How do you navigate in VIM's Normal mode?

Question

Accepted Answer

Move with h j k l (left/down/up/right), jump by word with w/b, and leap to file start/end with gg/G.
Vim keeps your hands on the home row — no reaching for arrow keys. The real power, though, is bigger motions: word, line, and file jumps mean you rarely tap a key repeatedly.
Basic cursor movement:

Key
Movement

h
Left (←)

j
Down (↓)

k
Up (↑)

l
Right (→)

Word navigation:

Key
Movement

w
Next word start

b
Back to word start

e
Word end

Line navigation:

Key
Movement

0
Line start

$
Line end

^
First non-space

File navigation:

Key
Movement

gg
File start

G
File end

:42
Go to line 42

Mnemonic for hjkl: On old keyboards, these keys had arrows printed on them!
Go deeper:

Vim user manual: Moving around (vimhelp.org) — h j k l, word motions w/b/e, and gg/G.