Quick diagnosis
Free beds by themselves are not a listed recruitment source. First separate a stalled recruitment event from a camp that has no useful vacancy: the developer FAQ says events can trigger immigration, and Drifters found at sea join the island when they are returned. For the established recruitment guide, see How to Get More Drifters.
Players have reported long stretches without Drifter pop-ups or enough arrivals to expand after release. Treat that as a symptom to investigate, not as proof of a population rule or a guaranteed bug.
Check whether recruitment actually happened
Review the completed event or return from sea before changing the settlement. Confirm that its result actually added Drifters, then check whether there is an open bed and a job worth filling. If neither event outcome nor returned Drifter changed the population, continue with the local camp checks instead of assuming housing should create arrivals.
Run these checks in order
- Count visible free beds and open jobs before building anything else.
- Confirm whether a recent event triggered immigration or whether a Drifter found at sea was returned to the island.
- If the available pool is exhausted, pause nonessential construction or production to release Drifters for other jobs.
- Check that the destination camp, rather than another camp, owns the bed and the job you expect to fill.
- Trace camp access and confirm the destination's food and drink situation before asking it to support another resident.
- Make one recovery change, observe the result, and only then make the next change.
Beds and jobs must belong to the destination camp
Use the destination camp as the unit of diagnosis. A spare bed elsewhere is not the same check as a spare bed at the camp with the open job. Likewise, a job that cannot be reached from the intended camp is not a useful test of whether that camp is ready.
When the problem is supply or access
After capacity and recruitment state are clear, inspect the destination camp's access and its local food and drink. Do this as a readiness check: it prevents several changes from being mixed together and makes it easier to identify the one that restores a usable vacancy.
Common mistakes
- Treating free housing alone as a recruitment source.
- Changing beds, jobs, supplies, and routes at the same time.
- Leaving every construction and production job active when the available Drifter pool is exhausted.
- Treating player reports of missing pop-ups as a proven mechanic or a universal fault.
What success looks like
You can point to a completed recruitment result or a returned Drifter, and the destination camp has a visible bed and useful reachable work. If it still does not improve, reverse the last change if needed and test one local readiness check at a time.