Elden Ring | Nightreign: The Forsaken Hollows Update

[Mr EliteL]

What was the reason you couldn't get into it again? I can't remember.

To put simply I sucked, terribly.

To add a bit more, I really wanted to be a build that fights close and personal, and well yeah a newbie going into it like that isn't going to end well.  I lost patience levelling up and I don't usually get like that with a game, because in other games I'd be willing to grind for a long time to become just a little stronger. Got sick of dying to enemies I shouldn't be dying to too, at least what I thought were anyway. I never bothered to start over and try something else either, I don't want to be magic user that stands far away from the action to attack. There's probably better builds I could use but didn't look into what exactly they were or how to get them. Just gave up really.

[Moonface]

What was the reason you couldn't get into it again? I can't remember.  

To put simply I sucked, terribly.

To add a bit more, I really wanted to be a build that fights close and personal, and well yeah a newbie going into it like that isn't going to end well.  I lost patience levelling up and I don't usually get like that with a game, because in other games I'd be willing to grind for a long time to become just a little stronger. Got sick of dying to enemies I shouldn't be dying to too, at least what I thought were anyway. I never bothered to start over and try something else either, I don't want to be magic user that stands far away from the action to attack. There's probably better builds I could use but didn't look into what exactly they were or how to get them. Just gave up really.

Depending on where you went exploring, even I was having trouble in the beginning areas. If you had issue with any of this, I wouldn't say it's due to being shit because some of this stuff even wrecked very experienced Souls players when they first played this game:

• The boss fight in the intro area where you spawn inside a church. Whether you die to it or not, you will inevitably die in this area after that fight anyway because you're intended to, so I wouldn't even bother to judge your performance there.
  
• The bastard boss on a horse who people very likely run into after leaving the tomb you get spawned into after the inevitable death in the intro. I can't even remember if I tried to beat him before allowing myself to move on or if I said screw it and sneaked around him to come back later when I wasn't as weak.
  
• Behind that horse boss is a small abandoned church, and beyond that is a wooded area with trees and random dudes just walking about. In my first playthrough, I used stealth to deal with as many of them as I could because I didn't want to risk fighting them head on and getting overwhelmed by multiple enemies attacking me at the same time.
  
• Beyond them is Stormveil Castle, where you fight the first "main" boss of the game. I can tell you straight up you aren't beating him if you head there early like the game tries to indicate you do; I had to go explore elsewhere to level up enough and find better items to do the fight and so did a streamer I watch who has a lot of Souls experience. I'd say you can get to the level you need by simply exploring other areas of Limgrave; you shouldn't need to spend time actually grinding levels out.
  

@Dragon Lord: Ah, right. I've gotten used to high priced DLC's that my immediate thought at seeing $15 was "Oh this isn't gonna have much in it".

[Mr EliteL]

The first boss fight, yeah I could tell you were meant to die in that area, of course didn't beat, got a few hits in then died. . Tree Sentinel I did eventually beat after getting the horse, that made that fight better to deal with, hit and run/dodge really. Did a good chunk of exploring, went I think beyond Limgrave or if it wasn't then quite far into it. I didn't trigger the dragon off to the right of the Tree Sentinel where there were some slow enemies who weren't a trouble obviously, just didn't go all the way in to fight all of them just the ones on outskirts then went into a dungeon or something. Fought a couple of minor bosses and beat them. Got teleported to a red area and explored there for a while and made my way back near the church.

Did go towards Stormveil but not all the way in, so I never fought Godrick or the lesser version of Morgott...ah Morgit that's it. I remember losing to enemies that seemed to be defending something or just standing guard nearby, can't remember where but there was multiple instances. A gang of soldiers or whatever they were somewhere (yeah could be anywhere) I kept dying to as well. I probably just needed better....everything really.

[Moonface]

The first boss fight, yeah I could tell you were meant to die in that area, of course didn't beat, got a few hits in then died. . Tree Sentinel I did eventually beat after getting the horse, that made that fight better to deal with, hit and run/dodge really. Did a good chunk of exploring, went I think beyond Limgrave or if it wasn't then quite far into it. I didn't trigger the dragon off to the right of the Tree Sentinel where there were some slow enemies who weren't a trouble obviously, just didn't go all the way in to fight all of them just the ones on outskirts then went into a dungeon or something. Fought a couple of minor bosses and beat them. Got teleported to a red area and explored there for a while and made my way back near the church.

Did go towards Stormveil but not all the way in, so I never fought Godrick or the lesser version of Morgott...ah Morgit that's it. I remember losing to enemies that seemed to be defending something or just standing guard nearby, can't remember where but there was multiple instances. A gang of soldiers or whatever they were somewhere (yeah could be anywhere) I kept dying to as well. I probably just needed better....everything really.

Oh dang you did way more than I was expecting! GG on beating Tree Sentinel, I didn't use Torrent but I did do the same run in, smack it a few times, run away, repeat until it died the first time I fought it. The fact you got teleported to Caelid and got out is genuinely impressive; the mine that chest teleports you into was a bastard for me to get out of easily and Caelid proper was just "Give me a grace and let me teleport the hell out of here now" until I had some better stuff.

Considering you've never played a FromSoft game before this and you got that much done, I think you're really underselling yourself. If you're not fully confident about timing dodge rolls and stuff, I'd suggest doing what I did and equipping a shield to block with (not that everything can be blocked I think) because when you do block an attack, you get a window to perform a counterattack right after with your weapon. I ran with a shield for a very large part of the game until I eventually realized I was no longer actually using it and took it off to just wield my weapon in two hands. Speaking of weapons, I forget where you find it but in one of the Gaol's there's a fight that gives you the Bloodhound Fang and that weapon was my baby for like two whole playthroughs.

[Mr EliteL]

I spent a while in the swamp area, but once I got out of that I avoided pretty much anything else. I did see the crows and was tempted to attack one but decided against it, luckily they don't aggro immediately. The sight of them was enough to try another time. Then eventually found where the red ground begins to turn normal. Can't remember what I found in there exactly item wise.

I did select Warrior which was the dual weapons, can't remember if I picked up a shield or not. Makes me want to go back and have a look at what I had last time I played.

[Moonface]

Even then, as soon as I got out of the mine and was allowed to teleport again I immediately fast travelled out of Caelid, so it's still impressive you opted to just walk all the way back to the entrance of it. That area is definitely not meant to be an early game area unless you just want to be a lunatic, so that's a place to come back to at a later point, probably after you do all of Stormveil at least.
Also, if by chance you were passing judgment on yourself for dying to a field enemy after having beaten some minor bosses, none of the FromSoft games are a case of "Oh I beat a boss nearby so the enemies ain't shit"; that only happens when you get really far into one of the games and then go back to an early game area where you just have so much health and strength you just stomp stuff.

I think I went with Bandit for my starting loadout because I liked how they looked and I wanted to try out a bow, but I can't even remember trying to use a bow as a main weapon.
There's shields you can pick up which is how I got mine, but I can't remember where in Limgrave I found it or it might have dropped from an enemy.