Just picked this up yesterday for PS4, this is my first souls game, any tips? Chose this over Bloodborne because I want 60fps
Branches of Yore are key items that unpetrify statues and open up a new way/treasure. Same for Pharo's Lockstones.
Explore, explore and explore. These games highly reward exploration. If you think you can't take on something, go to some different area and try to find items there.
Use Souls on something when you have a high amount even if you to use a Homeward Bone to teleport back. Dying loses your Souls and if you die twice in a row without retrieving your souls they are lost for good.
Use lock on a lot (R3), otherwise you will whiff a lot of attacks. Always wait for an enemy to complete their attack before attacking yourself, don't try to trade hits at the start.
Dodge more often than blocking. Your dodge has some invincible frames so abuse them. You get more invincibility if you put more points into Adaptility which increases your Agilot. You want your Agilot to be around 100 late game.
Weapons have stat rating with a letter grade. Better grade means they scale well with that stat so if you want to increase their damage then put stats into that attribute.
If you want to start using spells then you need 10 points in Attunement to gain 1 attunement slot and then a catalyst item to use spell. So if you want to use a Pyromancy spell you need to have the stat requirements, the slot to equip the skill and a pyromancy glove equipped on your character as a weapon.
Bonfires are your checkpoint but if you rest at them (which restores HP, your Estus and weapon durability) it respawns enemies. Always look for shortcuts back to your Bonfire especially before boss fights so that it's easier to get back to a boss when you die.
Always take one enemies one at a time and don't button mash. Actions get buffered and you will get locked into an action which will kill you.
Always read every item description completely. Also exhaust all NPC dialogues by talking with them (keep talking with them until they repeat).
All weapons are good enough to complete the game with as long as your upgrade them. Use what you like and don't worry about over committing on upgrades on a few items, you get enough upgrades.
Soul Vessels allow you to reallocate your points at the starting old ladies if you need to. These are very limited in the game.
You should read what every stat and attribute does like Poise, VGR, Endurance etc. Also be aware of their soft cap limits.
When you die you get turned in a hollow and you can't summon NPC to help you. You can turn human again by using a Human Effigy. If you keep dying as a hollow then your max HP keeps getting lowered until 50% max. Don't spam Human Effigies every time you die, use it right before a boss to summon an NPC to help you.
There are some online stuff you probably want to read about if your interested.
Do not have your equipment burden over 70% it will affect your movement and roll. But at 69% you are OK!
Hitting enemies from behind while close to them hit's them with backstabbing which does a lot of damage. You can also parry them with L2 then do big damage. If an enemy is blocking then press forward + R1 to do a guard break and then punish. Forward + R2 is a jumping attack with different usage based on the weapon.
Press Triangle to go double handed for more damage but you can't use a shield to block. I prefer this greatly against bosses.
There's probably a lot more. Game is more about skill than stat min maxing. Tackle it like an action game where you dodge stuff and attack after they complete. Never over commit to your action, even if you just do roll, attack once and back off that's good enough if you are consistent.
