I am currently level 144 and have only been solo. I have not even gotten outside of the Hagga Basin other than the towns to finish quests. Let me preface this with I am having an absolute blast. While this articles does shed on some light on some casual players not reaching endgame, there is far too much to do to be concerned about that as a solo. If you continue to love the game you will find a guild anyway. The article also mentions that it takes a lot of water to craft the final thopter you can craft. Keep in mind this is the third tier of ornithopter. You will be flying much sooner than that. Let me also say that I have not even built an ornithopter yet because I didn't feel it was needed at my point in gameplay. I can get around it the buggy/bike just fine. I am now at a point where I've unlocked my third ability and most of the time don't even use my bike at all. All three of my abilities are movement skills which allow me to traverse the map both vertically and horizontally very quickly. End game does not need to be right now. The thing I love about this game that so many games lack these days is that it actually takes time to get somewhere and is fun while getting there instead of fin🍸ishing it within a couple hours. All in all I wou༒ld say if a dedicated solo would want to they could reach in game within a couple weeks. But there's so much more to happen and it never needs to be rushed.