Basically what the other comment has said. imo it's harder than Old Hunters on base ng, assuming you're going in solo melee. Roughly the same in difficulty on max ng+ cycle.

Get the best spirit summons (look these up) and level them up. There are more than a few dragons and deathrite birds that you're better off just summoning and getting it over with.

Unless you're checking a guide you're bound to miss a lot of stuff, especially the character quests. Don't fret too much over them.

1+2: Beat the base game for the best start in it. Around 120-150 would be pretty good.

3: Whatever you like, bring in whatever. You can go back to the base game at any time.

4: Probably.

5: Collect Scadutree Fragments to increase your damage and defenses. This is how you actually get strong enough to take on the DLC. If you do not, no matter what level you are, you're gonna get ground to dust.

When you say first boss are you talking about the knight or the obvious big boss with a cutscene (trying to not spoiler)

If it's the knight, you really have to focus on his attacks and decide if you play safe and punish the crossbow or go hard and get rekt from his sword over and over like me.

If it's the other, good luck, he's really hard or medium depending on build and weapon.

Go get the Scadutree fragments. They are the DLC's power progression system, and the bosses are scaled to them. If you can't find any, you can look up a guide online.

I started the DLC this week after creating a new character, which took me 80 hours just to get to it. First impressions are that this is practically Elden Ring II, and has some of the best areas and exploration that from have created.

The DLC has a unique levelling system for both summons and yourself. It's genious as it gives that constant progression feeling even with a high level character, and doesn't spoil the main game if you've not finished it.

Don't try attacking the giant flame golem unless you know what you're doing (I don't).

The first gaol optional mini boss in the start area is an arsehole. My build is a light blue dancer doll/dagger/buckler and he is a bitch for me.

Scadutree Fragments are your best friend. Welcome to the best DLC ever mate

Make sure you’re obtaining scadutree fragments so you can level up your scadutree blessing at sites of grace. It increases your damage dealt and decreases your damage taken so it’s essential for keeping up with the increased damage and hp of the dlc enemies.

Gravity kills, use rainbow stones if concerned. Buy a lamp. Follow lights of grace.

"Prepare to die" isn't a warning, it's a strategy. Making suicide runs to grab specific items can help tremendously.

Also don’t forget to upgrade your weapons with smithing stones that you find and buy from vendors

level health, upgrade weapons, explore, and most importantly have fun.

Almost all of your issues can be solved by either exploring more of the world, learning the boss’ moves, and/or adding more points to Vigor.

I am still on my first play through. Just got the game as well. Been playing ds 1 and 3. My experience is to start with something simple. And for me that is a strength build. And when things get too difficult I google on that specific problem. There is a joy in going in blind. And do not trip if an enemy is too difficult. Go somewhere else and come back later. It’s a beautiful game. Maybe the best I have ever tried. Enjoy.

Imo it’s best to experience this game blind from the start. The discovery just adds so much to it. The only thing I would think is worth looking up are some of the side quest as they are easy to miss and have cool gear and weapons/spells but even then I would try them out before looking it up. Don’t be afraid to try out different things. You can respec at some point like mid game. On a second run through or after you beat the game I would then look up a guide to find everything you might have missed. And also to add on to my point about my side quest, it’s no big deal if you miss them. I have 200+ hours in the game and have not done them all. There is just a ton to explore and find. I feel like a comprehensive guide would take a lot of the fun out of it.

In my experience this is all you need:

1. Level up vigor

2. Have fun with your favorite build

3.Don’t spread stats unless you know what you are doing

4. It’s ok to miss some quests

5. Gather Scooby doo blessings for the DLC

6. Use your consumables!

Fextralife was a great guide, very helpful for me. I also recommend quitting your job and leaving your wife and child. Commit to ER.

Bro I found this WiKi

I think you should go no further than defeating the Fire Giant. i.e. not burning the Erdtree OR inheriting the Frenzied Flame. For all we know Melina might get a part to play, like the NPC's did in Bloodborne: The Old Hunters.

You might wanna avoid burning the Erdtree down before going into the DLC. Who knows, maybe beating the DLC unlocks a new interaction with an NPC or something, that happened in FromSoft's games before.

Otherwise, probably just be sure to have plenty of upgraded healing flasks and a +10/+25 weapon.

Other than that I would probably recommend using the Blessed Dew Talisman and the Turtle Talisman for general exploration of the new areas. That healing may seem slow, but it extends exploration immensely. And stamina regen is always great when you're facing new enemies whose movset you're not familiar with.

Shoot strong magic and run like hell

Tactics? Swing until I hit is a tactic right?

Find the biggest sword I can.and swing it as hard as I can.

Run around naked don't get hit

The greatest weapon in every Souls players toolkit: patience.

Don't use the bow when fighting bosses. Bows are weak in Elden ring and only really useful for luring enemies 1 by 1 so you don't get mobbed. I have thousands of hours on this game and have never touched a bow.

Honestly? Just gotta have perseverance and push through. Keep playing. With enough time you’ll “get gud” but that takes a little practice. A lot of the issues you’re talking about is just unfamiliarity with the controls and UI. Do practice runs where you just switch between weapons and attack, before engaging an enemy. Commit to the pattern of controls and when you screw up, try again. Practice glancing at the bottom left corner of the screen to know where you’re at with flasks/loadout before pressing any buttons. You’ll figure it out, have faith.

I’m not a great gamer in general, I usually suck at most games when I start and I’m horrible at FPS. Elden Ring was fuuuuuucking brutal, but I loved it so much that I kept playing. I did have a couple buddies I’d co-op with which was 100% a safety blanket, but eventually I just started playing more and more on my own and then yeah, rest is history. I haven’t sunk as many hours into any game as I have with Elden ring. I envy you, you’re in for such a good ride.

1. L1 is your Left-hand attack button, R1 is your Right-hand attack button. L2 is your "Ash of War" button, to use a special attack on your right-hand weapon if it has one. R2 is your Right-hand heavy attack button. If you have a sword in your right hand and a bow in your left, and press the L1 button, the game will make you two-hand your bow, because it requires two hands to use. Simply unequip the bow or change the left-hand slot by cycling to something else, by pressing Left on the D-Pad, if you keep making this mistake.
   • You may want to run through the Tutorial, if you haven't already. It's found in the cave you originally woke up in after your first death. Warp back to the Stranded Graveyard grace, and backtrack to the cave. And then drop down where the ghost is pointing. This sort of thing and other basic controls are explained there.
2. You need to practice learning when it's safe to attack and when it isn't. You can't just mindlessly walk at something and expect to just attack it without any pushback. Treat every enemy like a new thing to learn. And if you do get attacked, get away from the enemy first, don't just stand there taking hits and spamming the attack button trying to get a hit in yourself. Basically, learn the basics of the flow of combat. Bide your time for opportunities to attack.
3. By changing potions do you mean you are panicking and accidentally drink the wrong kind of potion? Or that you weren't sure what you were doing when changing how many uses of your flask you're splitting between Health and FP?

And yes please do play organically. Let yourself make all kind of mistakes, get lost, and struggle. It's all part of the experience and your first ever souls game will stick with you the most, and if you get addicted to these games like so many others, it'll be hard to ever meet that feeling again with another souls game. So better to let it be a unique experience not watered down by guides and clickbait buzzword copycat youtubers.

That game was also my first souls game and it absolutely kicked my ass for a while I struggled for a while but you gotta keep at it it’s so worth the grind

If you prefer parry mechanics you will like much more Sekiro : Shadows Die Twice(the best fromsoftware game) and maybe Lies of P .

Anyway i never found bow much useful except if i wanted to separete enemies from a group and in Elden Ring you will need to do this fewer times from older souls games. 51 poise(poise should be shown above or below equip load) allows to tank small hits like an anemy attack with dagger or a hit of imps(the annoying green creatures at tombs) without getting flintched. Also in beginning of the game the most important stat is vigor(the stat of HP).

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How about my gravity samurai? https://www.reddit.com/r/EldenRingBuilds/s/99TTRdRHQW

Strength+Faith has loads of good options in the DLC; can try out a specialized lightning damage build with Clawmark Seal + Death Knight equips, they're all very solid IMO. It's one of the builds that has the best mix of consistent theming and simultaneous damage-boosting synergy (all of the Death Knight armor pieces boost lightning damage for both your weapons and your spells)

In the very first area of SotE you can get a LOT of solid weapons that are in the new DLC weapon classes. I'd pick one of them and build around that. Great Katana & Milady are my favorites - backhand blades, black steel greathammer, & beast claws would be great options too.

The weapon art on most straight swords has some pretty good reach, most npc enemies don't know how to deal with it.

You can lure him over the edge so he falls, without fighting him. Here's another way of doing it.

Another solution is if you don't already have a bow, you can get the Longbow from the high wall of lothric and then you can use the >!ree jump trick to get onto the roof of firelink and get just above him near the crystal lizard where you drop down and cheese the sword master with arrows.!<

Uchigatana Guy has a like passive "I'm walking towards you" animation. I think you can see a bit of it in 0:45 left and 0:22 left. When I see him do this I have him walk into a flurry of light attacks but roll away with the last bit of stamina. Repeat until he dies.

Should be doable with any melee class.

I use a similar strategy against the Sword Lothric guys. They also have this "I'm walking towards you" animation.

Honestly I just play aggressive and don't give him a second to breathe, rarely have any trouble with him