Pylons

Overview

Pylons is a focused utility mod that adds four specialized blocks, each designed to solve a specific gameplay problem. The Harvester Pylon automates crop farming, the Infusion Pylon grants permanent potion effects from any distance, the Interdiction Pylon prevents specific mobs from spawning in a configurable area, and the Expulsion Pylon keeps unwanted players out of your territory on servers.

All four pylons share a common design philosophy: place the block, insert the appropriate filter cards, and let it work passively. Every pylon is owned by the player who places it, and only the owner, server operators, or teammates (if FTB Teams or Argonauts is installed) can access its interface. You can browse all items and recipes this mod adds using the tabs at the top of this page.

Harvester Pylon

The Harvester Pylon is the most immediately useful pylon for most players. It automatically harvests fully-grown crops in a configurable radius and deposits the drops into any inventory placed directly above it. The pylon is designed to sit inside the water block of a standard farm, with a Chest, Barrel, or Hopper on top to collect the harvest.

The harvest radius can be set to 3x3, 5x5, 7x7, or 9x9 blocks centered on the pylon. By default, the pylon requires a Hoe in its inventory and consumes 1 durability per crop harvested. This means a Diamond Hoe (1561 durability) will last for 1561 harvests before breaking. The work delay between harvest attempts is 60 ticks (3 seconds) by default, configurable between 10 and 120 ticks.

Supported Crops

The Harvester Pylon works with all standard Minecraft crops that extend the CropBlock class (Wheat, Carrots, Potatoes, Beetroot, etc.). It also has built-in compatibility for Nether Wart, Sweet Berry Bushes, Ars Nouveau Source Berry Bushes, and Agricraft crops. When harvesting, the pylon automatically replants by resetting the crop to age 0 and removes one seed from the drops, keeping your farm running indefinitely.

The pylon can be waterlogged, which is the intended placement method. When waterlogged, it harvests crops at the level above the pylon (the same level as the output inventory). When placed without water, it harvests at its own level. If the output inventory fills up, the pylon stops working and displays an "Inventory Full" status.

Infusion Pylon

The Infusion Pylon is the most powerful pylon in the mod. It applies potion effects to its owner from any distance, even across dimensions, as long as the owner is online. The pylon automatically chunkloads itself (limited to one per player) so it continues working even when no one is nearby. Effects are refreshed every 60 ticks (3 seconds), with a maximum applied duration of 20 seconds per refresh.

Activating Potion Filters

To use the Infusion Pylon, you need activated Potion Filters. The activation process has several steps. First, apply a potion effect to yourself (drink a Potion, for example). Then right-click while holding the Potion Filter. This extracts the remaining duration from your active effect and stores it on the card. The minimum effect duration that can be extracted is 60 seconds by default, so brief splash potion effects won't work.

A Potion Filter requires a total of 3600 seconds (1 hour) of accumulated duration before it becomes fully activated. Since a vanilla extended potion provides roughly 8 minutes of duration, you'll need approximately 7.5 extended potions to fully charge a single filter. You can add duration incrementally by drinking more potions and right-clicking the same filter card.

Combining Potion Filters

If you have two Potion Filters with the same effect and amplifier level, you can combine them. Hold one filter in your main hand and the other in your off hand, then right-click. The duration from the off-hand card transfers to the main-hand card. This is useful when you've been accumulating duration across multiple brewing sessions. The Infusion Pylon has 9 inventory slots, so you can run up to 9 different permanent effects simultaneously.

Interdiction Pylon

The Interdiction Pylon prevents specific mob types from spawning within its configured chunk range. Unlike mob-proofing with lighting or slabs, this pylon completely blocks the spawn event for targeted creatures, meaning nothing can bypass it. The range can be set to 1x1, 3x3, or 5x5 chunks centered on the pylon.

Using Mob Filters

To configure which mobs are blocked, you need Mob Filter cards. Right-click on any living entity while holding a Mob Filter to bind it to that mob type. The filter card's tooltip will show the mob's registry name. Place the bound Mob Filter into the Interdiction Pylon's inventory. With 9 slots available, you can block up to 9 different mob types per pylon. The pylon updates its filter list whenever its inventory contents change.

The Interdiction Pylon is the most expensive to craft, requiring a Netherite Block as its center component. This cost reflects its power: it completely eliminates targeted spawns in a potentially massive area. At 5x5 chunks, a single pylon covers 80x80 blocks of spawn prevention for each filtered mob type.

Expulsion Pylon

The Expulsion Pylon is designed for multiplayer servers. It teleports any non-whitelisted player out of its protected area, sending them back to their respawn point (Bed or World Spawn). The expelled player receives a red chat message telling them who expelled them. The pylon checks for intruders every 10 ticks (0.5 seconds), making it very responsive.

Whitelisting Players

To allow specific players into your protected area, craft Player Filter cards and bind them by right-clicking on the target player. Place the bound Player Filters into the Expulsion Pylon. The pylon owner, server OPs, and teammates (via FTB Teams or Argonauts) are always allowed. With 9 inventory slots, you can whitelist up to 9 additional players.

Restrictions

The Expulsion Pylon has several safeguards to prevent abuse. By default, it only operates in the Overworld (configurable by server admins). It cannot function near the world spawn point, with a configurable exclusion radius that uses whichever is larger: the gamerule spawnRadius or the config value (default 1 block). The pylon is also explosion-proof by default, preventing griefing. Its chunk range maxes out at a 5x5 area (configurable down to a single chunk).

Configuration

Pylons provides a server-side config file with meaningful options for server administrators and modpack makers. All settings are in the server config under separate categories for each pylon type.

General Settings

The teamSupportEnabled option (default: true) controls whether installed team mods (FTB Teams, Argonauts) grant teammates access to each other's pylons. Disabling this means only the owner and OPs can interact with a pylon.

Harvester Settings

The harvesterWorkDelay controls the tick interval between harvest attempts (default 60, range 10-120). Setting harvesterRequiresTool to false removes the Hoe requirement entirely, making the pylon work with an empty inventory. The harvesterCanBeAutomated option (default: false) controls whether tools can be piped into the pylon via Hoppers or item pipes. When disabled, tools must be placed manually.

Infusion Settings

The infusionMinimumDuration sets the minimum potion duration (in seconds) that can be extracted to a filter (default 60, range 1-3600). The infusionRequiredDuration is the total seconds needed to fully activate a filter (default 3600, range 1-28800). The infusionAppliedDuration controls the max duration of effects applied per tick (default 20 seconds, range 5-60). The infusionChunkloads toggle (default: true) controls whether the pylon force-loads its chunk while the owner is online.

Expulsion Settings

The expulsionAllowedDimensions list controls where the Expulsion Pylon can operate (default: only minecraft:overworld). The expulsionWorldSpawnRadius prevents the pylon from operating near world spawn (default 1, range 1-512). Setting expulsionPylonCanExplode to true allows TNT and Creepers to destroy it. The expulsionPylonMaxRadius limits the maximum chunk range (default 2, meaning up to 5x5 chunks).