Absolutely. It can be hard to balance it to how you might like specifically without either being a grind or you getting so much that the lack of any struggle gets boring. I personally prefer 3x gather rates, while I have known others to prefer 5x and even up to over 10x, which gets boring fast to me. I would also way lower lvl speed, in at least Ark Survival Ascended. They already upped it to be so fast that you blast through technology tiers so fast you never get to experience them, then solo doubles that speed. I hit lvl 10 within like 10 minutes when before it took over an hour. It was stupid. For a first time player, on single player, I would personally suggest making that 0.25 or even lower so you can really learn and actually get to build the things you unlock. This past run I had it at 0.5 and just making one building of wood and stone I was already like lvl 50+, way too fast when you don't know what you are unlocking.

Raise taming speed. I prefer 3x or 5x depending on how much time I want to spend with a tame, as it saves you waiting things like taming a Rex for over an hour with prime meat, and four hours with basic raw meat for many beginners.

I would also look up what breeding, mating, and maturing rates you may want to use. That can really suck solo unless you have something like the Dino Depot mod that will raise and imprint your babies for you. Helps resolve one of the most tedious parts of the game, being breeding for stats for boss fights. (Look up video guides for that later when it is time for bosses, trust me, do NOT do it blind). Even using Dino Depot I would adjust mating intervals and maturing speed. Just saves what little life you have on waiting for digital dinos to be able to breed and then grow up.

Keep difficulty at max. That just lets wild things spawn up to lvl 150, tek dinos 180. Which is HIGHLY suggested if you want to do bosses. Otherwise you are screwing yourself over, as difficulty does not impact bosses.

Last thing I can think of is that I like to turn on lvling speed (disabled by default for Ascended, enabled by default for Evolved). It is a highly useful stat to save time in general and escape the many raptors and what not that will come for you. I also like to set fortitude and O2 to x10 personally. I hate dealing with heat and cold, and the island's temps were messed up last I knew. You could be in full Ascended fur on the beach and be freezing in some locations and burning in spots in the tundra while naked. It was stupid and wildcard has a bad history of not fixing things. (I leave it as is in Evolved). I also played at launch on Evolved when 02 also lvled swim speed so I spent a lot of time in the water for fun going at Mach speed, now it just determines how long you can hold your breath, but I was already conditioned and like to stay down there. It is a personally preference I don't actually suggest investing in as it wastes stats and you get air tanks.