Tips:

1. This game is mostly defensive. Try to go hulk mode and get more than three hits when you have an opening, and you will get hit. If you dish out too many hits, you will have too low of stamina to run away or dodge roll, and you will get ass-raped 99.99999% of the time. The way Dark Souls is set up so that if you deviate from ultra-defensive/evasive tactics, then you die.

2. During a dodge roll, while in the air and under 25% equip weight, you are invincible from damage. You can also roll in the diagonal direction. For this reason, it is very wise to upgrade Endurance so you have more dodge rolling and can tank hits on your shield, provided it has the necessary absorption stats and stability.

3. Plunge attacks are more powerful when you are closer to the center of an enemy. You can always plunge attack if you are falling at least about six feet, and are holding down the light-attack button, but you need to be actually falling down, and cannot be moving off the ledge/cliff.

4. For weapons, you want a high damage, high speed, low weight weapon with decent strength and dexterity scaling, like a shortsword, claw, painting guardian sword, or handaxe. Some very OP and extremely powerful weapons are the Greatsword of Artorias (Holy variant), Black Knight Halberd, Gold Tracer, and others.

Other essential gear are the Hawk Ring, Cursebite Ring, Poisonbite Ring, Havel's Ring, Chloranthy Ring, Tower Shield, Mask Of The Child, Ring Of The Evil Eye, Heater Shield, Spider Shield, etc.

5. It is easy to get up to five levels per new map area. After farming the levels you want, try to make shortcuts by opening obstacles or knowing routes to bosses so you can save them for bosses.

6. Most bosses have a safe strategy to avoid damage.

7. You will always win if you study how to beat the fastest, most aggressive, high HP, high resistance bosses.

8. For starting classes, the Bandit is the king of melee classes because he has the most DPS, and decent health, with a very solid shield. The Sorceror is the best caster, and there are only melee/physical and caster classes, really.

9. If a boss is killing you quick, there is definitely a safe strategy that will allow you to avoid damage at least most entirely. Keep note of this. Most, if not all boss rooms also have windows and special areas where you can heal without taking damage, as well.

10. Like I said, this game is highly capitalizing on defense/evasion. You can use a bow or other ranged attack to draw aggression (aggro) from enemies so they attack you one by one, when they are tightly clustered. Try to note who is the closest to you at the moment so you can, as slowly as possible, creep up and draw enemies out. This makes MANY situations very easy.

11. Sen's Fortess is a bunch of quick tricks. It seems like it is brutal as fuck, but there are three bonfires about, and it's no new skill to avoid death there, so don't let it convince you that you will die no matter what.

12. Walkthrough videos are GOD. Use these to learn about items, and get prepared. This is a good series, but the guy making it is usually drunk, and dies for it. Also, he uses summons, which is doable, but cheap.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4CS87oQOAkSgSlPV_KyHQ3f7Zc4pWnap

13. Don't try to hold lots of souls for the next bonfire. Always level up ASAP.

14. These are the true hardcore bosses of the game, in terms of abilities. I will list the quick-kill strategies there, because these bosses can kill you in just a few moves:

a. Bed Of Chaos

	There is a save and quit trick with this guy. Youtube it. There is a solid concrete ring in the room, and that is an area where you cannot be hit, along with two nooks in the room. Use those to avoid attacks, as they do 800 HP damage easy.

b. Bell Gargoyles

	These guys are not very permissive. In the beginning, one Gargoyle will come down. If you go by the left part of his pelvis and hit his trunk area (this is the only safe area), you should be able to deal with his attacks, and kill him before his ally comes in. If his ally comes in, use the spine of the roof to block their fire attacks. If you're too far, they will bum-rush you in the air, or on the ground, and this is dangerous. By sprinting with your shield up, you can do this easy, but deviating from this melee approach can get you killed quick.

c. Capra Demon

	As soon as you're in the room, run in a curve out to the right, dodging the dogs, and the Capra demon. Go on the ledge-arches (these extend about ten feet perpendicular to the stairs) next to the stairs, and hold your shield up so you can quickly kill the dogs (they die in one to three hits), and block the Capra Demon. If you see him creeping up the stairs, drop down, and repeatedly run up the stairs and off the ledges to distance yourself, but of course don't let the enemies land on you, because they will stun or drop-attack you. Capra Demon's attacks are slow, so it is easy to get to his back for hits, dodge, etc.

d. Ceaseless Discharge

	This guy almost cannot be fought. Opposite to where he is staring at the cliff ledge, there is an L-shaped path in the rock. Shoot him with an arrow to start the fight, and he will walk a far distance, slamming one of his arms down inside the L-shaped path. If you hug the outside of the corner of the L-shape, you can avoid damage, and can dodge  roll, too. He will rest his claw down after slamming it. Get in some hits, and repeatedly make him follow you and hit you by walking, and you can avoid his attacks in the same way over and over. Youtube walkthrough is good on this, as well, at this link: https://youtu.be/OFZN6P1Y-z0?list=PL4CS87oQOAkSgSlPV_KyHQ3f7Zc4pWnap

e. Chaos Witch Quelaag

	She has the upper half of a woman, and her lower half is a spider with a huge maw. Under her left arm, her sword arm, will allow you to absorb the most stamina damage on your shield, and many of her attacks should miss you. Stay away from the mouth of her spider/her front, and be wary of when her spider shrieks, making the room shake, and does not spout lava, because she will emit an explosion attack that does 700 damage easy. Avoid the ass-end of her spider, because it has its own attacks, and don't go past the waistline of her spider. Try not to let her spew so much lava that you cannot have a place to run, and you will be good. Of course when she is spewing lava, she is most susceptible to damage, and this is ideal. Videos help here, too.

f. Crossbreed Priscilla

	After starting the fight by comboing her, she will go invisible, watch for her footprints in the snow, and listen for her swinging her weapon because that will let you know where she is, and where you can hit her. Don't lead her on to ground without snow, because then you won't be able to see her. After about half of her health, she will go visible, and staying to her back will protect you.

g. Demon Firesage

	This guy has an explosion/area of effect attack, which has a small ten foot radius behind his back. Everywhere else is very long, and will stop you from getting to his weak spot, on his back. Stay away from this guy far enough so he will lunge you, avoid his lunge with a roll, and then get to his back for some hits. Stray from this, and you're done for.

h, i. Dragon Slayer Ornstein & Executioner Smough:

	Hardest fight in the game. Set up a shortcut by opening all the doors via walkthrough video. These guys fight you, two on one. It is wise to look up Solaire's questline, and figure out how to summon him for the fight, but it's not necessary. There will be periods where Ornstein and Smough will be a good distance away from each other, but not far enough for Smough to lunge with a shovelling attack, and this is the ONLY time where you can hit Ornstein/Smough for one or two hits. Stay locked on Ornstein, because he is sneaky and will flank you. Smough will lunge and use slow attacks on you, but if you are ten feet behind a pillar, he will get stuck on it, and you won't get hurt. If this fight is progressing too slow, then you're doing it right, because you really only get about one second of safe time. If you need to heal, move so pillars are keeping Ornstein and Smough stuck, but be prepared to dodge roll, because they lunge and they lunge FAST.
	In the next phase, you will fight either Super Smough or Super Ornstein. Super Ornstein has a blindspot under his legs where half of his attacks won't hit. Use that, but be ready to use pillars to avoid ranged attacks, and be ready to dodge roll. If you're fighting Smough, his down-times after a slam attack are the perfect time for hits. Other times kind of suck. Of course pillars help here, too.

j. Four Kings

	https://youtu.be/2iBQw-mHFn0

^All you need. Every 40 secs after the first king spawns (max of eight at once), a new king will spawn, so be QUICK.

k. Gravelord Nito

Let Nito approach you, because about 50 feet in, there are extra giant enemies. Use a divine-damage weapon to kill skeletons and keep them  from respawning. This makes the fight easy, assuming you hug Nito's chest, and don't stray more than about 20 feet, where he will make a girly banshee shriek, and summon a magical claw to come out of the ground, doing massive damage. This is avoidable, but you don't need to deal with that.

This video is also a good supplement: https://youtu.be/TaJn_WNkuiM

l. Gwyn, Lord Of Cinder

This guy is a BITCH. Don't bother fighting the enemies leading up to him. Sprint, and do running jumps to replenish stamina. Try walking to recharge stamina, but if you hear armor behind you, dodge roll and get to sprinting because you're within striking range.

Now that you're in the boss room, since Gwyn is far from you, he will lunge attack, and swing before he lands. The whole rule book for his fight was written by me about a week ago, and can be found in this link, under "Strategy", where a playbook is mentioned. You WILL need a greatshield with high stability for this, and high fire resistance helps, too.

http://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/gwyn+lord+of+cinder


m. Iron Golem

Before entering the fog door to the arena, you wanna make sure to kill the giant on the roof next to the arena, because he will throw giant bombs and insta-kill you.
This guy opens up with a ranged attack which he does by swinging his Golem Axe, and pushing wind towards you. This can be dodge rolled, or blocked by the center mound of bricks.

His attacks are slow, and easily circumvented by walking to the back of his calves. Pick a calf or ankle, and keep hitting it while avoiding attacks, and he will get stunned, and fall on his ass. While he is down, you have a decent window to get in a ton of hits. Repeat this, and he is done EASY, no damage.

n. Seath The Scaleless

	The first time you fight him, you will not be allowed to hit him, and he will kill you as part of the story progession. For the real fight, when you enter the room, opposite of Seath, there is a glowing rod of crystal. Break that rod, because without breaking it, he takes no damage. Stay by his tentacle, and avoid his wide-radius attacks. Cursebite ring from the New Londo Ruins makes this a JOKE.

o. Sif, the Great Grey Wolf

	Underneath his thorax is the place to be, as about half of his attacks miss there. Be ready to dodge roll, because he hates it when you do that, is a fast jumper, and has top speed attacks.

p. Stray Demon

	This guy is just like the Demon Firesage, only easier. His AOE radius works the same way, and you don't have to let him lunge at you. You can dodge roll his attacks and stay out of his AOE near his back to avoid damage while walking in for some hits on his back.

q. Taurus Demon

	Immediately after entering the boss arena, go up the ladder, and kill the two skeletons, because they will stun you with arrows, and come down to hit you, while you are fighting the boss. Don't try to go face to face with this guy. You don't have the room.

r. Moonlight Butterfly

	This guy is a moron. After about two minutes of spamming slow ranged homing attacks on you, he will fly down and start eating flowers for about 5 HP per second. Use this time to beat the shit out of him.

s. Pinwheel

	This guy is low HP, which offsets all his difficulty, spare for one property. He makes copies of himself, and can fill the whole room of them. Don't let him do that. Only the original Pinwheel can make copies, and he will gesture his cloning spell, and focus on him. Two-handing will buff your damage to do this quick. Don't think you're out of the thicket here, because Gravelord Nito is next, and he will dickslap you six feet under!!!