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, and can be found as microbiomes in patches in the Underground layer. 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, and  Shell Piles. 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. As a result of this feature Sand, and other blocks affected by gravity, cannot be Block Swapped. 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. Purification with the Clentaminator is not possible for falling sand blocks.

All forms of sand are also ammunition for the Sandgun, but they cannot 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.
 * The regular Sand Block, when falling, will land on platforms; all other falling blocks, including Ebonsand and Crimsand, ignore platforms and only land on solid blocks.
 * 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.
 * Harvesting large quantities of sand is very easy with The Grand Design, actuators and an actuator rod. Sand Itemizes when landing in a space with a torch or actuated block. Simply lay down a line of actuators and trigger them with the rod. When triggered with a lever or switch only 1000 blocks will remain able to be retrieved, the rest de-spawns before falling.
 * The player can easily harvest large pile of sand with Digging Molecart by placing a Minecart Track, mounting it then dig 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 player will harvest all of it but they will suffer some minor damages. Note that it will not work if there is a solid block and a sand block above it within the 5 blocks next to the Minecart, due to the fact that the Molecart can't mine sand.

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 Blocs de sable 모래 블록 Пески 沙块