If a friend, that has no idea of cryptos whatsoever yet but wants to make his early investment in the cryptospace, is asking you what he should do now or what coin he should buy then i think it is always important to check first, what he is hoping to achieve with his investments. Does he want to invest money because he does not get any interest on the bank but he wants to make a relatively save investment? Then i woudl go for the big and already established coins like Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos, Polkadot or even Bitcoin there the risk of a total loss of your investment is very small in my opinion. If he wants to go for possible very high returns, then you should make him clear that it is very much possible that he will lose his investment and then you can pick one of the newer but promising projects.