Figure eight, bowline, slipknot, clove hitch, trucker's hitch (not really a knot but useful) and a sheet bend will cover you for like 99% of use-cases, including climbing haha.
If you learn some of these, you'll also see how interconnected many of them are.
A sheet bend and bowline knot are both wildly useful. But a bowline is just a single rope sheet-bent (sheet bended?) back onto itself! And a trucker's hitch is just a slip knot where you creatively use the slipped loop as a pulley.
Honestly like 99% of the time when I join two ropes I just use an overhand knot, sometimes with a stopper so it doesn't roll. It's pretty normal in climbing and supposedly bomber (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGqGlFc3oFs). Agree most important thing is using them right.