Another one, this time for a no bonfire run: Don't light the bonfires in Things Betwixt or Majula. You can light any other bonfire except those. By missing out those two bonfires, you make it so you return to your starting point in Things Betwixt whenever you use a homeward bone, meaning you don't have to run all the way back from Undead Crypt through the Shrine of Amana, and back through Drangleic Castle after killing Velstadt.