I’m 31M and the rest of my 4-5 friends are similar in age (29-32). As I’m mentally geared towards getting back into dating/seduction for the first time in 5 years (thanks 2ish years of Covid lockdown), I’m realizing that my friend group either is in committed LTR that aren’t at liberty to pick up women with me or socially atrophied recluses that don’t like to go out anymore. Some friends have also moved out of state.

Knowing the above, I am not opposed to doing solo cold approaches since it looks like all I have for now is myself. But it’s much easier to progress the social barriers into comfort building with women when I have at least one buddy bc I can spend less time not having to qualify that I’m not a solo sociopathic weirdo. We know that women are less likely to go anywhere solo and when they are they’re more defensive/guarded. My last good prospect in current social, single male friends with game is 29, but our schedules don’t always line up and he isn’t always in my city. I like having 1 friend to have as a social safety net to adjust paces between opening sets to look like I’m just hanging out with a buddy; I feel like when I’m solo, even with my best body language, feel rushed to look like I’m engaged in something other than my phone or do something to look “natural”. I feel like women know when you’re attached to a certain outcome of closing/seducing, and it seems easier to conceal it as light-hearted, playful fun with a wingman. I’ve even inserted myself temporarily to random groups to look social. But if you enter alone and approach every set alone I think it potentially comes off as desperate and attached to closing without the social buffer of a wingman. I can take rejection on the chin, but I find it almost a pointless lost cause most approaches to work towards comfort and DHV that a wingperson helps with.

Any tips/strategies for successfully approaching women as a solo guy without looking too much like a loaner?

TLDR; male in 30s with dwindling friend group to sarge the field with, trying to figure how realistic it is to do alone most effectively without looking like a loaner due to a wingman shortage in my life?