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Thanks!
I soloed the first 7days in game before my friend arrived (several more en route) and found it very solo friendly once I got fences and gates up I could slowly build up a small town in a more casual time scale
I would however recommend making a small 3fencex 3 fence with gate to craft eat and store goods - this will make a easy base camp to spread out and work on your town in a more casual manner while you can craft and eat and afk inside the fenced in area while not looking over your shoulder for aggressive animals once the entire place is terraformed and fenced in (or not player discretion) you can simply remove the inner parts of the fence (or not) and move around your settlement easily