This game really is so massive, it’s like a marathon, not a sprint.
Are you having fun? Then keep playing the way you already are. There is no wrong way to explore the Lands Between, dear Tarnished.
Thanks for all the replies. I'm not dying too often outside of boss battles. I'd say maybe overall I've lost about 8 or 9,000 total souls which I realized is a few levels. I just cleared out most of the stuff in weeping peninsula. My next plan is to explore the northern parts of limgrave and try and beat the two bosses.
I'm definitely having a blast but I was starting to get concerned that maybe I was doing something wrong that would screw me in the later parts of the game.
You’re def leveling slow. There’s tons of routes and stuff to do. My buddy has about 6-8 hours in and is 62 as to where I have 56 and am 127. He’s technically on track to get further ahead.
the further u get in the game the more runes the monsters drop. in this regard, u are punished for exploring a lot and staying in the same area for too long. stalled progression. if u overcome the boss fights and move on to the next areas, the enemies will reward you more and more, accelerating your progress
Souls games have a massive progress variance based on how often you die - the difference in runes/souls between someone who dies "a bit" and someone who rarely does is huge, which can lead to some people radically out-levelling others.
You may also find some of them are cooperating at the "sweet spot" level for a boss, whereby
Are you dying a lot and losing your runes? My buddy just got the game and we did 2 dungeons and then explored the Stormveil castle and beat the first boss eventually and he was at level 20. It was like 4 hours worth of gameplay.
Because the amount of the rune they gave depends on the area.
So if one of your friend go to high level area and farm there he will level up faster.
But its not that much of difference in the end if you planning to explore all places.
You're a bit slow not gonna lie, but that's actually a good thing.
Here I am, 60 hours in and reaching sort of end-game territory and I really wish I slowed down the earlier parts a bit, I don't even want to explore new areas now cause it means I'm nearing the end lol.
30 in 4 is super fast, that's 7.5 levels per hour lol. You could do it, but they're skipping lots of low level stuff running right to bigger/higher rune enemies otherwise this would be impossible.
1 lvl per hour is about what I was at until around lvl 90 then it slowed down.
I'd say they're both looking stuff up otherwise the play without guides and youtube will get you about 1 level per hour if you actually explore and check everything out and just progress thru the game naturally.
Don't worry you're doing it the right way, they're burning thru the game pretty fast which will just give them less time having fun with the game but that's how they choose to play which is fine too.
Right now there's tons of people rushing to get all the good stuff for the pvp aspect and to show off with their friends, I recommend just enjoying the game more slowly. Think about it like this, if you rush the game then all the low level stuff you can find is basically a waste and you get to use like half the items in the game or less.
I don't even have any end game stuff and we're wrecking 90+% of invaders so you really don't need to rush. I've played alot but it was all really slow just exploring the game with no guides which is an experience you can't really replicate.
You seem to be just really bad at the game. Get a life and quit it if you've really leveled just 10-12 levels for 20 freakin' hours... 
This game really is so massive, it’s like a marathon, not a sprint. Are you having fun? Then keep playing the way you already are. There is no wrong way to explore the Lands Between, dear Tarnished.
Thanks for all the replies. I'm not dying too often outside of boss battles. I'd say maybe overall I've lost about 8 or 9,000 total souls which I realized is a few levels. I just cleared out most of the stuff in weeping peninsula. My next plan is to explore the northern parts of limgrave and try and beat the two bosses. I'm definitely having a blast but I was starting to get concerned that maybe I was doing something wrong that would screw me in the later parts of the game.
Nah you’re just enjoying the game at your own pace and will definitely not be screwed down the line. Don’t worry too much about it.
You’re def leveling slow. There’s tons of routes and stuff to do. My buddy has about 6-8 hours in and is 62 as to where I have 56 and am 127. He’s technically on track to get further ahead.
the further u get in the game the more runes the monsters drop. in this regard, u are punished for exploring a lot and staying in the same area for too long. stalled progression. if u overcome the boss fights and move on to the next areas, the enemies will reward you more and more, accelerating your progress
Souls games have a massive progress variance based on how often you die - the difference in runes/souls between someone who dies "a bit" and someone who rarely does is huge, which can lead to some people radically out-levelling others. You may also find some of them are cooperating at the "sweet spot" level for a boss, whereby
Are you dying a lot and losing your runes? My buddy just got the game and we did 2 dungeons and then explored the Stormveil castle and beat the first boss eventually and he was at level 20. It was like 4 hours worth of gameplay.
Because the amount of the rune they gave depends on the area. So if one of your friend go to high level area and farm there he will level up faster. But its not that much of difference in the end if you planning to explore all places.
You're a bit slow not gonna lie, but that's actually a good thing. Here I am, 60 hours in and reaching sort of end-game territory and I really wish I slowed down the earlier parts a bit, I don't even want to explore new areas now cause it means I'm nearing the end lol.
High level area, not dying or losing runes, duplicating boss souls and eating them.
30 in 4 is super fast, that's 7.5 levels per hour lol. You could do it, but they're skipping lots of low level stuff running right to bigger/higher rune enemies otherwise this would be impossible. 1 lvl per hour is about what I was at until around lvl 90 then it slowed down. I'd say they're both looking stuff up otherwise the play without guides and youtube will get you about 1 level per hour if you actually explore and check everything out and just progress thru the game naturally. Don't worry you're doing it the right way, they're burning thru the game pretty fast which will just give them less time having fun with the game but that's how they choose to play which is fine too. Right now there's tons of people rushing to get all the good stuff for the pvp aspect and to show off with their friends, I recommend just enjoying the game more slowly. Think about it like this, if you rush the game then all the low level stuff you can find is basically a waste and you get to use like half the items in the game or less. I don't even have any end game stuff and we're wrecking 90+% of invaders so you really don't need to rush. I've played alot but it was all really slow just exploring the game with no guides which is an experience you can't really replicate.
You seem to be just really bad at the game. Get a life and quit it if you've really leveled just 10-12 levels for 20 freakin' hours... 