As the last project to feature the late Akira Toriyama, it’s an honor to play Sand Land and feel Toriyama’s style and storytelling throughout the game. One of its biggest selling points is desert driving, and players will have the opportunity to hit a lot of things with their vehicle to obtain new materials that they can use in the game.
What to avoid when driving in Sand Land
Let’s start this guide with the things you should not hit with your vehicle. This is not a hard and fast rule; There are actually very few things in the game that you can’t hit, and the things you can’t hit, you can usually get past them and fly into the air.
big rocks
You can’t drive over them, you’ll just hit them and stun your vehicle for a second. If you try to go over the edge of one, you may crash into it and be thrown off course a bit.
Boulders
During the beginning of the game, when you are chasing the humans to steal their water, you can hit rocky rocks without causing any real damage to yourself or Centaur. Beelzebub does some “Ouch!” noises if you pass through them in that scene, but you don’t take any damage there.
Outside of that moment, it is better not to tempt fate.
flat rocks
Rocks or boulders closer to the ground can be rolled over without consequence, but they can make your ride less smooth and send you flying (depending on how high you decided to try to hit them). We’re not saying definitely don’t hit them, it’s actually a lot of fun to run over them, but there’s no benefit to running over them.
Cliffs
There are no barriers in Sand Land. Think Rainbow Road in Mario Kart. You’ll just go to the limit and end up back where you originally were. The same thing will happen if you are outside your vehicle and just exploring; However, depending on the height of the fall, you may simply fall to the next floor. I did this when I was running up the stairs to go talk to Lucifer at the beginning of the game and I was really glad that the fall didn’t kill me.
Anyway, cliffs. You’re not playing GTA, there are no crashes or explosions, you’ll just have a small blackout moment while the game resets your position.
And of course, if you try to touch the bottom of a cliff, you’ll bounce around a bit.
Related: How to repair a vehicle in Sand Land
What you can and should get right in Sand Land
As you drive through Sand Land and take in the scenery, you will come across several things that you can hit with your vehicle to obtain materials. These include enemies, trees, wildlife… And many of them will attack you if you get too close anyway. Except the trees.
Trees and other plants.
Hitting a dead tree with your vehicle will give you Plant Matter. You can also find this material in other plants, but there are a lot of dead trees out there.
Interestingly, if you hit a catus,… you get a catus. You can use Plant Matter and Catus materials later to create items like Cactus Silk and Vegetable Oil.
Raptors
You will encounter a variety of birds of prey throughout the game, especially while driving. By killing these creatures, you can obtain several different crafting materials that are very useful.
For example, early in the game you will encounter smaller red and green raptors. Red raptors will drop a raptor scale upon death (like other types of raptors), and green or ‘Gem’ raptors will drop a bright green scale.
scorpions
This isn’t Animal Crossing, you won’t get stung as long as you keep ramming your car into scorpions. I think the fact that all those scorpions stung me on ACHN has made me feel a little biased towards them…
Anyway, these little yellow guys are a little harder to spot than birds of prey, but I’ve noticed them hanging around closer to the cliff faces and there were a ton of them next to the cacti. Apparently birds of prey roam a little more freely.
The annoying thing about scorpions is that they dig underground and wait for you. I enjoyed driving in circles and occasionally hitting them to add a little spice to my game.
Related: All Sand Land materials and how to get them
Other items found while driving in Sand Land
Another big thing to look out for while driving through the wastelands of Sand Land are loot boxes and chests. These small boxes can be difficult to spot when alone, but many of them are located among the remains of other vehicles and machinery that have been lost in the desert.
In these boxes, you can find a wide range of crafting materials, so it’s best to start searching for them as early in the game as possible. You can find shock absorbing rubber, B grade steel and other B grade craft materials, alloys, standard springs and other standard craft materials, and more.
You will also encounter several caves while driving in Sand Land and you will need to exit your vehicle to explore these areas. As you run through any caves you’ve found, you’ll be able to find even more crafting materials and some other useful items as well. Oh, and the cave cobras. Don’t forget those.
Driving is a really fun part of Sand Land and it’s obvious that a lot of effort was put into these parts of the game, which is great, because traveling between locations in RPGs can often feel very repetitive. Enjoy searching for more crafting materials in Sand Land and driving as fast and wild as you want.
Looking for more Sand Land MyFullGames content? Check out our guide on How to Climb Hills in Sand Land and How to Beat Dragon Geji in Sand Land.