Utilities

Git

We need to start by downloading some basic utility programs ( git and VS-Code ).
sudo pacman -S git code

Set up an AUR helper

We will use yay
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay
makepkg -si

To install a package using yay use:
yay -S <package_name>

Note: Yay uses similar syntax as that of pacman.

Set up Node Version Manager

yay -S nvm
and follow the docs to activate the nvm command from terminal.

Note: The package itself is installed in root directory, while the modules and nodejs are install in home.

Install python package manager

sudo pacman -S python2-pip python-pip

Install GDB debugger for C++

sudo pacman -S gdb
This will be used by VS Code while debugging C++ code

Install terminal based download managers

sudo pacman -S aria2 wget

Set up user default folders

sudo pacman -S xdg-user-dirs

and then run
xdg-user-dirs-update