I think the best thing is not to worry about the badges and extra features straight away. The more you post, and the more you read, the more it’ll all sink in. 
There’ll be lots of examples of all the different things you can do in other member’s posts, and then you’ll be able to see what they do, and how useful they are, in a bit of context (which will help).
And there’s the Sandbox topic if you fancy a no-pressure practice. 