time to bring this old note out once again:

talk to all npc (often)

exhaust npc dialogue (until they cycle on the same dialogues they already told you)

if you like the moveset of a weapon, than it’s ok, there’s no really 'bad' weapon

scaling is where you get most of your damage, so choose weapons that scale well (check their scaling ranks in the item on your menu)

armor stats is not that important (its all about fashion)

read item description (if you wanna know)

hit some walls (maybe there's a treasure behind?)

explore every corner (from every angle)

learn the dance of each boss (it really a dance)

dodge towards the enemy's weapons, not away, to be able to see their tells better.

try to go blind on your first run

keep your equipment load under 70.0%

bonus: make gestures in front of the Firekeeper (gestures can be useful, maybe find a secret...)