I am really enjoying this game in some ways, but I have never played a Lego game before and I am finding it really confusing. Especially the map, what do all the icons mean?, where do I buy characters and what is there to do in the open world?, maybe I am just stupid but I am finding it infuriating.

uintill you finish the story mission you dont need to worry about anything. just follow the bat symbol on the map.

follow the blue ghost studs to get to your next level.

the other icons are just for other parts of the map, park, zoo, botanical garden etc.

You can buy villains after you defeat them, the villains show up in the open world when you acsess remote abt terminals (red light pillars).

The heroes you can buy when you got enough gold bricks to build "gold doors" (they show up as little aches on the map).