Metal
Metal is a pale, heat-proof block that acid cuts through faster than it cuts stone.
- Movement
- Solid — stays where you paint it
- Weight
- 9 / 9 (heavier sinks through lighter)
- Lifetime
- Permanent
- Glow
- None
On the grid, metal and stone share almost every property. Both are static, both shrug off fire and lava, and neither can be shoved by sand or water. Metal carries a weight of 9, tied with wall for the heaviest figure in the table, but like every static material it never joins in sinking, so the value changes nothing you can see.
The difference appears only when acid arrives. Acid deletes a touching metal cell on 25 percent of contact checks, compared with 15 percent for stone, so one pool tunnels through a metal plate faster than through a stone plate of equal thickness. The acid is not spent by the bite. A single blob can keep eating downward until it runs out of metal or reaches something it has no entry for.
That makes metal a dependable delay. Thickness is the dial: each extra row of plate is another layer the acid has to chew through. Because every check is a random roll, two identical plates will not fail on the same frame, but on average a thicker plate holds out longer.
Real metals are far less uniform. Iron rusts, aluminium resists acid until its oxide film is gone, and hot metal conducts heat and eventually melts. Sandlab treats metal as one generic, unmeltable solid that responds to acid and nothing else. It conducts nothing either; the simulation has no electricity and no heat transfer.
Try it yourself
- Acid trapdoor. Build a box from wall, lay a one-cell metal floor across its middle and pour acid onto that floor. Put some wood in the lower chamber. After a short wait the acid eats a gap in the plate, drains through and starts dissolving the wood below.
- Metal versus stone race. Paint a metal bar and a stone bar of the same thickness next to each other, then lay an equal stripe of acid along the top of both. The metal side usually gives way first, which is the 25 versus 15 percent gap made visible.
- A tray of lava. Shape a shallow metal tray and fill it with lava. The lava glows and sloshes but the tray never softens. Touch a wooden peg to the lava at the rim and the peg catches fire while the metal right next to it stays intact.
Reactions
Odds are per contact check: each tick, touching cells inside the same two-by-two block are checked against the reaction table, so even a small chance happens soon after contact.
When something touches metal
- Touching Acid: this Metal dissolves away. (steady, 25% per contact check) →
Tip
Metal and stone survive lava equally well. Choose metal when you intend to open a hole with acid later and want that cut to finish sooner.