Drifters can now contract specific diseases when their pollution levels max out, such as: Spongehead: Causes drifters to drink twice as much water. Musselmouths: Causes drifters to eat twice as much food.

Having the Doctor allows you to build and operate: Apothecary: Used to craft Medicine from mushrooms. Med Pod: A station where diseased drifters are treated.

This version replaced procedural generation with a large, handmade "West to East" map to test world-building progression. Important Note on Versioning

This major patch introduced the game's first —unique drifters who unlock specific gameplay mechanics.

Found using the Radio construction, this specialist is required to unlock medical research.

0.7.0 The Doctor is OUT NOW! · Flotsam update for ... - SteamDB

While this update was revolutionary for its time, later patches (such as the ) temporarily removed food pollution, making the Doctor's primary role less essential until later reappearance in the development cycle. The game has since reached its Full 1.0 Release as of December 4, 2025.