pay attention to your enemies, they telegraph their moves and are almost all completely consistent in their behavior and patterns (the dogs being one of the few notable exceptions) - difficulty mainly comes from people thinking they can just rush in and spam any attack and have it work, [b]don't do this;[/b] Instead make sure to learn your weapon's move sets, it's damage, it's stamina depletion, it's range (this is all easy done than said, it'll come naturally with a little bit of practice) - couple those two things together and you can pretty much beat the game without leveling up, but since few people aren't that good remember a few things when leveling: -health and stamina are incredibly important, so leveling up vitality and endurance respectively will make your life easier and the game funner -strength is needed for quite a few weapons, but those requirements are relatively low so you shouldn't invest too much into it unless you know how to make use of slow heavy weapons -Dexterity on the other hand is also needed for a few weapons, but leveling it up leads you to fast weapons that also do a lot of damage, you really can't go wrong with it [spoiler]Great scythe is best scyth, great scythe is best weapon[/spoiler] -Resistance is more or less useless as every other stat by default levels up the same things -intelligence and faith are used for sorceress and miracles, I'd advise you stay away from these as you wont know how to best use them and your point are better spent elsewhere Probably forgetting another skill, but that's really it; also, pyromancy has no level requirments at all, so if you have the cash and know where to spend it (hint: fully upgrade a flame with the guy at firelink, then head down to blighttown near the spider nest and you'll find someone special) And most importantly, dying is a lesson, use it to make yourself better - and have fun.