Despite the relative calm of Minecraft’s days, the game features some surprisingly scary creatures and biomes. One of the most frightening of these is the game’s Nether dimension, which can be a constant challenge. As a tribute to one of this dimension’s scariest blocks, one Minecraft fan decided to show off their interpretation of a player walking across Soul Sand.
Minecraft is a survival sandbox game developed by Mojang and released in 2011. The Nether is a dimension that can only be entered through a specific portal but is a crucial area for players looking to complete the game's main arc. Through various updates, this dimension has seen new biomes and new blocks get added, one of which is Soul Sand.
In this startling fan art, u/AljunaibiiM gives viewers an interesting but horrifying interpretation of this block. As players of Minecraft will know well, Soul Sand slows player and mob movement by 50 percent. In the mind of u/AljunaibiiM, the reason behind this slowing down effect is that the souls trapped within the block are reaching out and grabbing those walking across. The picture shows a leg covered by diamond armor stepping down onto a black pile of skeletons and sand. These skeletons reach out and grab hold of the leg and pull it into the block as the character attempts to move away. These ghastly figures are quite creepy and the image of having to step on a block made of skeletons is quite haunting.
Though the vanilla version of Minecraft doesn’t boast visuals that are highly detailed, Soul Sand does have identifiable ghost-like faces on it. Obviously, this image takes that to a whole new level, and, while it is a bit chilling, it would help explain the slowing effect for which these blocks are known.
Having to go to the Nether dimension in Minecraft can be a daunting task for players of all skill levels, and it makes the game much more difficult. Its numerous mobs, seas of lava, and the difficulty of tracking down Nether Fortresses all combine to make for a challenging experience. Especially when players compare their experience there to the game’s Overworld day cycle.
Then again, once Minecraft turns to night, the Overworld becomes dangerous in its own right. On top of this, Minecraft is a survival game at its core and is supposed to set up challenges to be overcome by its players. Either way, this player showed off quite the scary new look for Soul Sand.
Minecraft is available for Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and legacy platforms.