Red sand is a block you can find and mine in Minecraft. It’s basically the reddish version of regular sand and shows up in specific biomes. Here’s how to get it.
Where Red Sand Spawns
Red sand generates naturally in mesa biomes and badlands. You’ll also find it in deserts sometimes. If you’re looking for a lot of red sand, head to a mesa or badlands biome and you’ll see it everywhere.
Mining Red Sand
Finding It
Once you’re in a mesa or badlands biome, red sand is easy to spot. It’s got that rusty, reddish-orange color compared to regular yellow sand.
Tools You Can Use
You can mine red sand with your bare hand, but it’s faster with a shovel. Any shovel works (wooden, stone, iron, golden, diamond, netherite), but a diamond or iron shovel is recommended since you’ll probably be mining a bunch.
How to Mine It
Left click and hold on the red sand block until it breaks. Once it breaks, the red sand item drops to the ground. Pick it up before it disappears.
Finding Red Sand in Creative Mode
If you’re in Creative mode, red sand is in the Building Blocks tab for versions 1.8 to 1.19. In 1.19.3 and newer, it moved to the Natural Blocks tab.
Commands to Get Red Sand
In Java Edition 1.13 and newer, use this command:
/give @p red_sand 1
For older versions (1.8-1.12), use:
/give @p sand 1 1
What You Can Make With Red Sand
Red sand is useful for building and decoration. You can craft it into red sandstone for construction, or use it as decorative terrain. Some people use it for terraforming or custom terrain generation.
Item Details
Red sand has a max stack size of 64 blocks, so you can carry quite a bit. The item ID is either sand (older versions) or red_sand (1.13+).