining a new world, you can join "instances" (lobbies) that are public, or create one yourself that is friends-only (only your friends can join) or private (if you hate socializing).

I made a group for /hlgg/ anons to find instances together, you can join it here:
https://vrchat.com/home/group/grp_ae633eb3-3090-425c-81a2-e80647cbdf26

Here's how to join an existing group instance (desktop mode controls):

Press ESC
Click the "Groups" button (it has three dots and lines)
Click on the /hlgg/ group
Click on the "Instances" tab
If there's something going on, you should see any open instance created by a member of the group

If you want to create your own group instance:

Navigate to any world screen
Click "New Instance"
Click "Group" on the bottom
Make sure the Group is set to the /hlgg/ group
Set Instance Type to Group or Group+ (don't do Group Public or it'll get filled up by randos)
Click Create Instance and join (or drop portal for others)

Avatars

There will be an area with shelves of avatars to pick from. Click on one and you'll transform into it. You can change back into recent avatars from the menu in the Avatars section as well.

To upload avatars to VRChat, you'll need be rank New User or higher, or have Premium. However there's plenty of decent avatars already out there, so you don't really need to do this.

Why make a group?

Groups enable easily finding instances together with anyone in the same group without having to add specific people as friends and without someone having to post a new link to every instance when people move to a new one or fill up the existing one. It's very useful for things like watching the AnimeNYC panels together or checking out new Holo-related worlds/avatars/etc.