What's the preferred stages of progression through elden ring?

[Selvokaz]

where should you go through stage by stage in a normal playthrough?

[Dragonirian]

It's an open world, do what you want.
You can explore literally every zone and do every bit of side content without killing any main (rune) boss.

[vamirez]

If you don't mind being spoiled you can check out this progression route on Fextralife:
https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Game+Progress+Route

There is a simple list of areas ordered by progression towards the top, and a detailed walkthrough below.

[Dark■Red ScepTeR!]

Will you add me as friend, let's coop and will give you some guidance as much as I can

[plump pickle]

You can do and go where ever you want. You'll know if you're not supposed to be in an area. There are side quests however that get locked off at 3 major points in the game, so if you want to do those then fextra lists the points of failure as well.

[Scuzz]

Do everything, that's what you should do.

[mpcgannon]

Originally posted by vamirez:

If you don't mind being spoiled you can check out this progression route on Fextralife:
https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Game+Progress+Route

There is a simple list of areas ordered by progression towards the top, and a detailed walkthrough below.

I second this, specifically the map.

[Enderspoons]

While there's technically nothing much stopping you from just grabbing a select couple key items and beelining directly to the end of the game — or wandering off the beaten path and becoming hopelessly distracted, or somewhere in between — there definitely is a path of progression that Elden Ring tries to subtly suggest you take, by grading the health and damage of the enemies from zone to zone. A fair handful of NPC questlines will also sequence-break if you visit zones out of order.

From the top of my head, a typical playthrough sticking closely to enemy zone scaling and questline progression would look something vaguely like this:
(spoilered for convenience)

1. Limgrave West and Limgrave East
   
2. Brief dip into Greyoll's Dragonbarrow to meet Gurranq
   
3. Weeping Peninsula
   
4. Stormveil Castle
   
5. Siofra River
   
6. Liurnia East
   
7. Liurnia South
   
8. Liurnia North
   
9. Ainsel River
   
10. Liurnia North
    
11. Liurnia West
    
12. Caelid and Redmane Castle
    
13. Nokron, Eternal City
    
14. Nokstella, Eternal City
    
15. Deeproot Depths
    
16. Brief dip into Greyoll's Dragonbarrow to get the other half of the Dectus Medallion
    
17. Leyndell Plateau
    
18. Mt. Gelmir
    
19. Go on a worldwide quest hunt to finish Sellen's questline
    
20. Start Volcano Manor
    
21. Leyndell Capital
    
22. Subterranean Shunning-Grounds
    
23. Start Mountaintops of the Giants
    
24. Finish Volcano Manor
    
25. Finish Mountaintops of the Giants
    
26. Greyoll's Dragonbarrow
    
27. Start Crumbling Farum Azula
    
28. Consecrated Snowfield
    
29. Mohgwyn Palace
    
30. The Haligtree
    
31. Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree
    
32. Finish Crumbling Farum Azula
    
33. Final loot sweep of everything
    
34. Leyndell, Ashen Capital

Again, the game will only ever give you gentle nudges to try and follow this progression, but there is quite literally next-to-nothing stopping you from just walking to the Dragonbarrow or wrongwarping to Farum Azula to get your hands on comically lategame-scaled loot way, way earlier than the game is prepared to handle.

[Selvokaz]

i got the idea to ask because i was trying a build guide i found on youtube that i found interesting, but i've never beaten the game, plenty of characters but never felt strong enough to get through the later content, until this guide which is STR Bleed Build guide using Two Twinblades The Gargoyle Twinblade and the Knight's Twinblade (until newgame + where i can get a 2nd GTB), it also has a option for the Giant Crusher Hammer, i admit the buffing is complicated to me, and i dont want to do that before every boss fight but a simplified version is given, however a lot of the equipment needed requires me to progress at least passed Margott and i was worried i might lock myself out of side quest stuff.

[brago90]

Numerical order of visiting the map with 1 being the area where the game starts.

76
54
2
13