How can we play with low-time or low-skill friends?

I am thinking about buying darktide to play some casual co op with friends where:

I would be playing alot (decent shooter games skillset, and with time would then also get a decent build).

Another friend is also experienced but wouldn't be playing this game much except when we co op together say weekly or fortnightly at max (essentially: has decent shooter skills, but won't have a good build)

Another friend is basically a gaming beginner (low skill, easy difficulty player, also wont have a good build).

With this in mind - How would you recommend playing darktide together?

For example: Does the game have 'per player difficulty' where I choose high difficulty and do low damage, but friends choose easy difficulty and do high damage while we play the same run?

Do I just create a second character that has low level build and we play on easy together?

Do you have any advice on how we best play together? It's casual and we wouldn't care much about levelling in those sessions.

Just asking before we spend money on buying the game. Appreciate any thoughts!