Sand Blocks

Sand Blocks are special soils that are subject to gravity. They deal damage to any player or mob they fall on.

Location
Sand is usually found in vast quantities. On the surface, it is commonly found in the form of a Desert. There are large areas of underground sand as well. Digging through sandy areas can be tedious and potentially dangerous, due to its physics.

Harvesting
Because of its mechanics, and the fact that it is usually found en masse, sand is especially easy to harvest. Mining the bottom block will cause an entire stack of Sand Blocks to fall onto the the surface below it. As a result, player can simply hold down their mouse button and the sand will practicaly mine itself.

Uses
The ease with which Sand Blocks are harvested makes them prime candidates for making money.

Because of its unique gravity conforming mechanics, sand can be used to create Traps, for both Monsters and Players. Sand Blocks can be placed over a Cobweb and when the cobweb is destroyed, it releases the Sand Blocks. This can have many useful and fun effects such as crushing traps, or pitfalls. This can be done with other environmental objects besides Cobwebs, like the top of trees or items like torches.

Sand is also useful in the creation of mining shafts. While digging downward, sand can be used to create walls in caverns without ever actually entering the cavern.

Sand is effective at drying out oceans and flooded caves. To do so, place a tall stack of sand in the water and mine it from the bottom. Each time a Sand Block falls, it will replace a block of water.

Sand is also used as Ammunition for the Sandgun with its default damage value of -1, reducing the Sandgun's implied damage by 1. Because of this, sand can be stored in the inventory's ammo slots, to conserve inventory space.

History
Bloc de sable