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Marsh Davies Mojang avatar

Only in the fiery caverns of the Nether, amid columns of lava and flame-belching Ghasts, will you find this creepy material in abundance. At a quick glance it might look like a ruddier version of cobblestone, but then you look a little closer - are those screaming faces etched into its surface? Eep!

Marsh Davies[1]

Soul sand is a block only naturally found in the Nether.

Obtaining

Soul sand can be mined with any tool, or without a tool, but swords are the quickest.

Block Soul Sand
Hardness 0.5
Tool
Breaking time[A]
Default 0.75
Wooden 0.4
Stone 0.2
Iron 0.15
Diamond 0.1
Netherite 0.1
Golden 0.1
  1. Times are for unenchanted tools as wielded by players with no status effects, measured in seconds. For more information, see Breaking § Speed.

Natural generation

Soul sand is found below Y=65 in the Nether, generally in four-block-deep layers. It is also found naturally in nether wart rooms of nether fortresses.

Usage

Soul sand slows the movement of any mob or player, and causes them to sink 2 pixels into the block while walking on it. Its slowing effect is increased when placed in water, or above ice, packed ice, or slime blocks. It can also suffocate mobs which are smaller than a slab, namely silverfish, endermites, and baby turtles.

Growing nether wart

Soul sand is used for growing nether wart, a primary base ingredient for many varieties of potions. Nether wart is planted on soul sand (like seeds on farmland), and at full maturity produces multiple nether wart when harvested.

Withers

The wither build configuration.

4 blocks of soul sand are used in the construction of a wither.

Bubble columns

Placing soul sand under water will create a lifting bubble column, which will cause items, players and mobs inside the column to rise to the surface.‌[Java and Bedrock editions only]

Video

Note: The video states that one-way doors can be made with soul sand. This was a bug that was fixed in 1.8. The video also does not state soul sand's usage in building the wither or creating vortex bubble columns.

Soul Sand/video

History

alpha
8 October 2010Soul sand first appears on Notch's blog.
v1.2.0previewSoul Sand Added soul sand, which generates in the newly added Nether dimension.
beta
1.6.6One can get out of soul sand to another block while sneaking.
release
1.0.0Beta 1.9 PrereleaseAdded nether warts, which can be grown on soul sand.
Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6Shovels now mine soul sand faster.
1.3.112w22aInventory sprites for blocks were flipped from left to right, changing to .
1.4.212w36aWither skeleton skulls can be placed on a formation of soul sand to create a wither.
12w38aSoul sand has new sounds when being walked on.
1.513w02aIn texture packs, soul sand now uses /textures/blocks/hellsand.png
1.814w17aSilverfish and endermites take damage, if they are walking on soul sand.
14w32bOne-way doorways can no longer be made with soul sand.
1.1317w47aPrior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 88.
18w07aSoul sand now produces an upwards bubble column when under water.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.12.1build 1Soul Sand Added soul sand.
0.16.0build 4Can now be used to spawn the wither.
Bedrock Edition
1.5beta 1.5.0.4Soul sand now produces an upwards bubble column when under water.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1CU1 1.0 Patch 1Soul Sand Added soul sand.
TU19CU7 1.12 Soul sand can be used to build the wither.

Trivia

  • Soul sand can generate on the floor of caverns and lava pools below Y=60 only if it generated in that same column at Y=60 or above.
  • Because soul sand is not as high as a full block, standing near lava while on soul sand will set the player on fire.
  • If a water current is pushing the player diagonally against a wall and soul sand is the block adjacent to the player's head when the current ends, it will cause the player to jump.
  • If snow or carpet is over soul sand, the effects of it being a partial block are avoided, as player will be walking on the cover block, not the soul sand.
  • Due to the ability to reset the Nether in the Legacy Console Edition, soul sand is renewable in that edition. Although a player can reset the Nether in Java Edition by deleting the DIM-1 folder in a Minecraft world file, some may consider this cheating. Also, explored nether fortresses will disappear if the player does not delete data/Fortress.dat that stores data of nether fortresses.
  • Walking on soul sand will visibly darken the sky in the Overworld; this effect is less noticeable during the night.
    • This is because of its partial-block nature in combination with the fact that the color of the sky reflects the light level the player is standing in. However, because soul sand is opaque, the player is considered to be in absolute darkness. This may also occur with slabs and other partially-solid blocks that the game considers opaque.

Gallery

Issues

Issues relating to "Soul Sand" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

References


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