I recently acquired this game. Somehow the stairs to the Undead Burg were not noticed in my exploration, leaving me trying to make progress with the skeletons toward the Catacombs and with the ghosts in New Londo Ruins. I made it a bonfire deep each respective way, but I was dying way too much and was not getting rewarded at all for my troubles. I reached level 20 before I stumbled across the way to the Undead Burg; life became immediately easier. Met the first boss, almost killed the bastard, but was not really prepared mentally and used up all my Estus previously. New plan with that guy: (SPOILER)Messing up the crossbowman and his buddy first, then jump attacking the Taurus Demon to see how he likes that.