Tired of getting your invites declined because people think you are a phishing bot?
Look no further, as this simple guide will help you get to at least LVL10 and may even help you accumulate more games than most of your friends combined. With that, people will ignore you only AFTER they see your inventory (or lack thereof), but at least you are getting somewhere.

Note: This guide takes into account that you already know the basis on which steam works, If you don't, be sure to check out some guides for that. Here are some helpful links:
Steam Card F.A.Q
Basics of Trading Guide

Recently the badge got updated to a 3rd level, so it currently gives a whopping 500 XP after doing 28/29 objectives.
Which is convenient since I'm trying to make this guide "free" and one of the objectives implies you invested money into steam ("Try out the Community Market")

All of them are pretty much explained just by hovering over them, however there are some which may be tough for certain people:

• Add a phone number to your account - You'll have to give a working phone number, since steam sends a code which you confirm. So if you don't like giving your phone number to Valve, you should find a spare number that you don't use.
  
• Use the Steam Mobile App for two-factor authentication - This one is trickier if you don't own a smartphone. You'll most likely be able to do it through bluestacks, or you could just do it via a friends phone.
  
• Post a video - Not hard, but it's a hassle. You can upload basically anything and then remove it afterwards
  
• Craft a game badge - This one will be explained in the Leveling (II) section

You'll most like be asking yourself now: "3v1lcl0n3,but i'm a cheap ass. Why would I buy games when I can just pirate them" - The answer is simple, You should support the devs, and pirating is bad. But it's irrelevant to this guide, as I'll be providing you with links to free giveaways for games (only 100% win chance)

Getting your gamecount Up with free packages that bind to your account[steamdb.info]
The script is now updated so it also adds a lot of demos, but it'll give you a solid +15~ after it's done. Including 3 card drops with "Grimm"
Steps on how to use it are in the link, it'll take quite a while before it's done.

And now onto some giveaways;

DLH Giveaways[www.dlh.net]
DLH is a german gaming site which hosts stellar giveaways for games, currently they have 3 games which you can get after registering:

• X-Blades (5 cards)
  
• Pirates of the Black Cove
  
• Commander - Conquest Of The Americas

Who is Gaming NOW!? Giveaways[whosgamingnow.net]
There are currently 3 giveaways, from which one is quite old. The games are

• Jet Gunner (3 cards)
  
• Relic Hunter Heroes (8 cards)
  
• Blaster Shooter GunGun! (3 cards)

Indie Gala Giveaways[www.indiegala.com]
Hosts giveaways from time to time, currently the game is

• Realms of the haunting

Anomaly Warzone Giveaway at Games Republic[epicdeal.gamesrepublic.com]

• Anomaly Warzone Earth (3 cards)

There are also a lot of giveaways which come from time to time. Best way is to keep a close eye at sites like:
Epic Bundle[www.epicbundle.com]
Inventory Traders - a group where I moderate, we announce giveaways, or subscribe to WGN's mail notifications which are pretty convenient.
There are more of course, but those are good to start with.

The purpose of this is to make you look like less of a cheap-ass, however most people in the community will automatically know that your library consists only of free games.
Also, there are badges for owning games.



After completing this section, you should have at least 25 Games, which nets you 200 XP.

• Notice #1 the store value of the games does not matter since you got them free and people know they are free (even if they didn't know, they wouldn't trade for games of that tier) so don't try reselling them, as you'll just end up looking stupid.
  
• Notice #2 Your account isn't worth the combined value of the game's store price,furthermore selling accounts is against steam TOS, so don't even try to do it.
  
• Notice #3 If your account isn't too old but pre-Apr 20th, you may have to activate a gift so you get the "games owned" badge. Cheap gifts are Dead Island Epidemic and Ucrowded, which you can get with a few of your cards on steamtrades[www.steamgifts.com]
  
• Notice #4 Whatever you do, do not beg for anything

As I pointed out in the previous section, some games come with Steam Cards. I won't go in depth about Steam Cards here as you can look it up on other guides and the Steam Cards F.A.Q. However the point is that one Set gives you 100 XP, an emote, a background and a coupon.
Also crafting a set is necessary for the LVL3 Community Badge.

After 2 hours + 15 minutes per card (depends on the game) you'll get all your drops from each of the games that you have. If you followed the past section, you should have the following games:
Grimm (3 Cards)
X-Blades (5 Cards)
Jet Gunner (3 Cards)
Relic Hunter Heroes (8 Cards)
Blaster Shooter GunGun! (3 Cards)
Anomany Warzone Earth (3 Cards)

After getting all the drops, you'll have to trade to make a full set. Best way to do so is using:
http://www.steamcardexchange.net to get cards from a set you want
and
http://www.steamtradematcher.com to get rid of your dupes

Preferably you'll be looking to make the Smaller sets
Grimm (missing 2 cards)
Jet Gunner (Missing 3 cards)
Anomaly (Missing 3 cards)

Remember: Patience is a virtue, if the cards you want aren't in stock on SCE just wait a bit, or get cards from a different cheap set. You don't need to own the game to make a set. Also don't be annoying to other traders and bug them to 1:1 for your cards, as they are cancer for most of the community.

Congratulations
You should now have:
Level 10+
25+ Games
Access to a showcase for your profile

If you haven't already you should fill up your info with actual info, something you want to say or a quote.
You should avoid using stock Steam Profile pictures, especially overused ones.
Also you should put in a Background on your profile from the ones you crafted, as it really helps.

You are shooting to get something like (Possibly a bit livelier):

Always be on the lookout for giveaways, especially the ones with cards.
Also participate in Summer/Winter Sale events for extra badges and XP.

If you need any further help post on the guide or feel free to visit my group, where we also announce giveaways of games and host our own (altho those are in very limited numbers):
Inventory Traders