So, I've poured a lot of hours into Elden Ring. I've beaten the game on three characters (though I got help on the final boss on my Dragon incantation Arcane build) and I think I've faced nearly everything in the game.
There is a lot. FromSoft's games have always had out-of-the-way things to find, but the scope of the Lands Between dwarfs Yharnam, Lordran, Dranleic (I assume, never played that one,) and Lothric.
One thing that I think is quite notable, though, is that if you take your time and smell the roses, the game is easier than the others, though I'm also tempted to try re-playing one of the older games and putting a little more focus on leveling up my HP stat and worrying less about my throughput stats and see if the games wind up feeling easier.
However, it can be useful to figure out a gameplan. I think it's always good to have a sense of what sort of character you want to build throughout your playthrough, even though the relative abundance of Larval Tears makes re-speccing relatively easy (after beating the likely second major boss).
Generally speaking, I recommend being as much of a completionist as possible, especially if you're a new player, because you'll get the equipment and the levels you'll need to make the challenging areas and bosses easier. I recommend as well holding off on "world bosses" in certain areas until you're nearly done with everything there.
Also, I might not know where everything is here - while I've picked over the game with a fine-tooth comb, it's also vast.
Stage One: Northern Limgrave (not including Stormhill). We're defining this as the area north of Agheel Lake, but beneath Stormhill.
You start the game in Limgrave, but even this area is kind of divided into expanding regions of relative difficulty. There are three mini-dungeons in this area - a cave north of the road between the church and the gatefront ruins that is very short. There's also the first catacombs dungeon northwest of that along the same cliff walls, and finally a demi-human cave. This last one is actually the subject of one of your earliest NPC quests. There is also one dungeon which is the heroes' grave whose stonesword key-locked door you'll pass when first emerging from the tutorial cave. I recommend saving this for later, as it's pretty tough (this notably has an Arcane-scaling Sacred Seal in it, which will be a must for any dragon-magic build or anyone who wants to mix in some incantations with a bleed or otherwise status-effect-heavy build). Note that if you continue on through the Demi-Human cave, you'll find another exit that takes you to an island (otherwise inaccessible) with a dragon shrine - if you want to learn Dragon Incantations, this will be the place to learn them until you can get to the other one in Caelid.
NPCs and Quests: In this first area, the only real quest is the starting one of Boc, the Seamster. There's a slightly discolored tree near the road south of the gatefront ruins that you can roll into to show Boc, and then pick up a quest from him. If you then go into the Demi-human cave on the coast, you can find him by the site of grace and then give him the sewing needle you get off the boss. He'll follow you around and alter clothes (which basically means removing or adding back on cloaks to chest armor) for free once you do. There's another leg to his quest, but we'll worry about that later.
World Bosses: There are two world bosses in this area. The first should be very obvious - the Tree Sentinel, who rides around right where you emerge from the starting cave and is there as newbie bait (or for hardcore players to try to down before they can even spend those runes on levels). The other is the first of the Night's Cavalry enemies, who appears on the bridge leading further into Limgrave, but only at night. Remember that if you die to these guys, you'll want to rest at a Grace Site and wait until Nightfall to try again - the same is true for all but one of the Deathbirds).
Stage Two: Agheel Lake and Environs
You could argue this is part of that same starting area, but there is a bit of a step up in difficulty here. This is the area around Agheel Lake.
There are a couple of mini-dungeons to search out. There is the mine in the north of the lake (with a red-rimmed hole marked on the map) that will get you some smithing stones to upgrade your first weapon. Following the river northeast out of the lake, you can find both a small cave with some bandits and Patches as the "boss," though I recommend talking to Bloody Finger Hunter Yura before you approach, as there's your first NPC invader outside. Further up that river is another catacomb dungeon. East of the road down toward the Weeping Peninsula to the south, there's a ruins with a big Miranda Flower in it. There's a way down into the basement where you can fight a Pumpkinhead as a boss (summon some spirits to get him to turn his back and let you get some decent attacks in) and it's here where you'll find Sellen, a Sorcery teacher (you can make her your primary sorcery teacher if you want, and give your scrolls to her, but I recommend saving all your spell scrolls and prayerbooks for Miriel up in Liurnia so you can do one-stop-shopping.)
A word of caution: the ruins on the south part of the lake have two treasure chests. One holds the Twinblade, a fun weapon for dex-heavy builds (especially if you put a bleeding infusion on it) while the other is a trap that puts you in a dungeon you are almost certainly not high enough level for in Caelid, and you'll be stuck there until you can get back to the entrance of the dungeon. It's not impossible to escape, but it will be a real challenge and pain especially for new players.
NPCS and Quests: Bloody Finger Hunter Yura can be found under a curved ruin (making a kind of arch) south of the lake. He'll basically tell you to be careful, but will help you with the NPC invader near Patches' cave. Afterward, you can speak with him further up that river. Patches himself will surrender when you do enough damage to him, and you can meet him at various other places (and, as always, get pushed off a cliff by him). Of note is that, after you return to him following this peace agreement, he'll sell an (expensive) item that can stun Margit the Fell for a couple seconds once per fight attempt (and you can fight Margit up to three times in the game). Sellen also has a quest line that you can do if you have high intelligence, though this starts a while later.
Also, not a dungeon, but some ruins on the cliffs in the southeast here have a scroll that allows Sellen or other sorcery trainers to teach you other sorceries.
World Bosses: Agheel is your first dragon world boss, and killing them lets you get the Agheel's Flame incantation at a shrine. Again, you should be patient and avoid this guy until you feel you've done most of the other stuff.
Evergaol: There is an Evergaol in the south, but it's also part of Blaidd's quest (see below,) so you can talk to him first and summon him as an NPC ally, making the fight here much easier (like, you can practically just let him do it).
Stage Three: Mistwood
The truth is that there isn't a ton in Mistwood, so I'm going to count the region to the north as part of it. In the wood itself, Fort Haight is kinda-sorta a mini dungeon (though much smaller than most). You can find Kenneth Haight on top of a fallen bit of architecture north of the woods and he'll ask you to re-take the fort. In terms of actual mini-dungeons, the only one I can think of right now is an easily-missed cave up in the north near the coast (you'll need to use those Torrent stream things to jump up the cliffs).
In the ruins with the first Tibia Mariner (see below) there's also a really great Talisman, the Green Turtle Talisman, which is worth picking up.
NPCS: As mentioned, there's Kenneth Haight, who is really kind of a supporting character in Nepheli Loux's quests. Also, when you first pass by the ruins in the western part of the wood (with a deadly sleeping Runebear within) you'll hear some howling. You can then go to the merchant in the Church of Elleh, who will teach you the "snap" emote that will then let you call down the howling wolf-man, Blaidd, who will give you another little quest, and becomes a major NPC in Ranni's quest chain. Up in the ruins atop the cliffs on the road to Caelid is D, Hunter of the Dead, who will task you with (or simply congratulate you if you've already done it) defeating the Tibia Mariner in the ruins. If you do so, he'll show you where the teleporter to go to the Bestial Sanctum is, where you can turn in Deathroot to Gurranq to get Bestial incantations and other goodies.
Stage Four: Weeping Peninsula
At this point, you're probably fine to go north to Stormhill, but there's a lot you can do down in the Weeping Peninsula, so you might as well. All the way to the south is Castle Morne, one of the game's sort of "major mini-dungeons" or "not-quite legacy dungeons." Before we go there, though, we have several things we can do first. Up on the eastern cliffs in the northeast is a catacomb dungeon (beware that it has a tough boss for lower levels). Traveling into the western part of the region, there's an out-of-the-way cave dungeon on the shore facing the rest of Limgrave, with a Rune Bear as its boss. Between the hill with the village full of frenzied flame people and the hill with the minor erdtree is a mine dungeon - always good to do those for smithing stones. There's another catacomb dungeon kind of underneath that minor erdtree that is fairly easy to find if you simply ride south from the church north of the tree. Finally, there is a hard-to-find cave dungeon underneath one of the churches (accessible via an entrance in the cliffs below) that has a Miranda Flower as a boss in perhaps the tiniest boss room in the game.
NPCs and Quests: Upon crossing the bridge into the peninsula (is it not technically an island?) you can meet Irina, who asks you to take a letter to her father in Castle Morne. Irina, or rather, whoever it is that inhabits her body, becomes an important NPC in Liurnia and part of the Frenzied Flame story, but I think you can technically skip this and still do that - but no reason you should. Her father can be found a bit out-of-the-way once you get to the top of the castle, and will basically say "cool, I'm going to chill here until you beat the boss."
World Bosses: There are two night-only world bosses here. One is a second Night's Cavalry, who you can find very near the site of grace with a merchant north of the outer walls of Castle Morne. The other is a Deathbird, who can be found not far from there, underneath the same walls to the west. There's also a wandering mausoleum, which you can use to duplicate remembrances in case you want both of a boss' items. Also, there's the Demihuman Queen in a big ruin in the lowlands to the north (near the Runebear cave dungeon). Additionally, there's an Erdtree Avatar near the minor erdtree.
Evergaol: This evergaol requires a Stonesword key, and has an Ancient Hero of Zamor in it.
Stage Five: Stormhill
We're getting there - now we go up from the gatefront ruins (or west from the village with the Tibia Mariner) to Stormhill. There's only one mini-dungeon here, I believe, which is a catacombs in the cliffs east of Stormveil Castle (not the first cliffs, but near the bridge to that village). Stormveil Castle is, of course, the first major dungeon of the game, and what we're building toward here.
NPCs and Quests: In terms of quest-quests, you'll want to talk to Roderika in the shack after you enter, but I doubt many would miss her. You can also meet Recusant Bernahl, who will continue popping up for quite a long time. However, the best NPC you can meet here (though weirdly he didn't show up there on my latest playthrough - thankfully, if you miss him, you don't lose out on his quests) is Warrior Jar Alexander, the very best thing in any FromSoft game.
World Bosses: There are two night-only world bosses. One is the Bell-Bearing Hunter found at the Warmaster's Shack (where you can find Bernahl during the day). The other is another Deathbird a bit southeast of there.
Evergaol: There's another Evergaol here with a Crucible Knight in it. Good luck, you'll need it.
Stage Six: Stormveil Castle
I'm not going to go super in-depth here, but you'll start with a fight against Margit the Fell Omen, and ultimately face Godrick the Grafted as you first major boss. There's also an ulcerated tree spirit down in the lower levels, but I recommend coming back to this after you've leveled up a bit and are ready to progress Fia's quests.
NPCs and Quests: You'll meet Rogier here (and can summon him to fight Margit) and Nepehli Loux (whom you can summon for Godrick). Note also that Gatekeeper Gastoc will steal a bit of your runes every time you die - you might not notice, but you'll see that the amount you collect after doing a corpse run isn't the full amount you dropped. I believe you can find him in various places and confront him about it, but I don't know that that ends until you've beaten Godrick.
Ok, so that - I think - covers Limgrave. There are obviously some important items you might find out in the world, but I think this will more or less give you a sense of how to feel you really haven't left any major stones unturned.
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