Bought Elden Ring last November. I struggled with it during the first few hours of the game.

I tried taking on the Tree Sentinel, who roams around at the starting area of the game. The Devs must have put that boss there as a preview of what's to come and maybe just for laughs. Because unless you are a very skilled player, you are not going to be able to defeat that guy, no matter how hard you try. I was both a newbie to the game and an unskilled player. I could not defeat the Tree Sentinel. Just at this very early part of the game, I already died more than 10 times I think.

Anyway, so I moved on and tried to follow the golden markers. I ended up at Gatefront Ruins. Instead of resting at the next site of grace, I only touched it and moved on to fighting the enemies at Gatefront Ruins.

^ This was a very noob mistake, because if I had rested at that site of grace, I would have unlocked the ability to level up. As it is, I kept racking up runes (they are like XP, used to level up), but had no way to make use of them. I could have made my life easier by leveling up, but didn't know I could do that.

I then spent multiple hours trying to clear the enemies at Gatefront Ruins to no avail. I could not defeat the Knight with the Spear and Shield.

^ What's hilarious is that, this guy was not even a field boss. He was just a regular enemy, granted, he was the strongest enemy at the ruins. Couple that with my mistake of not unlocking the level up feature, it's hilarious to look back and think that I could have made the fights against him so much easier.

Great video with good tips for players new to Elden Ring, like me.