I think that we need some medical survival aspects to flesh out the experience a bit. We see lots of items that have very limited uses but could have lots of medical applications.
Here's some things to consider for ailments and progression/cures.
WET: Going into water will make your character get wet. Slows you down when out of water until you dry. Leads to common cold if you get wet for extended periods at night or don't dry in time. Staying in sunlight dries you faster, staying next to a lit spit dries you fastest.
COMMON COLD: The cold will slow you down and occasionally make you sneeze. Dehydrates you 15% faster and drinks fill your water meter 10% less. Gles away after a while but can be cured by drinking flower tea, crafted on the spit using flower petals, aphid honeydew and water from a canteen.
BLEEDOUT: Getting struck by a larger enemy can cause your character to slowly bleed out and lose health over time. Sap makes the bleeding stop for an in game hour, cures after 4 in game hours or when using a fiber bandage.
FATIGUE: Exhausting the stamina meter will lead to fatigue. Each time the stamina meter is exhausted, the player's maximum stamina is decreased by 1%. After 50% max stamina loss the player will start to slow down, attacks are slower and blocking is less effective. After 95% max stamina loss, the player has a random chance to fall asleep on the spot, risking being attacked. Cures are sleeping (restores fully) and sitting down (restores 20% per minute up to a max of 80%). Crafting grub goo coffee prevents any max stamina loss and gives +20% max stamina for 4 in game hours (grub goo, pollen, boiling gland)
DEEP GASHES: The largest insects may have a chance to inflict deep gashes if you have sustained damage repeatedly in a short time. The only cure is a thorn stitching (thorn, sap, spider silk) which will close the wounds. Having a deep gash will also inflict bleedout occasionally, and additionally cut max health in half whilst active. A new mutation can be introduced to prevent gashes and bleedout.
FRACTURE: Large creatures can fracture your bones when attacks are not perfectly blocked, or from a large fall. Fractures can only be healed by rest after applying a berry cast (berry leather, crude rope, bug rubber) and staying out of stamina-draining activities for 8 ingame hours. Fractures slow movement and exhausting stamina drains health by 7% to a min of 25%. The UNCRACKABLE buff prevents fracturing of bones.
VENOM: The wolf spider's venom could be less damaging but now lasts until it is waited out or cured. Venom slows stamina regeneration, slows down the player, and drains health by 1% every 20 seconds. It can be cured using spider antivenom (1 spider fang, 1 raw aphid meat, 2 sap) which reduces the wait time from 12 in game hours to 1 in game hour.
FOOD POISONING: Eating raw or rotten meat, drinking dirty water can lead to food poisoning. Stamina recovers slower, and all physical activities cosr 30% more stamina. Eating more food whilst having food poisoning is only 20% as effective. Cured by waiting it out for 1 ingame day. Drinking insect tea (plant fiber, aphid honeydew, spider parts) reduces wait time to 1 ingane hour.
IMPALED: The infected mite projectiles can impale you 5% of the time, which bypasses all armor protection bonuses. Whilst impaled, the player's armor bonuses are negated and max health drains to 50%. Sprinting and other stamina draining activities also hurt whilst impaled. To cure impalement you need to pull it out manually whilst having a fiber bandage handy to stop the bleedout. This will hurt you but you can optionally visit BURG.L and he can remove it with no drawbacks, costing 10 raw science. You can also impale bugs too, using spears and arrows, slowing down their attacks and causing most to flee, bar spiders and ladybugs.
PHEREMONES: Getting hit by a worker or soldier ant can leave a pheremone trail on you. Whilst this is active, ants will continually try to hunt you and all ants including workers attack on sight. HUMANT prevents this and going into water removes the pheremones if you have them. Using ant lotion (ant parts, grub goo, sap) will prevent you from getting pheremones for 1 in game day.
STINKY: Getting gassed by a stinkbug leaves its smell on you, attracting more stinkbugs. Whilst active, stinkbugs will actively hunt you and spawn more frequently, and smaller bugs will run away long before you see them. To remove the stink, you need to use berry mint soap (berry chunk, nectar, mint chunk) or stay in water for 3 in game hours to wash it out. Goes away on its own after 1 in game day. FRESH DEFENSE can prevent you from getting stinky.
FUNGAL GROWTHS: Getting hit by infected creatures can leave spores on you that slowly grow into deadly fungus. At stage 1, nothing happens and spores can be washed off in water. At stage 2 the fungus takes root in your skin, draining your food and water meters 2 times faster and slowing stamina regeneration. You can wash this off with berry mint soap. At stage 3 the fungus is now in your flesh and bloodstream, sapping your health. At its final stage the fungus has eaten away at your flesh until only the skeleton remains. Cures for stage 3 and beyond can only be found from BURG.L where he literally zaps it out of you.