Tutorials/Pillar jumping

Pillar jumping (also known as pillaring, towering, or constructing a block elevator) is a method of reaching a higher altitude that can't otherwise easily be reached in a map. The pillars (spoken of derogatorily as "noob towers") serve only the player creating them and are useless to others.

Pillars created in this way are useful in editing adjacent tall structures. However, they also cause the map to look unnatural, since many may leave the pillars without destroying them. They can also be used to get back up after going mining, and as a landmark indicator to help players find their way back to their houses. They become more useful for this if a water or lava source is placed on the top.

Method


Pillar jumping is achieved by repeating the following steps:
 * 1) Aim at feet.
 * 2) With a material such as sand, gravel, dirt, or any other object you can stand on, hold right mouse button.
 * 3) Hold space (to continuously jump).

Removal
It is prudent to remove pillars used for pillar jumping when they are no longer needed, especially on multiplayer servers. They are of no use to any other player, nor the player that created them once they leave it. Many players find that a large number of pillars can make the terrain look bad, and, depending on the amount, they can even inhibit moving around the server.

If the pillar is more than a few blocks high, stepping off of it will result in damage. Using a shovel to dig your way down is an efficient way to both clean up after yourself and prevent injury. This is one of the few times when digging directly beneath your own feet is a good plan. If you don't do that, you should use one of the following methods:

Removal can be accomplished with minimal effort if the pillars are made with a gravity-affected block such as gravel. The method involves placing a torch (or other similar blocks such as fences that have the same effect) on the ground, then directly above it placing a non-gravity-affected block such as dirt, and then building the column with the gravel on top of that block. When pillar is no longer useful, the dirt can be removed which will cause the gravel to fall onto the torch. This will cause all the gravel to rapidly disintegrate. You can also build it without the torch and dirt and then destroy the bottom block by hand and quickly place a torch underneath the tower and the blocks that fall will disintegrate.

Even without using the torch, sign, etc., it is beneficial to use a gravity affected block to make pillars, since when the player is done with them they can stand at the bottom of the pillar and delete it block by block, instead of having to start from the top and work their way down as they would have to do if they used a non-gravity-affected block.

If a player falls off a 64-block pillar, just two blocks of water underneath can prevent any fall damage that may be done to the player. Pillars can also serve as a landmark in a single player world to mark mining spots or sources of blocks.

Players can also build a pillar out of a flammable material such as wood or wool, then ignite it when it is no longer wanted, however this presents a number of problems. First is the possibility for unintentional spread of fire. Another is the fact that a block lit on fire is not guaranteed to burn away completely, which can lead to burning wooden blocks suspended high in the air (although this problem has been mostly resolved since the release of Beta 1.3). Since Beta 1.6, using fire to burn very high pillars is not recommended, as it can stop midway due to the nerfed fire.

Block jumping
Block jumping is similar to pillaring and also referred to as "block glitching", which is an easy way of travelling upwards. By block jumping, the Player can easily reach very high places by jumping and placing a block underneath the player's feet while airborne. Block jumping is a form of glitch movement involving high connection pings or high lag rate, and is used as pillaring on multiplayer mode in areas the player cannot build in.

On most servers there are protected areas in which the player cannot build or destroy. However, players can still reach high places in these areas by placing a block under themselves and quickly jumping off before it disappears. This can be repeated as long as the connection ping is high enough or the client's lag is high enough. A better way of block jumping that even works on servers with a very low ping is to jump next to a wall and place a block on the wall. By quickly jumping and placing blocks one after another in front of the player, he/she will be able to bypass the build protection used in servers. Using this way, the block the player is going to place is not contingent on the previously placed block.

This glitch is often used to complete challenges such as "jumping puzzles" to achieve false accomplishment and steal a prize or reward that was intended for a legit player. When a player attempts this glitch they are sometimes noticed and appropriate consequences may occur.

Most servers run anti-cheat plugins and most of these will detect block jumping as flying and will kick the player from the server or report the player to an admin. It is also not allowed on most servers and is referred to as an exploit to most people.