Suspicious sand is a block that can be found in desert wells and desert pyramids. Depending on the structure, it contains one of several items that can be revealed by using a brush on it.
Obtaining
Breaking
Suspicious sand is unobtainable by mining, even using a tool enchanted with Silk Touch. It is affected by gravity, but it always breaks with no drop after falling. It breaks immediately if pushed by a piston or sticky piston, and cannot be pulled by sticky pistons or slime blocks.
| Block | Suspicious Sand | |
|---|---|---|
| Hardness | 0.25 | |
| Tool | ||
| Breaking time[A] | ||
| Default | 1.25 | |
| Wooden | 0.2 | |
| Stone | 0.1 | |
| Iron | 0.1 | |
| Diamond | 0.05 | |
| Netherite | 0.05 | |
| Golden | 0.05 | |
- ↑ Times are for unenchanted tools as wielded by players with no status effects, measured in seconds. For more information, see Breaking § Speed.
Natural generation
Blocks of suspicious sand generate naturally in buried rooms under desert pyramids, as well as in the bottom of desert wells.
Usage
Loot
Suspicious sand drops nothing when mined. It is affected by gravity, but breaks upon landing.
Using a brush, the player can extract an item from the suspicious sand. The latter will immediately be converted into regular sand. Items can only be extracted from naturally generated suspicious sand blocks. When placed by the player, nothing is produced after brushing.
| Structure | Item | Probability |
|---|---|---|
| Desert Pyramid | Archer Pottery Shard | 1⁄7 |
| Prize Pottery Shard | 1⁄7 | |
| Skull Pottery Shard | 1⁄7 | |
| Gunpowder | 1⁄7 | |
| TNT | 1⁄7 | |
| Diamond | 1⁄7 | |
| Emerald | 1⁄7 | |
| Desert Well | Arms Up Pottery Shard | 3⁄7 |
| Brick | 1⁄7 | |
| Stick | 1⁄7 | |
| Suspicious Stew[more information needed] | 1⁄7 | |
| Emerald | 1⁄7 |
Sounds
| Sound | Subtitles | Source | Description | Resource location | Translation key | Volume | Pitch | Attenuation distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Block broken | Blocks | Once the block has broken | block | subtitles | 1.0 | 0.8 | 16 | |
| Block placed | Blocks | When the block is placed | block | subtitles | 1.0 | 0.8 | 16 | |
| Block breaking | Blocks | While the block is in the process of being broken | block | subtitles | 0.25 | 0.5 | 16 | |
| None[sound 1] | Entity-Dependent | Falling on the block with fall damage | block | None[sound 1] | 0.5 | 0.75 | 16 | |
| Footsteps | Entity-Dependent | Walking on the block | block | subtitles | 0.15 | 1.0 | 16 |
| Sound | Source | Description | Resource location | Volume | Pitch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blocks | Once the block has broken | break | 1.0 | 0.8-1.0 | |
| Blocks | When the block is placed | place | 1.0 | 0.8-1.0 | |
| Blocks | While the block is in the process of being broken | hit | 0.23 | 0.5 | |
| Players | Falling on the block with fall damage | step | 0.4 | 1.0 | |
| Players | Walking on the block | step | 0.2 | 1.0 | |
| Players | Jumping from the block | step | 0.12 | 1.0 | |
| Players | Falling on the block without fall damage | step | 0.18 | 1.0 |
Data values
ID
| Name | Identifier | Form | Block tags | Item tags | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspicious Sand | suspicious_sand | Block & Item | bamboo_plantable_on enderman_holdable sand lush_ground_replaceable mineable/shovel | sand | block.minecraft.suspicious_sand |
| Name | Identifier | Numeric ID | Form | Item ID[i 1] | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspicious Sand | suspicious_sand | | Block & Giveable Item[i 2] | Identical[i 3] | tile.suspicious_sand.name |
Block states
In Bedrock Edition, suspicious sand uses the following block states:
| Name | Default value | Allowed values | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| dusted | 0 | 0123 | Increases as the block is being brushed. |
| Name | Metadata Bits | Default value | Allowed values | Values for Metadata Bits |
Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| brushed_progress | Not Supported | 0 | 0123 | Unsupported | Increases as the block is being brushed. |
| hanging | Not Supported | true | truefalse | Unsupported | [more information needed] |
Falling block entity
- Dynamic block entity data
- Tags common to all entities
- BlockState: The falling block represented by this entity.
- Name: The resource location of the block.
- Properties: Optional. The block states of the block.
- Name: The block state name and its value.
- CancelDrop: 1 or 0 (true/false). Whether the block will be cancelled from being placed when it lands on a solid block. When true, it also prevents the block from dropping as an item (regardless of what the
DropItemtag is set to). However, if true and the falling block'sTimetag goes to 0 before landing on a solid block, it will still destroy itself and drop itself as an item (or not, respective to what theDropItemtag is set to).CancelDropdefaults to false for summoned and naturally occurring falling blocks (except for Suspicious Blocks). - DropItem: 1 or 0 (true/false) – true if the block should drop as an item when it breaks. Any block that does not have an item form with the same ID as the block does not drop even if this is set.
- FallHurtAmount: Multiplied by the
FallDistanceto calculate the amount of damage to inflict. By default this value is 2
for anvils, and 6

for pointed dripstone. - FallHurtMax: The maximum hit points of damage to inflict on entities that intersect this falling block. For vanilla falling blocks, always 40
× 20. - HurtEntities: 1 or 0 (true/false) – true if the block should hurt entities it falls on.
- TileEntityData: Optional. The tags of the block entity for this block.
- Time: The number of ticks the entity has existed. When
Timegoes above 600, or above 100 while the block is below Y=1 or is outside building height, the entity is deleted.
History
| October 3, 2020 | Excavation blocks were announced at Minecraft Live 2020 to be part of archaeology features. The excavation sand was mentioned but not shown in the video footage | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 14, 2021 | Archaeology features were delayed | ||||
| February 10, 2023 | The archaeology features were re-announced, including the suspicious sand | ||||
| Upcoming Java Edition | |||||
| 1.20 (experimental) | 23w07a | ||||
| Upcoming Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.20.0 (expermiental) | beta 1.19.70.23 | ||||
Issues
Issues relating to "Suspicious Block" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.