7 Best SAND: Raiders of Sophie Tips & Tricks for a Strong Start

Exploring the dunes with your custom-built Trampler in SAND: Raiders of Sophie will hardly be flawless, especially if you’re a beginner. Whether you’re trying to farm Crowns or scavenge high-value loot, your first runs in the alternate 1910 will take some time getting used to. So, here are the 7 best SAND: Raiders of Sophie tips and tricks to become as strong as your walking mech fortresses.

1 Target a Trampler’s Legs First

During a Trampler fight in SAND: Raiders of Sophie, you have three cannons on your mech that you can use to eliminate enemy Tramplers. While blasting away without targeting a specific part might look like the play as a beginner, you should actually target the opponent Trampler’s legs. This will significantly slow down its movement, preventing it from flanking or moving away from your shots.

Plus, repairing a Trampler’s legs while getting shot at is incredibly challenging, so putting your opponents in that situation will net you an easy win. Once the legs are out, focus on the cannons to leave the enemy Trampler completely helpless.

2 Save Time Bombs and Grenades for Boarding

After you’ve weakened an enemy Trampler in SAND: Raiders of Sophie, you can board it by charging your mech towards it and infiltrating their Captain’s Cabin. Once you do, use your Time Bombs and Contact Grenades to breach doors, explode cannons, and blow up anyone who stands in your way. It’s a risky playstyle, but one that’ll do you good as a beginner. So, don’t waste your Time Bombs and Grenades while trying to kill a single player, and instead, use them strategically while boarding Tramplers.

3 Use the Voyage Mode for Learning

There are currently two expedition modes in SAND: Raiders of Sophie: Storm Dive and Voyage. The latter is the one you should play as a beginner to learn the game’s core loop and mechanics. This mode lets you explore without any restrictions or shrinking zones, so you can scavenge and loot at your own pace while customizing your Trampler.

Sure, the resources that you find won’t be as valuable as the ones in Storm Dive, but moving at your own pace without the worry of a closing zone more than makes up for it, especially as a beginner. There’s no time limit, and you can extract whenever you want to.

4 Don’t Ignore Tarps and Umbrellas During Storm Dive

The Storm Dive mode in SAND: Raiders of Sophie will keep you under constant pressure, which might force you to ignore valuable loot. When you explore the map, you’ll find black umbrellas and tarps scattered around the cities with sand underneath, which will look like mere map decorations at first. However, after the third storm circle begins to shrink, the sand underneath these objects starts to disappear.

Once the sand is completely gone, valuable loot appears, including Safes. So, don’t ignore the black umbrellas and tarps while exploring the city in SAND: Raiders of Sophie’s Storm Dive expedition mode.

5 Break Every Red Door You Find

Red doors in SAND: Raiders of Sophie harbour high-value loot, but the catch is that they cannot be opened unless you’re open to going loud. Whenever you find a red door while exploring the dunes, break it by either placing and shooting Fuel Barrels in front of it or by using explosive items such as Time Bombs or grenades. Alternatively, you can also use your Trampler’s Cannons to break Red doors and find useful resources and materials inside them. Whatever the case is, do not leave a red door unbroken.

6 Store a Shotgun in Your Respawn Box

There will be times when you respawn and immediately get killed again, thanks to not having a powerful weapon stored in your respawn box inside the Refrigerator. To avoid that from happening anymore, store a Shotgun inside your respawn box. By doing that, whenever you respawn on your Trampler, you can carry your Shotgun and be adequately prepared for incoming threats, both inside and outside the mech, instead of trying to melee your way out of unwinnable fights.

7 Change Weapon Handling Mode to “Outlaw”

If you’re confused about why your weapon triggers a melee attack in its idle stance after pressing the shoot button, it’s because the Weapon Handling Mode is set to “Smuggler” by default in SAND: Raiders of Sophie. In this mode, a weapon has two stances: Idle and Hipfire, and trying to shoot in the Idle stance will trigger a melee hit unless you raise your weapon to the Hipfire stance by aiming. To skip this completely, head to settings and change Weapon Handling Mode to “Outlaw” under the Gameplay tab.

This will allow you to shoot immediately after drawing your weapon, rather than delivering melee hits, since in the “Outlaw” mode, your default stance is Hipfire. There won’t be any shortage of incoming enemy fire, so getting your weapon out and shooting immediately will help you win fights more efficiently.

Game	SAND: Raiders of Sophie
Developer(s)	Hologryph, TowerHaus
Release Date	June 22, 2026
Platforms	PC (PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions coming later)

How’s your experience with SAND: Raiders of Sophie so far? Let us know what you think of the Early Access game in the comments section below.