I spend my blood echos on upgrading my favorite weapon, hp, and stamina. Tis how i spent mine.

spreading the attributes out just seems to make you weaker imo.

I'm not sure what you mean. But clicking the right side of the touchpad will bring up additional slots, you can assign items that you don't use often for a quick access. Edit: on PS4, not sure what does that on XOne or PC.

Edit2: You are aware of the ability to assign items to the main slots, right?

forget about leveling up at first, because you have to face the first boss to do that, once you face him, even if you die, then you can start leveling up. however, you can collect blood echos and level up your weapon without facing the first boss, so i advice you to start doing that.

try not to spam the O button when dodging, as it drains your stamina, a nicely timed single dodge would be enough against small enemies. then youd have enough stamina to actually hit them

use heavy/high power weapons at first. atleast thats what i did. later on i started using smaller and fast weapons.

if you find yourself in need to level up. dont grind around. play the chalice dungeons.

have fun... gosh i find myself missing this game!

you dont need to use the menu. you can throw them directly with the square button. when you press start there are like 6 or 7 (forgot the exact number) of boxes, you can press on them and place what ever you want in them. pebble, moltove, throwing knife. and you can alternate between them with the down button. 

If you are not aware of this. the last line of slots is your main slots where you can assign items for a active use as banana said. I thought you were aware of this. The touchpad is used for additional slots.

Why can't I get into this gmlame? I loved Demon souls, darks souls and dark souls 2, I even imported demon souls a year before it released to the west from Japan.
For some reason Bloodbourne isn't grabbing me like they did. I'm going to try it again later this week, but I just can't get into it.

Asign itens to the last line of your inventory, you can cycle trough them with the directional buttons and you use square to use the itens.

unlearn everything you've learned from souls, it wont help you in bloodborne.

The only tip I can give aside from what everyone else has already said is that you should never hesitate to attack. I found myself dying 80% of the time when I unconciously chose to roll away and the enemy responded to such weak defense. The first boss - the one that has to be beaten in order to progress the game - particulary punish this behaviour, so you gotta learn fast.

If you want to make your life easier, once you've made it to the first boss and encountered him (don't have to beat him), you can get an item from the Hunter's dream called the Beckoning Bell. Ring this bell in game to have other people join you, especially right before bosses. There is also another item you can buy in the Hunter's dream called the Small Resonant Bell that allows you to join other people's game, but keep in mind that if you join others your own story won't progress, so it's better to call others into your world. The game becomes significantly easier (and more fun imo) with several people. Me and my friend co-oped through the entire game in the past week basically just taking turns and joining each other.

Also get the Hunter Axe as your beginning weapon and use the charged R2 attack. Spin2Win. That one beginning weapon got me through the entire game start to finish even though I had access to some pretty top tier stuff like Ludwig's Holy Blade. Also, if you have access to the DLC area, you should run in there and get the Whirligig (it's around the starting area) as soon as possible even though you won't be able to beat any of the enemies at low level (watch a guide). It is the best PVE weapon in the game and will make your life a lot easier.