New to 3D Printing! Ender 3 - Under Extrusion Halfway Through Build??? PLA

Hello there guys! This is my first post and I am still fairly new to 3D printing in general. I have done a ton of research and watched numerous videos on the Ender 3 setup, operation, and cleaning. I've had a few successful prints after my initial setup including the benchmark dog that's included on the micro sD card with the Ender 3. I've calibrated my Z steps to make sure that the proper amount of filament is being fed through the extruder when it's being told to do so, made sure that the bed is level every print, and clean the nozzle with the included brush before I warm up the extruder.

Here are a few pics of my successful chess piece Pawn that I've printed and a couple examples of the not so successful prints as well. This is with the .4mm nozzle @ 205/55 1.75mm PLA

Attachment 15885 Attachment 15887

So with the pieces above, the Pawn on the right made it through the print no problem, no underextrusion during the detailing at all, printing PLA @ 205 & 55 bed temp. Pawn on the left you can see the under extrusion toward the top of the spiral just before the platform was being made for the ball on the top. The far right pic is an upclose of the underextruded piece where you can also see the shifting.
Attachment 15886
This piece above is a typical print is I leave the settings as they are and walk away from the print, after the base is made and it starts to work on the spirals you can hear the extruder skipping steps nonstop and I'm running the same temps for nozzle and bed. 205/55. I've tried to slowly increase the temp from there to see if I can keep the base of the spirals in one piece and sometimes it helps a little but will end up failing at some point before it reaches the platform for the top.

I'd really like to get this thing up and running so that I can set a 5 hour print walk away and not worry about coming back to a pile of molten plastic, any help or recommendations is definitely appreciated!!!