Back to minecraftBack to minecraft.net

Minecraft has a lot of blocks, but what if they had more? Why do we need them? Please don't just add lists of things - these will be marked as spam and removed! Also, no furniture, guns, or vertical/"sideways"/"upright"/"standing" slabs (yes, we see you).

← Blocks, Tools, and Items
114
Follow

Making Sand Renewable: 2 Solutions

As mentioned frequently by ilMango and several other big Minecraft players: sand can be hard to come by for those working on big projects. 

Whether you're making glass, sandstone, concrete, or TNT, you can go through a lot of sand in a hurry. On big servers, deserts become devoid of sand quickly. In addition, with TNT duping gone in 1.13, those of us with TNT-based farms, flying machines, tunnel makers, pearl cannons, etc. need a way to keep our machines running.

I propose 2 solutions to make Sand a renewable resource. 

  1. Husks have a small chance to drop sand, making them more distinct from ordinary zombies.
  2. Add a crafting recipe for "blasting" which requires cobblestone and TNT, but yields more sand in total than the sand needed to craft the TNT (I'm thinking 6-8, as you're essentially trading 4 gunpowder for 2-4 sand, which seems reasonable). I know this can now be done with a datapack, but it would be a nice addition to the base game.  
Avatar
Registered User shared this idea

13 Comments

Please sign in to leave a comment.

Sorted by oldest
  • 4
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    I absolutely support sand being a renewable resource.

    One option for this has been suggested in another thread where MacchuPicchu has suggested a revival of the forgotten stonecutter with new uses for it.  One of them is the ability to "cut" cobblestone into gravel and gravel into sand:

    https://feedback.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/community/posts/360009322951-Return-of-the-Stonecutter

     

    I personally prefer this to either of the options you gave.  The husk method is intriguing, but I imagine you would need a pretty large mob farm for a relatively small yield of sand, especially since it's a block that you can absolutely chew through.  This would be even worse for bedrock players, who have very limiting spawning mechanics.

    I'm not sure what you are actually proposing for the TNT one.  Is this a crafting recipe or a in the world recipe?  And if the latter, wouldn't it turn all TNT powered cobbletone farms into sand farms?

  • 1
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

  • 2
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    I was just going to suggest that husks should be a source of sand when I saw this thread. I also like your idea about the cobble and TNT as well. Honestly how it is done is less important to me.

    The bottom line is I think that sand really should be a renewable resource. Like you mentioned, there is glass, sandstone, and concrete that it is required for, but my biggest issue is TNT. Currently TNT is the only method of automatically breaking blocks (unless someone has figured out how to harness endermen, lol). This makes it essential for many truly automatic farms. I often avoid making TNT entirely, not only because it is resource intensive, but the resources are also lost permanently. And I really don't like destroying my deserts.

    I think there are many methods to make it renewable without making it broken and still keeping with the current feel of Minecraft. The husk idea is a really good way to start because it would make sand production very slow while still making it theoretically infinite. A crafting method would be much more productive, while not allowing the process to be automated.

    I think another method, and my favorite, might involve the new grindstone. Possibly a cobble in each slot could make a sand. (Or if you wanted to include gravel, 2 cobbles into 1 gravel and 2 gravel into 1 sand). This method could also potentially be automated in the future if hoppers could interact with the grindstone (maybe similar to the mechanics of a furnace). A timer would also probably need be added to the grindstone in this case (also like a furnace).

    Anyway, maybe the grindstone idea would be too big of a change, but I think one of the other methods at least would be a great addition. Please make sand renewable :)

     

    EDIT: I realized that I totally over looked creepers and withers as a means of breaking blocks (oops, face-palm). But this still doesn't change my overall opinion as I find these a little unreliable (even though these are probably decent methods).

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    You can already use red sand for most of this stuff, which is renewable.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    Id prefer this to exist, but not through crafting, but use of explosives.

     

    Right now Stone exploded crumbles into cobblestone

    What I propose is that cobblestone exploded turns to gravel and gravel exploded turns to sand.

  • 1
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    In my opinion sand should be renewable through erosion. If a bubble column is below a sandstone block, a falling sand entity is created. It can be mined or pushed onto a torch to be automated.

  • 2
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    I think one of the carpet mod features should be implemented. One is husks dropping sand and being the only mob to spawn in desert temples. The second is an anvil falling on cobble makes it into sand.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    sand is already a renewable resource via chests in desert temples and wandering traders who trade 1 emerald for 8 sand

  • 6
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    I think it shouldn't be a small chance for husks to drop sand, it should be frequent because sand is used for all sorts of things, especially bottles for potions and honey. It wouldn't be op, because it needs to be more accessible. It's likely to become even more useful in the future too. Maybe 50-75% of a husk dropping it. Also, maybe you could find specifically husk spawners in deserts & Mesas, so you can easily farm them, and maybe red sand when they spawn in Mesas. Sand is a resource you just constantly need, and for getting just a little bit from husks wouldn't make a difference in my opinion.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    I think smelting gravel into sand might be a nice idea, I know that's not how it works irl but I still think it's a good solution.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    Hmmmm i think a better way to make renewable sand thats more garanteed would be using flowing water on top of tbe cobblestone and a hopper below the cobblestone then giving the hopper the chance to createc1 sand block every 200 to 500 tick range. The concept is basically smashing rocks together to create sand just like in real life.

  • 1
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    I think the simplest approach would be to have a way to craft cobblestone into gravel then gravel into sand, perhaps through a new tool that pulverizes blocks as an alternative to using explosives. Since cobblestone is renewable this would mean that, by extension, gravel would be renewable as well - which means that dirt would be renewable on skyblock thanks to the ability to craft gravel and dirt into coarse dirt which can then be turned into dirt - and by being able to pulverize gravel into sand it would mean that sand would likewise we renewable.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    piglin bartering should give sand