Red Sand

Red sand is a variant of sand found exclusively in badlands biomes. It can be used in place of sand in many crafting recipes, with the exception of concrete powder.

The suitable tool to break red sand is shovel.

Red sand drops itself when it's destroyed.

Red sand generates naturally below Y≈74 in badlands biomes and variants, always in a single layer. Unlike sand, there is no red sandstone that supports it below. It also generates in abandoned camps. ​^{[upcoming: Third Drop 2026]}

An enderman holding a red sand block drops the block upon death.

In Bedrock Edition, wandering traders have a chance of 8.5% (increased by 1% per level of Looting) to drop 4 red sand when killed while showing the item as trade offer, if the player holds an emerald.

Wandering traders may sell 4 red sand for 1 emerald. This is the only renewable method of obtaining red sand. Due to its low spawning rate and limited number of trades per spawn, it is more practical to obtain it through other means.

Villager		Probability		Villager wants	Player receives	Trades in stock	Villager experience	Price multiplier
		JE	BE
Wandering Trader	Ordinary	7%	7%	Emerald	4 × Red Sand	6	—	—

If the supporting block below a block of red sand is removed, it falls until it lands on the next available block. More specifically, the red sand block turns into a "falling block" entity, which is affected by gravity; when the falling block lands on a block with a solid top surface, it becomes a block again. More information about the falling block entity is available in the main article listed above.

If falling red sand lands and covers the head of a mob or the player, the mob or player buried in it continuously receives suffocation damage. If falling red sand lands in the space occupied by a non-solid block (such as torch, rail, or redstone dust) or a block less than a full block tall (such as slab or soul sand^[1]), the red sand drops and turns into an item. If it falls onto a cobweb, it falls slowly until it has gone through completely; if it touches the ground while still inside the cobweb, the red sand becomes an item. Red sand that falls onto a lifting bubble column floats on top of the water until the bubble column is blocked or removed.

Though TNT does not break any blocks if it explodes underwater, if sand (including red sand), concrete powder (in one-block-deep water only), or gravel falls and covers the TNT before it explodes, blocks are broken as normal. This trick can be used to collect blocks underwater, or break into underwater structures such as the ocean monument without mining.

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
Red Sandstone	Red Sand
TNT	Gunpowder + Red Sand		It is possible to use any combination of sand and red sand.

Name	Ingredients	Smelting recipe
Glass	Red Sand + Any fuel	0.1

Cactus can only be placed on red sand or sand, and can also be used for farming bamboo, sugar cane and kelp.

A turtle egg can hatch on red sand, but not any other non-sand block.

Red sand rarely emits ambient noises if there is sand or red sand 8 blocks away in at least 3 of the 4 horizontal directions. In order to emit sounds, the block directly above red sand must be air.

Java Edition:

sand sound type
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.sand.break	subtitles.block.generic.break​	1.0	0.8	16
	​Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.sand.place	subtitles.block.generic.place​	1.0	0.8	16
	​Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.sand.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit​	0.25	0.5	16
	​Something falls on a block	Entity-Dependent	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.sand.fall	subtitles.block.generic.fall​	0.5	0.75	16
	​Footsteps	Entity-Dependent	Walking on the block	block.sand.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.15	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

sand sound type
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch
	​ ?	Blocks	Once the block has broken	dig.sand	​ ?	1.0	0.8–1.0
	​ ?	Blocks	When the block is placed	dig.sand	​ ?	1.0	0.8–1.0
	​ ?	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	hit.sand	​ ?	0.23	0.5
	​ ?	Players	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.sand	​ ?	0.4	1.0
	​ ?	Players	Walking on the block	step.sand	​ ?	0.15	1.0
	​ ?	Blocks	Jumping from the block	jump.sand	​ ?	0.05	1.0
	​ ?	Blocks	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.sand	​ ?	0.14	1.0

Sounds
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Sandy sounds	Ambient/Environment	Randomly when there is a block of sand or red sand 8 blocks away in 3 of the 4 horizontal directions at the surface of the world	block.sand.idle	subtitles.block.sand.idle​	?	?	?

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	Block tags	Item tags	Translation key
Red Sand	red_sand	Block & Item	bamboo_plantable_on enderman_holdable sand mineable/shovel	sand smelts_to_glass	block.minecraft.red_sand

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Alias ID	Numeric ID	Form	Item ID[i 1]	Translation key
Red Sand	red_sand	sand / 1	1204	Block & Giveable Item[i 2]	Identical[i 3] (Numeric: -949)	tile.sand.red.name

Java Edition
1.7.2			13w39a				Added red sand.
1.8			14w27b				Red sand's textures now rotate randomly, making beaches and deserts look less uniform.
1.10			16w20a				Falling dust particles for unsupported red sand have been added.
1.14			18w43a				The texture of red sand has been changed.
			18w47a				The texture of red sand has been changed, once again.
			19w05a				Added wandering traders, which sell red sand, making red sand a renewable resource.
1.16			pre3				Turtle eggs can now hatch on red sand.[2]
1.21.5			25w05a				Sand, red sand and terracotta of any color have a chance of playing ambient sounds when surrounded by any one of them on at least 3 sides 8 blocks away.
1.21.6			25w15a				Ambient sand sounds no longer require sky access to play. Slightly decreased the chance for them to play. They now play in all biomes equally.
							Red sand no longer makes ambient wind sounds (.block.sand.wind).
26.2			snap1				Added sulfur cubes, which have the ability to absorb red sand, giving them the regular archetype.
			snap6				Sulfur cubes can no longer absorb red sand.

Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.9.0			build 1				Added red sand.
			build 2				Red sand no longer turns into regular sand when falling.
v0.14.0			build 1				Red sand can now be used to craft red sandstone.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0			beta 1.10.0.3				The textures of red sand have been changed.
1.11.0			beta 1.11.0.4				Red sand can now be bought from wandering traders.
1.21.70 Experiment Drop 1 2025			Preview 1.21.70.20				Sand, red sand and terracotta of any color have a chance of playing ambient sounds when surrounded by any one of them on at least 3 sides 8 blocks away.
1.21.90			Preview 1.21.90.21				Ambient sand sounds no longer require sky access to play. Slightly decreased the chance for them to play. They now play in all biomes equally.
							Red sand no longer makes ambient wind sounds (.block.sand.wind).
26.20 Experiment Drop 2 of 2026			Preview 26.20.23				Added sulfur cubes, which have the ability to absorb red sand, providing the football/regular effect to the mob.
26.30			Preview 26.30.20				Implemented all features from the "Drop 2 of 2026" experiment in vanilla gameplay.
			Preview 26.30.27				Red sand can no longer be absorbed by sulfur cubes.

Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU31	CU19	1.22	1.22	1.22	Patch 3	1.0.1	Added red sand.
TU46	CU36	1.38	1.38	1.38	Patch 15		Falling dust particles for unsupported red sand have been added.
			1.90				The textures of red sand have been changed.
			1.91				Red sand can now be bought from wandering traders.
							Red sand can now be smelted in a blast furnace.

New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0							Added red sand.

Java Edition
1.8			14w06a				Red sand now uses the newly-implemented model json file models/block/cube.json; previously the geometry was defined in the game code itself.
			14w10a				Sand with numerical metadata variants 2 through 15, which are inaccessible through normal gameplay, now have no model rather than appearing identical to sand.
			14w25a				Sand and its variant are now defined via block states rather than by numerical metadata. Prior to this version, the numerical metadata variants of sand were as follows: DV Description 0 Sand 1 Red Sand 2-15 Inaccessible "boring" variants of sand
			14w26a				Sand with metadata values 2 through 15 have now been completely removed from the game.
1.13			17w47a				The different block states for the sand ID have been split up into their own IDs.
							Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 12.

Bedrock Edition
1.21.20			Preview 1.21.20.22				The different block states for the sand ID have now been split up into their own IDs.
							Prior to this version, the block state variants of sand were as follows: Name Default value Allowed values Description sand_type normal normal Sand red Red Sand

Issues relating to "Red Sand" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

• 
  Naturally generated red sand in a badlands biome.

• Explained physics of falling blocks.
• Desert
• Sandstone