Sand quick facts
- Falls out of Dirt blocks when you destroy them
- One Sand pixel meeting one Water pixel produces two Wet Sand pixels
- Density 150, classified as a solid
- Cannot be burned, but can be wetted and launched
Base material
Sandustry Sand: The First Pixel Worth Counting
Every factory in Sandustry traces back to the same humble solid. Break Dirt and Sand falls out; touch Sand with Water and it becomes Wet Sand, which is the only thing your first Gold machine accepts. Learn the ratios and the whole early game snaps into focus.
Dropped by Dirt
1 Sand + 1 Water = 2 Wet Sand
Water doubles it
Verified against v0.5.5 on 2026-08-20
Official source
Where Sand Fits in the Chain
Sand is the only early material that sits at the exact midpoint between "free terrain" and "factory input". Everything before it is digging; everything after it is processing.
Dig Dirt, don't hunt for Sand
There is no sand deposit to search for. Sand arrives as the drop when Dirt breaks apart, so your Sand supply is limited only by how much ground you are willing to clear.
Water is the multiplier
One Sand plus one Water turns into two Wet Sand. That doubling is why a steady water supply matters more than a bigger shovel — water literally doubles your raw material before it ever reaches a machine.
Wet Sand feeds the Shaker
The moment Sand becomes Wet Sand it qualifies for the Shaker, where each pixel always leaves Residue and has a 1-in-4 chance of dropping Gold through the machine.
Wettable but not flammable
Sand absorbs water on contact yet refuses to burn, which makes it one of the few solids safe to route near both your reservoir and your furnace areas. It can also be launched, so Launchers move it like any other solid.
From Dirt to Gold
- 1 Dirt destroyed drops Sand
- 1 Sand + 1 Water becomes 2 Wet Sand
- Each Wet Sand: 1 Residue always, Gold one time in four
- End to end, roughly 4 Sand becomes 1 Gold
Feeding dry Sand to machines
The Shaker ignores dry Sand entirely. If your Gold line stalls with raw piling up, the fix is almost always the same: route water into the supply before it reaches the machines, not after.