Sand Blocks

Sand Blocks

• 

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

Projectile 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

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

“

Sand is overpowered.

— A loading screen tip

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 player is submerged in Sand blocks as a result, 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 regular 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.

Any forms of Sand are ammunition for the Sandgun, but they cannot be stored in the ammo slots located next to the main inventory. Sand Blocks have an internal damage value of -1, reducing the Sandgun's effective damage by 1. The biome variants of Sand ammo 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 Sandgun for details.

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

Recipe

Sand Block

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

Ebonsand Block

Result	Ingredients	Crafting station
Ebonsand Block	Hardened Ebonsand Block	Shimmer Transmutation
	Ebonsandstone Block

Crimsand Block

Result	Ingredients	Crafting station
Crimsand Block	Hardened Crimsand Block	Shimmer Transmutation
	Crimsandstone Block

Pearlsand Block

Result	Ingredients	Crafting station
Pearlsand Block	Hardened Pearlsand Block	Shimmer Transmutation
	Pearlsandstone Block

Used in

Sand Block

Result	Ingredients	Crafting station
Sandfall Block	Glass Sand Block	Crystal Ball
Sandstone Brick	Sand Block	Furnace
Yellow Stucco 10	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 Water 10	Bottled Water10 Ebonsand Block Corrupt Seeds	By Hand
only: Unholy Water 5	Bottled Water Ebonsand Block Corrupt Seeds
Sand Block	Ebonsand Block	Chlorophyte Extractinator Conversion

Crimsand Block

Result	Ingredients	Crafting station
Blood Water 10	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 Dropper 3	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.
• Sand is actually found in large quantities. On the surface, this is usually a desert or the beach on the ocean. However, there are also large Sand formations underground. Digging through silted areas can be quite dangerous for the player, since they may get stuck under falling Sand and take damage from Suffocation.
• A player equipped with Dunerider Boots will be able to run faster while standing on any type of Sand Block.

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 ⚒ Use / Attack 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 (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 4 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 Actuation Rod}. Sand forms into a dropped item 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 despawns before falling.
• 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 player will harvest all of it, but they will suffer some minor damage. 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 cannot mine sand.
• With the addition of Shimmer in 1.4.4, it is technically possible to gain infinite Sand by killing the Queen Bee for Bottled Honey and then shimmering the bottles back into sand. Please note that this is an extremely slow method, gaining only 4-14 Sand per kill.
  • Another method is by purchasing Ale from the Tavernkeep and then shimmering ale to Mugs > Glass > Sand blocks. 10000 blocks of Sand will cost 50.
• Antlions shoot Sand Ball projectiles at the player. This can be used to create infinite Sand, provided there are sufficient Sand Blocks to spawn them.

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 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 debuff.
  • The same text appears also as one of the title messages.

See also

• Ice Block, Purple Ice Block, Red Ice Block, and Pink Ice Block, their respective Snow biome counterparts.

History

 PC 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, they can be swapped out from any position like other blocks.

• 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.