The game is incredibly dull when I play Cypher System solo and go soft on the characters. And by 'soft' I mean my GM Intrusions have no consequences, the challenges have no chance of horrible consequences or crushing failure, and there is no such thing as the chance of dying or failing and terrible things happening. The whole game is this soft 'la de da' experience where nothing matters.
Things get amazing when I go hard, make GM intrusions serious business, and create real and threatening enemies in front of the characters. Does a character just take the damage and not spend the effort to avoid it? Trip a GM intrusion on the successful hit, knock the character off the top of the speeding truck, tangle their feet, drag them deep underwater, knock their weapon out of their hands, and make the consequences of taking the hit really hurt.
If they want to avoid it, spend the XP to avoid getting hit and something worse.
Or they can take the XP and layer on that extra difficulty level.
There is always a price to pay.
This also keeps players from complaining: why should I spend effort and "take damage" to "avoid damage" - getting hit should be worse and bring potential further consequences.
Hard Cypher is ten times more fun than Soft Cypher. Never sit there as a fanboy or fan girl of the characters and make things happen how you feel they should. No way. As a solo GM, your job is to throw as many obstacles and problems in front of your adventurers as possible, layer on problems and consequences, and go hard on them.
Make them burn those pools and spend those XP.
If they take XP from GM Intrusions, make them earn them the hard way.
The closer they are to achieving the session goal, the harder you must press down. The alternative is boredom, a danger of a rules-light game. You will fall into that soft, fluffy layer of 'nothing matters' and 'what is going on?' With a rules-heavy game like GURPS, there is always a chance a goblin will randomly put an arrow through your character's eye. With a rules-light game, there is zero chance of that happening since why would I do that to myself? I still play GURPS for that level of challenge, but there is no reason you can't go that hard with a GM Intrusion in Cypher System - especially in a dark fantasy genre game.
Use GM Intrusions to push their goal farther away, make the odds turn against them, introduce a dangerous threat in combat, make random NPCs or guards find the stealthy player, set off a trap, activate an unknown extraordinary enemy power, send in reinforcements, make the character's vehicle crash, and turn up the heat for the entire situation. Introduce a new long-term story complication, ruin their reputation, toss them in jail, give them an injury that won't heal quickly, turn a faction against them, break equipment, destroy vehicles and bases, kill NPCs, and make life difficult.
Do not worry about the players! They have Player Intrusions to negate and mitigate all this. Are the players stuck in jail? The authorities found the 'real' culprit and let them go. The injury? A quick trip to a healer or clinic makes the injury heal quickly and not be a hindrance. They can repair their car. The faction approaches them with an offer to return to good graces.
Make them spend the XP.
This is why you are giving them XP in the first place.
In this system, players 'win' by taking XP from GM Intrusions, dealing with those situations with smarts and skill, and not spending XP to negate them. They take the hard road, walk it, use their powers and skills to get through the weeds, and come out battered and bruised. But they bank those points and lick their wounds - saving their XP for a terrible day. This is the pool game, where ability pools are short-term, and XP pools are medium-term. Spending and replenishing those are the fun of the game.
Turning up the heat in situations and encounters makes Hard Cypher fun.
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