In my case, I play the first route blindly hoping for a good ending (sometimes it's worked, sometimes it hasn't). Then, after playing, if the game has very difficult answers, I use the guide because I like 100% of the CGs, but if not, I continue playing blindly.
I go without guides for most but with games that are unreasonably difficult with their dialogue choices (think older, particularly mobiles ones) and games with 15+ endings I look to guides.
I usually go with guide, unless it is a stat raising, in that case I go for stats randomly/the one that gives a certail LI most affection but use a guide on the vn side!
There are so many different types. I've never even considered playing an otome game without a guide. I've always looked up one. Next time, I'd like to try giving it a shot without one.
I usually use guides and recommended route orders to make the experience less spoilerish as possible, but games with easy flowchart and choices like Cupipara I didn't have to check the answers.
I think it depends on the game! There are some games where it's way too easy to accidentally get a bad ending and that's usually when I search for a guide so I dont accidentally get my heart broken (i'm looking at you, mystic messenger)
I tend to go blindly first to see which route I'll enter and then use guide to finish it =)) Also, if someone speaks poorly about some endings, then I will use a guide to set an order :Dd
That being said, if the game does not have too many choices and not many endings then I will try to achieve it myself.
I almost always use a guide because I really hate bad endings and it feels like a waste of time if you don't realize you've already branched into a bad route. I'd rather just go straight to the good end, especially since I don't have much free time lately with studies and stuff haha. I only play blind if the game is super new and there's no walkthrough available yet.
I used to go in blind but now I use a guide just for the convenience of it all, I want to see the endings not the same bad one 15 times because I didn't open a box
i'll usually go in blind for my first playthrough of each route but then when going back to get all the endings i'll use a guide to help so it doesn't take so long
I used to back in the day when I was in middle school, back when I had more sweet time before adulting took over! Nowadays I just use guides because I don't have that free time anymore to just push through. Last time I tried that it was with Yang from Piofiore... terrible! lol