Salem

I was starting a fire with a Tender Drill and ran out of phlegm. I had 0.1 left and needed 0.2 for the tick. When that happened, the tender drill broke and my blood went from 2.2 to 0.0 and I KO'ed.

Not sure if this is an intended mechanic, but I've never noticed blood loss when starting or failing to start a fire.

Yup, it happens. Not really a bug because its been this way forever.

I'll definitely confirm it happens and is completely intended. I ran across it myself after a reset and I'd been out hunting and had bad luck and broke a tinder drill. (It was discussed briefly.) Odds are you run out of phlegm first and need to eat to replenish, so this shouldn't happen often, if at all. I had been out hunting and was low on blood and didn't want to waste the food early on for just a couple points of phlegm and tried to light a fire to cook with.

once you get enough silver or a smelter up get some flint & steels. They're much better than KO'in tinder drills.

Or just run a stove and use it to light torches.