[Guide] Getting Past the Wall

This is a walkthrough that will explore the techniques seasoned players would typically use to progress guickly into the late game in elden ring. While "getting good" plays some part in this, being prepared for the challenge makes a significant difference and results in huge time savings if you are an average skill player. For this guide I will be demonstrating a sorcerer build path as I believe it is the all round easiest and most versatile playstyle.

Key Concepts

These key concepts will help you progress on the game easier in any playthrough

• Maxing out the level of a "unique" weapon that uses Somber Smithing Stones is faster and more convenient than using Smithing Stones to max out a regular weapon
• There are many areas and aspects of the game that can be accessed early on without needing to beat any bosses such as Liurnia of the Lakes and Leyndell Royal Capital
• You can find area maps by just following a path into the area and checking your map for a little icon which will show you where it is, you can also put a marker on the icon
• Levelling up is very valuable in elden ring and quite necessary due to how hard bosses hit and for late game to scale up your weapons damage, you can obtain runes to level efficiently by using good farming strategies, which I will go over below
• Upgrading your flash charges and restoration amount is important and can be done by collecting Golden Seed from golden trees you will likely come across when you visit new areas. Also be sure to visit churches when you see them as most of them have Sacred Tear which can be used to increase the restoration amount.
• Using a good upgraded Spirit Ashes such as Mimic Tear or Black Knife Tiche Ashes(hard to get) will help significantly when it comes to beating bosses as it will pull aggro away from you so you can use your flasks but also some can do a lot of ashes. While you are in Nokron, Eternal City getting the Mimic Tear Ashes you can also grab Greatshield Soldier Ashes which are hilariously ovepowered and effective in some boss fights due to their tankyness and attention drawing. Skeletal Militiaman Ashes is also fairly easy to get and can be a very useful earlygame in some difficult encounters because the soldiers will revive as long as they don't get hit when they are dead
• Watching Youtube guides before tackling any challenge is very valuable so that you know the route and you can just run through skipping all or most of the enemies, many players don't kill basic enemies and I am pretty sure the game is designed with that in mind.

 [Example] Becoming a Sorcerer

Use the links in this wiki and the wiki map to see the locations of anything you don't know where to find, and for more complicated areas make sure to search up a video guide on youtube to see the route

1. Start off by choosing a class with an appropriate stat distribution for the build, for this build Astrologer is ideal
2. Progress through Limgrave and grab Spirit Jellyfish Ashes, you should use this one in particular for the first 2 boss fights as it makes them a lot easier, then progress to Gatefront Ruins where you should receive torrent, now teleport back to Church of Elleh and Ranni should appear, you can talk to her and she will give you a Spirit Calling Bell, if you missed the encounter you can also buy one(see wiki page).
3. Go for a nice ride around the map and grab some stuff you will need Morning Star , Sword of St Trina (requires Stonesword Key) (just in case you need a sidearm early on), Radagon's Soreseal and Dectus Medallion (Right) (since your already there, its needed later)
4. Equip Radagons Soreseal because it will give you the stats to wield these weapons and the damage increase is offset by the vitality increase so there no downside of using this early on until you have levelled up vitality later
5. You will also need some good early sorceries and a better staff so grab Meteorite Staff and Rock Sling, they are at the same area and the staff doesn't require upgrading, its the best staff early on once you put some points into INT, also Rock Sling is a very useful spell vs some enemies however glintstone pebble is has very good damage output and reasonable FP cost. I suggest looking up a video guide on how to get these items as there is also a trick to teleport yourself close to the spot so you dont need to run over, but you might just want to run over and grab the map on the way.
6. If you need a spell with a bit more oomph you might like to also grab Gavel of Haima however it is a little bit involved as gettiing to Liurnia of the Lakes early requires taking a specific route as detailed on its wiki page, and furthermore is near Frenzied Flame Village which requires taking a specific route to get to so you should also watch a guide on that, you can easily pursue this later as you will likely go there as part of White Mask Varre quest.
7. You will also likely want to get a decent shield early, ideally get the Kite Shield (also in Liurnia), but you can also buy a slightly worse one from the Twin Maiden Husks in Roundtable Hold
8. The final thing you need to be prepared to defeat the first two bosses is some exp (and usually weapon upgrade but not necessary with meteor staff), so to do this you can use one or two early game methods that give a decent chunk of souls, first head to Fort Faroth and you will see Elder Dragon Greyoll, equip the Morning Star and slowly beat him to death on his side, when you stand on his side near his wing you are safe from the other angry dragons. The bleed effect on the morning star will do big chunks of damage every time it procs so be patient and when you are done you will have a nice 50,000 souls.
9. You should invest all the points into Intelligence so you do as much damage as possible early with the meteor staff for the first 2 boss fights, but you can also use some of  the souls to upgrade the Sword of St Trina to +4 at War Counselor Iji as he sells somber smithing stones(if you dont do this now you should do it later once the main runes farming method is unlocked)
10. If you wish to get 40,000 more runes early you can go find the nearby Night's Cavalry (only spawns at night so use 'pass time' at site of grace) at Lenne's Rise, the tactic here is to aggro him and lure him around the bridge (towards site of grace) and jump onto the outer edge of the bridge causing him to leap at you and jump into the void, doing this can be difficult and frustrating so I don't exactly recommend it
11. At this point you should be pretty strong to take on Margit, The Fell Omen and afterwards Godrick the Grafted so go ahead and do that as defeating Godrick will unlock the ability to progress Varre's quest which gives you access to the best rune farming method in the game. For both fights just summon the NPC at the door and use your Jellyfish Spirit Summon(they are weak to poison) as both these things make the fight a lot easier. For the Godrick fight the NPC summon Nepheli Loux has to be spoken to in a nearby room before she appears.
12. Now you want to progress White Mask Varre quest up to the point he gives you the Pureblood Knight's Medal, using this medal will teleport you to Mohgwyn Palace where you can do the best farming method at the 'Palace Approach Ledge Road' site of grace. Which involves shooting a bird with a bow(can be purchased from twin maiden husks in Rountable Hold) and arrows (purchased from the merchant at 'Liurnia Lake Shore' site of grace), causing it to run off the edge. I suggest watching a video on this as there are many complete guides.
13. Using the above method you should now try to reach level 60-80 or so, the main thing is you want is 60 INT so you can equip the next staff, and points in Focus to increase your FP is very valuable and unfortunately Vigor to increase your hp so that you don't get one shot by bosses later on, for now I suggest just getting around 20 FP and 20 vigor and increasing both more as you feel you need to, it should be your goal to reach 40 Vigor and 30+ FP later on.
14. In order to get a better staff you should progress through Raya Lucaria Academy and beat both bosses, the second boss can be really annoying in its second phase, its much easier if you summon another human. After you beat the first boss the dog you will be able to access Shattering Crystal, its a really strong spell that you must charge by holding down the button and also be close up so all the projectiles hit to do optimal damage. There is also a knight obstructing the elevator before the final boss, he is hard but hopefully if you are level 60+ he should be a lot easier.
15. Now that you have beaten to boss you can get Carian Regal Scepter from the Remembrance of the Full Moon Queen that you got. Don't equip it yet though as it will be worse than the meteor staff until upgraded. It is possible to upgrade it to +10 right away using the route speedrunners use which includes a visit to volcano manor, its pretty easy, just watch a youtube guide such as the one titled ( This BREAKS the Game - Get a +10 Somber Weapon Straight Away on New Level 1 Character - Elden Ring! )
16. If you upgraded your staff to +10 you should be feeling pretty chad at this point and you might want to take on an annoying dungeon to unlock Golden Scarab which will give a significant boost to rune farming when used in conjunction with Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot (which can be easily farmed and crafted). Before tackling that dungeon make sure you grab Mushroom Set to help protect you from the Scarlet Rot in the dungeon (get there via Grand Lift of Dectus). If you are struggling with the dungeon boss you can just put it off until you obtain the Mimic Tear. Once you have the Gold Scarab talisman feel free to farm your way to level 120+ as you wish.
17. At this point I suggest progressing Ranni the Witch's questline to completion as this will give you/ give you access to Glintstone Icecrag, Loretta's Greatbow, Adula's Moonblade (killing the dragon for this is a pain but can be cheesed with Mimic tear and Rock Sling and hiding in the building), Dark Moon Greatsword, Snow Witch Set, Mimic Tear Ashes and more. The quest is quite involved and requires fighting multiple hard enemies so you should watch a video guide and be prepared for what you are getting yourself into. Also in order to make the Astel boss fight easier you can upgrade your mimic tear summon early, see step 19.
18. With the Dark Moon Greatsword obtained you might wish to respec your stats using a Larval Tear or just level up some more so that you can equip it. The sword is a good secondary weapon but you can use it however you want even as a primary instead of spells. You will need to upgrade it too if you plan on using it a lot, you can get it to +4 using the same blacksmith you used for the other weapon, and you can get it to +10 by researching on the wiki locations of somber smithing stones, due to completing Ranni's quest you should have access to a lot of what you need in those locations, you can also collect Somberstone Miner's Bell Bearing (3) and so on.
19. You can further increase your strength in boss fights by levelling up your mimic tear to +10 or alternatively Black Knife Tiche Ashes is quite respectable but locked behind a difficult boss fight. To upgrade this to +10 is quite easy due to Ghost Gloveworts being highly accessible in the locations unlocked through Ranni's quest, just do some research on the wiki to find what you are missing, and again you can also get Ghost-Glovewort Picker's Bell Bearing (1) + as needed.
20. Finally if you wish to increase your strength in battle further you should go and collect some good talismans such as Godfrey Icon (boosts charged spells damage AND Darkmoon Greatsword ranged skill), Primal Glintstone Blade (requires progressing main story through Leyndell Royal Capital), Graven-School Talisman / Graven-Mass Talisman and Crucible Feather Talisman (good for squishy mage as it makes dodge rolling much more forgiving, you can also get this early on in the game if you want)
21. The steps above should give you a good foothold in progressing the game, there are however other things available that might be useful such as Loretta's Mastery. There are various other Magic Spells and Talismans available.