Minecraft wiki entry for Survival_in_an_infinite_desert, associated text: If you can't find any dirt, you are in danger and in difficulty. Unlike in normal biomes, you can't just dig a hole and cover yourself to survive the first night (in pitch darkness). If you have time, craft some sandstone. If not, (in a Buffet world only) you could tunnel a short way into a stone cliff face (very slow, with your bare hands) to make a small cave, and then block the entrance with sand and/or cactus. Or find a naturally roofed cave, and block first the inside and then the outside of the cave with sand/cacti. Or dig a 1x1 wide or 1x2 wide hole (no wider) down into the sand and surround the hole with 4 cacti in a cross shape, diagonally adjacent to each other, as tall as possible. That makes a survival shelter that should get you through the night. In the morning, make finding dirt your top priority, and failing that, craft sandstone - more than you need immediately since you can't re-use it, it is destroyed when you break the block. In a Superflat desert, you must make sandstone; none of these alternatives (apart from the "cactus coffin") are available.