A Sandstorm is an event which occurs randomly in the Desert. During this event, a few enemies often found in the Underground Desert appear on the surface, as well as Angry Tumblers and, in Hardmode, Sand Elementals and Sand Sharks. If the player is standing in the Desert while this event is active, the Mighty Wind debuff will be inflicted on the player if they are not in front of a background wall.
The flying sand effect of a sandstorm
During a Sandstorm, the background will turn a dusty yellow and a vignette will be applied to the player's screen. Particles of sand can also be seen flying across the screen. While the effects are amplified with Color and White lighting, which may be resource-intensive on some computers, using Retro or Trippy will remove much of the background dust.
Contents
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Notes
- Sandstorms are universal events; this means that if one Desert has a sandstorm, all Deserts will have a Sandstorm.
- Sandstorms only occur in Deserts. The background will appear as normal everywhere else.
- They can also occur in player-made deserts.
- The particle color changes depending on whether the Desert is a regular, Corrupt/Crimson, or Hallowed Desert.
- A Sandstorm has a 1 in 518,400 chance of occurring per game tick (there are 60 ticks per real-world second). Therefore, approximately, there is a 1/8640 chance of one happening every second, and a 2/13 chance of one happening every in-game day.
- Shark Fins dropped by Bone Biters will appear dark or black (similarly to the different color Gel from slimes)
- Sandstorms come and go without any notification, so to experience one start to finish, the desert will have to be checked frequently.
- A Sandstorm's length (in ticks) is determined by the following formula, with being a random decimal between 0.0 and 1.0 (inclusive):
- This means that a Sandstorm lasts from 28800 to 86400 ticks, or 8 to 24 minutes real-time.
- Sandstorms are one of the few events that do not restrict other enemy spawns.
Tips
- Since the Sandstorm only occurs in the surface layer of the desert, the player can fly over it.
Trivia
- The Sandstorm is similar to the Blizzard event in that it reduces visibility and spawns new enemies.
- The Weather Radio indicates the direction the sand is blowing, and thus the direction the Mighty Wind debuff will push the player.
- When the Weather Radio indicates that the wind is moving at 0 miles per hour, the sandstorm pushes the player west.
History
- Desktop 1.3.3: Introduced.
- Console 1.17: Introduced.