You need to do a lot of research. And decide what points you are looking for in project. For me it is mainly real and known team with experience in real business, useful partnerships (1 useful partnership > 100 logos on website). I am also very keen on passive income as it give a stronger incentive to hold the token - but inflation is one thing to watch out for - so profit share passive income is better than some project giving out 100s or new tokens each day...

My top 3 Altcoins in my portfolio for 2022 right now are:

$UBT & http://Baseledger.net
Baseline Protocol is set to go mainstream in 2022, their mainnet launches this quarter along with staking and Nodes, also new exchange rumours and so on. Consensys and SAP amongst others are involved. A lot of info will drop before end of Jan about launch etc. Founding council members can be seen on Baseledger.Foundation and more will be joining.
NOTE: the staking rewards are a revenue share from network fees - non inflationary and all 150m tokens are in circulation already!

$BLXM http://Bloxmove.com
Reinventing mobility, links to Daimler (think mercedes). Also has an LP mining programme, and single asset staking in Feb. Very strong team backing it and small mcap.

$MOVE http://viaMover.com
Supercharged DeFi Savings 100%+ APY + crypto debit card. Tiny market cap and rumours of big partnership with OlympusDao on the way. Strong pair of founders and a growing team and ecosystem. NFTs, web wallet, mobile wallet and so on. Fiat on and off ramps via IBAN.

DYOR and good luck!