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Minecraft Archaeology Explained: How to Brush Suspicious Sand and Gravel for Rare Items

Gordon Bicker

Published: Jun 7, 2023 12:14 pm

Minecraft has continued to add many features over the years and each mechanic can take some time to learn: one of these is the process of brushing Suspicious Sand and Gravel. By using your archaeology knowledge in Minecraft you can go around hunting for these blocks and extract rarer items. This article will take you through how to brush Suspicious Sand and Gravel blocks in Minecraft.

Best Way to Brush Suspicious Sand and Gravel in Minecraft

In order to brush Suspicious Sand and Gravel in Minecraft you will have to first craft a brush by using a crafting table and adding one Copper ingot to the center square, a feather above that, then a stick below the Copper Ingot. The best method for finding suspicious sand/gravel is looking for any visible small section color differences compared to its regular counterpart block — there will also appear to be a few tiny cracks across the suspicious blocks.

The process of brushing Suspicious Sand and Gravel will require you to hold down the “use” button/key on your chosen platform. This is simply just the button/key you regularly use to place any blocks and interact with items. For example, on PlayStation, it is the L2 button. After you brush the sand or gravel fully, a resource will burst out from it and some of these can be rare items.

Where to Find Suspicious Sand and Gravel in Minecraft

There are various places you will be able to locate Suspicious Sand and Gravel in Minecraft. However, the locations vary depending on what block you are looking for. We have made a table for you to reference below when you are busy with your search.

Suspicious Block Type	Locations
Suspicious Gravel	Trail Ruins and Cold Ocean Ruins
Suspicious Sand	Desert Wells, Desert Temples, and Warm Ocean Ruins

It should be noted that you will automatically have access to Suspicious Sand, Gravel, and a brush in Creative mode although you won’t be able to extract any items from the blocks. If you are planning an archaeology session, you will want to hop into survival mode — we recommend checking this feature out for a ton of enjoyment!

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Author

Gordon Bicker

Gordon is a contributing writer for Attack of the Fanboy, a Games Design (BA) Honours student, and a Video Game Ambassador. He has been writing at AOTF for over a year and a half, with four years of games writing experience for outlets like Green Man Gaming. When he's not busy, he'll no doubt be experiencing games, writing poetry, playing guitar, adventuring, or happily starting a new Skyrim playthrough! As an avid Final Fantasy XIV player, he also hopes that you'll gain a warm feeling from his community stories. Gordon has reported on Fallout 4 and Destiny 2, whose favorite genres include action RPGs, MMORPG's and First Person Shooters but is always experimenting with many other types of games.