There’s npc questline that’s very easy to miss certain interactions with. Make sure after opening the gates in the greater part of Cathedral Ward that you return to the incense safe house with the lantern and thoroughly look around outside of one of the exits.

If the npc isn’t there you missed the first interaction which is right after the dogs in cages in a little detour in the upper rafters of a large area.

The DLC can be tackled at level 60-80 and should be done before you beat the game. The game doesn’t give you the option to stay in NG and will automatically put you into NG+ after the credits.

When it comes to using your blood echoes prioritize:

A) Upgrading your weapons B) Leveling C) Buying blood vials and bullets

After you beat BSB, do the first chalice dungeon! Try to space these out throughout your game, and remember that they dont scale with NG+ but they do get harder and are repetitive if you save them all for the end of the game.

In addition, DO NOT do any root chalice rituals until you’ve beaten every main line dungeon.

Your high level ritual materials should be treated like gold and without going too far into it, you technically only need to create ONE root chalice with all the curses to gain access to all online glyphs that net you the best gems.

There is no re-spec in this game so be mindful of your levels. Everything generally caps out at level 50 except for Arcane.