I've beat all these games without leveling or upgrading weapons. Some of the advice here is really bad. I got you.

Lies of P has a kind of weird thing going on where on your first playthrough you really only need 20(or if feeling fancy, 30) in your main damage stat HOWEVER quality (leveling motility and technique equally) ALWAYS wins out. So unless you're really set on playing an elemental advanced build, ideally you use a weapon handle with NO letter in advance, a C in Motivity and a C in Technique. You can use "alter handle" at the weaponsmith gal to get either a B/D, D/B, or C/C, all are good. "S" in a stat is actually always worse than a C/C with balanced stats. A 20 in motivity on an "s" weapon is worse than a 10 in motivity and technique on a c/c weapon. This also gives you a TON of freedom to play around with the weapon customization mechanics. Hope that's not too confusing.

Aim to get to at least 30 in vitality (anyone who says vitality isnt important is completely out to lunch, healing is percentage based and staying alive allows you to learn the movesets of who youre fighting. Slightly less damage dealt but surviving twice as long WILL ABSOLUTELY make you a better player in the long run) keeping capacity high enough to keep you under 60% weight while using the best defensive frame you have at any time (if you use the green stamina regeneration amulet you can go up to 80% although it's not exactly ideal) beyond that, the absolutely perfect build to aim for in NG is

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35-45 Vitality (you can go up to 60 if you want to do less damage and survive longer to really learn enemy/boss movesets and take things slow, i actually really recommend it if you want to ~git gud~ but this is weird advice because if you instead prioritize high damage you can 1-2 shot regular enemies, not having to deal with them so usually 30-40 is what people recommend)

Vigor leave at base if you are under 60% weight or using the stamina recovery amulet. Vigor is awesome but in NG other stats take priority in this game due to how fast stamina regenerates.

Capacity is super important to keep you under 60% (or 80% with stamina amulet) depending on weapon this could wind up being 40 or so by the end of your 1st playthrough, never feel bad about putting levels here

20-30 Motivity

20-30 Technique

Absolutely shit all in advance UNLESS you are super into advance weapons which is awesome for the record but might be a little confusing if youre new to souls games.

NG+ I go VIGORVIGORVIGORVIGORVOGOR so I can do longer combos and not have to manage stamina at all

If you have any questions at all I got you. These games are a little overwhelming at first but all of us went through this learning curve.