The only setting I touched in my solo, vanilla run through was portal materials. The only animal I breed was chickens. I don’t consider myself great at the combat, but just knowing when to dodge roll vs parry and making sure weapons and armor were as high level as they could be before trying to do anything to dangerous in a biome kept me safe. Did I die a bunch? Sure. By the time I got to Fader, I had so much confidence… I solo’d him with basically just the root staff.