It definitely can feel a bit overwhelming with choice and the game is honestly a little obtuse with how it gives you basically nothing to go off of and expects you to figure it out. The main thing is just to explore as heavily as you can, even if you think there isn’t anything to look at or do somewhere or you feel like you cant go there, check it out anyway.

I would highly recommend trying to do the majority of your first full run as blind as you can and then maybe doing a second playthrough with following a guide. Fighting cowboy has a lovely walkthrough.

For first builds I would recommend doing a quality, dex and strength focused. It will allow you to pick up most weapons and use them somewhat effectively which will help you try many things until you find you’re niche that you think you want to stick with and then you can relocate stats from there

All I ever play is goddamn elden ring bro 😭