Block of the Week: Sand

Nowadays sand spawns naturally in four-block-deep layers in various parts of most biomes of the Overworld. You'll find it everywhere from forests, to plains, to tundra and swamps. In Mesa biomes, you'll find a variant of sand that's red and acts exactly like regular sand except that you can't use it to make concrete. Actually, that sounds like a bug. Maybe we should fix that.

As you've probably noticed if you've played Minecraft for more than a few minutes, sand is unlike most other blocks because it's affected by gravity. If you plop down a block of sand and mine the block out underneath it, then it'll fall into the gap. This, you'll no doubt agree, is kind of a pain when mining.

But it has useful side effects. If a block of sand falls on a player or a mob, it'll suffocate them until they dig their way out or die, making it pretty handy for a basic trap setup. Just hook up a pressure plate or tripwire to an array of pistons holding back columns of sand. Those pesky intruders won't know what hit them.

Falling sand can also be fired out of a TNT cannon, which is handy if you want to blanket a friend's base with sand after you fell victim to their entryway sand trap. Explode some TNT in water with a falling block of sand above it to fire that sand long distances in whatever direction you choose. There's a full guide to building a TNT cannon over on the Minecraft wiki.

Occasionally, you'll find sand that's been imbued with mystical power during world generation and is levitating in the air as a result. You'll recognise them because little dust particles are falling from the bottom. But be careful around these magical floating sand areas - if you place or break blocks near them, I can't be held responsible for what happens...