Sand Blocks

Sand Blocks

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Statistics

Type	BlockAmmunitionCrafting material
Placeable	✔️ (1 wide × 1 high)
Use time	15 (Very fast)
Rarity	00*
Research	100 required

Inflicts Debuff

Debuff	Suffocation
Debuff tooltip	Losing life
Duration	Until the player gets out from under the Sand Blocks

Projectiles created

• Sand Ball
  
• Ebonsand Ball
  
• Crimsand Ball
  
• Pearlsand Ball
  

• Internal Item ID: 169, 370, 408, 1246
• Internal Tile ID: 53, 112, 116, 234
• Internal Buff ID: 68
• Internal Projectile ID: 31, 56, 241, 67

“

Sand is overpowered.

— A loading screen tip

Not to be confused with Sandstone Block or Hardened Sand Block (both of which also have Corruption, Crimson, and Hallowed variants).

Sand Blocks are soil blocks found in vast quantities in Desert biomes, at shore and bottom of Ocean biomes, and can be found as microbiomes in patches in the Underground layer. They are also shot as projectiles by Antlions. Sand can spread and be converted by the evil biomes and The Hallow (see below).

Sand is subject to gravity, a unique quality only shared by Slush, Silt, Shell Piles, Cracked Dungeon Bricks, and Ash on For the worthy and Get fixed boi worlds. Sand Blocks will deal damage to any player or enemy they fall on. If the amount of Sand falling on the player is significant, the Suffocation debuff will be inflicted until the player manages to escape. Sand is used to craft a small number of building blocks and other items directly, but it is also the raw material for Glass, which is used for a full furniture set and a variety of other items.

The Sand, Ebonsand, and Pearlsand particles that emit subtly when the respective blocks walked or landed on.

Ebonsand, Crimsand, and Pearlsand are biome variants of Sand Blocks, corresponding to the Corruption, Crimson, and Hallow, respectively. They will replace ordinary Sand in their respective biomes, wherever they overlap with a Desert or Ocean biome. Like any other Corrupt, Crimson, or Hallowed block, after Hardmode begins, they will convert susceptible blocks (including regular Sand) that are up to three tiles away into their respective variants. These Sand variants are functionally identical to regular Sand, but each variant can be used to craft a few biome-related items. They can be transformed back to normal Sand using Thrown Powder or Water, or the Clentaminator with Green Solution. Falling Sand Blocks cannot be converted.

All forms of Sand are also ammunition for the Sandgun, but they cannot be stored in the ammo slots of the inventory. Similar to the Sand Ball projectiles shot by Antlions, shot Sand Blocks will be placed on the ground as blocks if there are space available.

Types

Item		Placed	Tile ID
	Sand Block Internal Item ID: 169		53
	Ebonsand Block Internal Item ID: 370		112
	Pearlsand Block Internal Item ID: 408		116
	Crimsand Block Internal Item ID: 1246		234

Crafting

Recipes

Result	Ingredients	Crafting station
Sand Block	Ebonsand Block	Chlorophyte Extractinator Conversion
	Crimsand Block
	Pearlsand Block
	Hardened Sand Block	Shimmer Transmutation
	Sandstone Block

Used in

Sand Block

Result	Ingredients	Crafting station
Sandfall Block	Glass Sand Block	Crystal Ball
Sandstone Brick	Sand Block	Furnace
Yellow Stucco10	Silt Block Sand Block10
Sandstone Slab	Sand Block	Heavy Work Bench
only: Hardened Sand Block	Sand Block Dirt Block	Solidifier
only: Sandstone Block	Sand Block Stone Block

Ebonsand Block

Result	Ingredients	Crafting station
only: Unholy Water10	Bottled Water10 Ebonsand Block Corrupt Seeds	By Hand
only: Unholy Water5	Bottled Water Ebonsand Block Corrupt Seeds
Sand Block	Ebonsand Block	Chlorophyte Extractinator Conversion

Crimsand Block

Result	Ingredients	Crafting station
Blood Water10	Bottled Water10 Crimsand Block Crimson Seeds	By Hand
Sand Block	Crimsand Block	Chlorophyte Extractinator Conversion

Pearlsand Block

Result	Ingredients	Crafting station
Sand Block	Pearlsand Block	Chlorophyte Extractinator Conversion
only: Pearlstone Brick	Pearlsand Block Pearlstone Block	Furnace

Any Sand

Result	Ingredients	Crafting station
Magic Sand Dropper3	Empty Dropper3 Any Sand	Crystal Ball
Glass	Any Sand2	Furnace

Notes

• Sand and other blocks affected by gravity can only be Block Swapped when using a pickaxe or drill with at least 110% pickaxe power, e.g. the Cobalt Pickaxe. With weaker pickaxes, only the topmost block of a Sand column can be Block Swapped with a non-falling block. All pickaxes and drills can Block Swap Sand with other gravity-affected blocks.
• A player equipped with Dunerider Boots will be able to run faster while standing on any type of Sand Block.
• Sand Blocks (and other gravity-affected tiles) that cannot turn into tiles after falling down will drop as items.

Tips

• Due to its mechanics, and the fact that it is usually found in large quantities, Sand is especially easy to harvest. Mining any Sand Block supporting additional Sand Blocks will cause an entire stack of Sand Blocks to fall onto the surface below it. As a result, the player can simply hold down ⚒ Use / Attack at a single point to harvest a column of Sand.
  • The player can simply place down torches below the Sand column or actuate the bottom row of the Sand column to collect Sand Blocks quickly. Note that due to falling Sand Blocks are considered projectiles, and only 1000 projectiles can exist at a time, falling Sand Blocks that exceed this limit will despawn.
• Sand can be used to create traps for both enemies and players. Sand Blocks can be placed over a Cobweb, and they will fall when the Cobweb is destroyed. This can be done with other environmental objects Besides Cobwebs, many other objects can also support Sand Blocks, like the top of trees or items like Torches.
• Like any gravity-affected blocks, Sand Blocks are useful in the creation of safe mining shafts. While digging downward, they can be used to create protective walls lining a cave before actually entering. They can also be used to build walls in lava, which can be useful when building a hellevator.
• By using the Sandgun with any ammo conservation bonuses (from armor, the Ammo Reservation Potion, and/or the Ammo Box, etc.), the player can "farm" Sand Blocks by shooting more sand than the gun uses. See the Sandgun's page for more details.
• If a player has surplus sand (including biome variants), it can be monetized via Glass, either as Ale (1 per 1000 Sand), or as Glass Candelabras (3 for 1000 Sand and 300 Torches, or buy the Torches from the Merchant, reducing the profit to 150). Glass also helps to monetize most gems as Stained Glass: Each 10 Sand (as 5 Glass) and a gem make 1 worth of Stained Glass. See Guide:Making money for full details and other options.
• The player can easily harvest large piles of Sand with Digging Molecart by placing a Minecart Track, mounting it, then digging the Sand Block next to it and going in this direction at the same time. It will place a track before the sand falls, and the Sand Blocks will drop as items, but the player will suffer some minor damage. Due to the fact that the Digging Molecart cannot mine gravity-affected blocks, the player have to manually remove solid blocks that are preventing Sand Blocks to fall within the 5 tiles next to the Digging Molecart.
• If the player finds The Aether and Tavernkeep, an artificial Desert can be created by purchasing Ale and de-crafting them into Sand Blocks. This method can be useful in Get fixed boi worlds.

Trivia

• Crimsand is the only variant of the Sand Block in which it displays ragged edges in its inventory sprite, and the only one whose placed sprite is not a recolor of the original Sand Block's sprite.
• There is a joke in the loading screen saying that "sand is overpowered", because it is usually despised for its gravity effect and kills with its suffocation effect.
  • The same text appears also as one of the title messages.

History

 Desktop version

• Desktop 1.4.1:
  • Fixed Crimsand not making particles when stepping on it.
  • Gravity-affected blocks can now be swapped out from the topmost tile downwards. At high enough tiers of pickaxe (110% pickaxe power or more), they can be swapped out from any position like other blocks.

• Desktop 1.4.0.1: Dropped sand and other falling tiles that cannot land as tiles will now turn into items to pick up.

• Desktop 1.3.3.2: Patches of Sand significantly below ground no longer cause the Desert's heat distortion effect.

• Desktop 1.3.1: Pearlsand inventory sprite updated.

• Desktop 1.2.4.1: Crimsand Blocks can now be crafted into Glass.

• Desktop 1.2.3:
  • Fixed bug where falling Sand Blocks did not unslope tiles.
  • Crimsand is now able to be correctly fired from the Sandgun.

• Desktop 1.2:
  • Crimsand introduced.
  • Stack limit for all sand variants was raised from 250 to 999.

• Desktop 1.1: Ebonsand and Pearlsand introduced.

• Desktop 1.0.5:
  • Falling Sand clumps are no longer carried by the Flamelash and Magic Missile's projectiles.
  • Tweaked the way sand is created during world gen.

• Desktop 1.0.2:
  • Sand duplicating bug fixed.
  • Sand no longer spawns within a certain distance of the spawn location. This will no longer cause the player to spawn in a Desert without Wood to use.

• Desktop 1.0.1: Sand directly under a chest no longer falls due to gravity.

• Desktop-Release: Introduced.

 Console version

• Console-Release: Introduced.

 Nintendo Switch version

• Switch 1.0.711.6: Introduced.

 Mobile version

• Mobile-Release: Introduced.

Nintendo 3DS version

• 3DS-Release: Introduced.