Sand Blocks

Sand Blocks are soil blocks found in vast quantities in Desert biomes and also forming the shore and bottom of Ocean biomes. Sand in these areas often extend far Underground. 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 and Silt. 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.

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.

All forms of sand are also ammunition for the Sandgun, and can therefore be stored in the ammo slots located next to the main inventory. Sand Blocks have a default damage value of -1, reducing the Sandgun's actual damage by 1. The biome variants also pierce enemies. Sand is similarly shot as Sand Ball projectiles by Antlions. Use of ammo-reduction buffs with the Sandgun allows easily "farming" sand; see the Sandgun page for details.

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 the surface below it. As a result, the player can simply hold down at a single point to harvest a column of Sand.
 * Sand can be used to create traps for both enemies and players. Sand Blocks can be placed over a Cobweb and when the web is destroyed, the blocks will fall. This can be done with other environmental objects besides Cobwebs, like the top of trees or items like Torches.
 * Sand is useful in the creation of safe mining shafts. While digging downward, it can be used to create protective walls lining a cave before actually entering.
 * As noted above, by using the Sandgun with any ammo conservation buffs (from armor, the Ammo Reservation Potion, and/or the Ammo Box), 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 ( per 1000 Sand), or as Glass Candelabras ( for 1000 Sand and 300 Torches, or buy the Torches from the Merchant, reducing the profit to ). Glass also helps to monetize most gems as Stained Glass: Each 10 Sand (as 5 Glass) and a gem make worth of Stained Glass. See Guide:Making money for full details and other options.

Trivia

 * Crimsand is the only variant of Sand Block in which it displays ragged edges in its inventory sprite, and the only one whose placed texture 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
Sandblöcke 모래 블록 Bloc de sable Песок