Suspicious Block

Suspicious sand and suspicious gravel are fragile gravity-affected blocks found in various Overworld structures. They can be brushed to extract structure-dependent loot, and are the only source of pottery sherds. Suspicious blocks drop nothing if they are broken, and break if they fall from any height or are moved with a piston. They are rare to find.

Obtaining[]

Breaking[]

Suspicious blocks are unobtainable by mining, even using a tool enchanted with Silk Touch. They are much softer than normal sand and gravel, and can be instantly broken with merely an unenchanted diamond shovel. They are affected by gravity, but they always break with no drop after falling. They break immediately if pushed by a piston or sticky piston, and cannot be pulled by sticky pistons or slime blocks.

In Java Edition, a suspicious block drops as an item if it falls for more than 600 game ticks, or 30 seconds, which can be achieved by falling into an upward bubble column, or through two cobwebs stacked on top of each other.^[1] However, it does not retain its loot.

In Creative mode, the player can obtain a suspicious block while retaining its loot by using Ctrl + pick block on the block.

Natural generation[]

Suspicious sand generates naturally in buried rooms under desert pyramids, as well as in the bottom of desert wells. It also generates within warm ocean ruins.

Suspicious gravel generates naturally in cold ocean ruins. Additionally, some of the gravel within trail ruins is replaced with suspicious gravel upon generation.

Usage[]

Brushing[]

When a brush is used on a suspicious block, cracks start to appear on all sides of the block as the dusted block state of the block starts to increase. If the suspicious block being brushed is naturally generated, an item gradually emerges from the side where the player starts brushing. After 96 game ticks (4.8 seconds), the item is extracted, and the suspicious block is converted into its regular counterpart: suspicious sand is converted into sand, and suspicious gravel is converted into gravel.

If the player stops brushing a suspicious block, the block remains in its half-excavated state for a few seconds, before gradually returning to its unexcavated state one stage at a time.

Loot[]

The item obtained and the loot table of the block is dependent on which structure the suspicious block has generated in. Items can be extracted only from naturally generated suspicious blocks. When placed by the player, nothing is produced after brushing.

Sounds[]

Generic[]

Suspicious sand

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Suspicious gravel

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Unique[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Block states[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Block data[]

Falling block entity[]

Advancements[]

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	Respecting the Remnants	Brush a Suspicious block to obtain a Pottery Sherd	Adventure	—	adventure/salvage_sherd
	Smells Interesting	Obtain a Sniffer Egg	Husbandry	Have a sniffer egg in your inventory. This is a hidden advancement, meaning that it can be viewed by the player only after completing it, regardless of if its child advancement(s), if any, have been completed.	husbandry/obtain_sniffer_egg

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 suspicious sand.
Java Edition
1.20 (Experimental)		23w07a			Added suspicious sand behind the Update 1.20 experimental datapack.
1.20		23w12a			Added suspicious gravel.
					Suspicious sand is now available without using the "Update 1.20" experimental datapack.
					Suspicious sand now generates in warm ocean ruins and the trail ruins.
		23w14a			Suspicious sand now has an assigned tool (shovel).
					A suspicious sand is now visible on the top layer of the newly added room in desert temples.
					Suspicious sand can now have cacti and sugar cane planted on it.
					Suspicious sand can no longer be replaced by sculk when a sculk catalyst triggers.
					Suspicious gravel now has an assigned tool (shovel).
					Suspicious gravel can now have bamboo planted on it.
		23w16a			Suspicious sand no longer generates in trail ruins.
					The amount of suspicious gravel in trail ruins has been tweaked.
		23w17a			The player now gets the advancement "Respecting the Remnants" when they brush a suspicious block to obtain a pottery sherd.
Bedrock Edition
Next Major Update (Experimental)		beta 1.19.70.23			Added suspicious sand behind the Next Major Update experimental toggle.
		beta 1.19.80.20			When suspicious sand is done being brushed, it now turns into a normal sand block instead of just breaking.
		beta 1.19.80.21			Suspicious sand now also generates within warm ocean ruins. It uses the same loot table as in desert temples.
					Added suspicious gravel behind the "Next Major Update" experimental toggle.
		beta 1.19.80.22			Suspicious sand now also generates within trail ruins.
					Reworked loot tables.
1.20.0		beta 1.20.0.21			Suspicious sand and suspicious gravel are now available without using the "Next Major Update" experimental toggle.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Suspicious Block" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Gallery[]

Development Images[]

• 

  Prototype texture of suspicious sand.^[2]

• 

  Prototype of suspicious sand being brushed.

• 

  Ditto.

• 

  Ditto.

References[]