Interesting article showing a simple and low risk strategy for VXX https://tradingmatex.com/low-risk-vxx-options-strategies/
It just uses 2 spreads, not really difficult to be honest. But yes, you need to understand options a bit.
I think this is a strategy to place when VIX is relatively low and that'salso what the author says, although there is no magic number to say that VIX is low enough to play this strategy safe.