Pylons in FTB Skies 2

Pylons is a small utility mod that bills itself as "just another magic block mod". Each block is a pylon that does one job for you, such as expelling players, applying potion effects remotely, harvesting crops, or stopping mob spawns. This pack includes Pylons 5.4.2.^[1][2]

The four pylons

• Expulsion Pylon: intended for servers, it expels other players from the chunk it sits in. You can whitelist players with a Player Filter, and OPs are always whitelisted.^[1]
• Infusion Pylon: applies effects to you from any distance (it may need chunkloading) using activated Potion Filter items. To activate a filter, apply an effect to yourself, for example from a potion, then right-click the filter. By default the minimum duration you can extract is 60 seconds. A full activation needs 1 hour of duration in total, which is the equivalent of 7.5 vanilla extended potions.^[1]
• Harvester Pylon: harvests crops in a configurable radius from 3x3 to 9x9 and outputs to an inventory above it. You place it inside the farm's water block. By default it needs a hoe in its inventory and uses 1 durability per crop harvested, and a config option can disable that.^[1]
• Interdiction Pylon: prevents all spawns of the mobs you choose within a chunk range from 1x1 to 5x5. Right-click a mob with a Mob Filter, then add the filter to the pylon to block that mob.^[1]

Where it fits in the pack

The pack gives each pylon its own quest in the "logistics" chapter, and each quest pairs the pylon with its filter. "Expulsion Pylon" quest covers the Expulsion Pylon and Player Filter, "Infusion Pylon" quest covers the Infusion Pylon and Potion Filter, and "Interdiction Pylon" quest covers the Interdiction Pylon and Mob Filter. "Harvester Pylon" quest covers the Harvester Pylon.^[3]

That makes Pylons a set of optional quality-of-life and logistics tools rather than a progression gate. Pick the pylon that fits your base: the Harvester for farms, the Interdiction Pylon for mob control, the Infusion Pylon for permanent-style potion effects, or the Expulsion Pylon if you play on a server.^[1][3]

Unverified The values above (the 60-second minimum, the 1-hour full activation, the hoe durability cost and the radius ranges) come from the mod's own description. Nothing provided confirms whether the pack changes them, so check the in-game configs before relying on them. The item required alongside the Harvester Pylon in its quest is also not shown in the available quest data.

Pylons is a small mod of magic blocks. Each pylon does one job, and several of them use filters to know what to act on. Here is a sensible order to work through them, starting with the one that pays off fastest.^[1][4]

Harvester Pylon: automate your crops

Start with the Harvester Pylon. It harvests crops in a range from 3x3 to 9x9 blocks around it and outputs into an inventory above it. Place it inside the water block of your farm, or level with the crops.^[1][4]

By default it needs a hoe inside the pylon and uses 1 durability per harvest. That is configurable, and an unbreakable hoe works too. This recipe is the mod's own, unchanged by the pack.^[1][4][5]

Harvester PylonMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab
Iron Bars	Hay Block	Iron Bars
Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone

Recipe id: pylons:harvester_pylon

Protection Pylon and its filters: stop accidents

The Protection Pylon stops you, the owner, from breaking blocks or killing mobs inside a chunk range from 1x1 to 5x5. You choose what to protect by adding Mob Filters and Block Filters.^[4]

Protection PylonMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab
Iron Bars	Honeycomb Block	Iron Bars
Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone

Recipe id: pylons:protection_pylon

To set a Mob Filter, right-click a mob with it. To set a Block Filter, right-click a block with it. Then add the filters to the pylon.^[4]

Mob FilterMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Cyan Terracotta	any green dye	Cyan Terracotta
any glass blocks	any netherite ingot	any glass blocks
any glass blocks	any glass blocks	any glass blocks

Recipe id: pylons:mob_filter

Block FilterMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Cyan Terracotta	any green dye	Cyan Terracotta
any glass blocks	Honeycomb	any glass blocks
any glass blocks	any glass blocks	any glass blocks

Recipe id: pylons:block_filter

Interdiction Pylon: control mob spawns

The Interdiction Pylon prevents natural and forced spawns of the mobs you choose within 1x1 to 5x5 chunks. Add Mob Filters to say which mobs to block.^[4]

A Lifeless Filter works differently. It blocks all mobs, but only natural spawns, over a much larger range of 25x25 chunks. It also disables the other mob filters.^[4][5]

Interdiction PylonChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab
Iron Bars	any netherite storage block	Iron Bars
Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone

Recipe id: pylons:interdiction_pylon

Lifeless FilterMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Cyan Terracotta	any green dye	Cyan Terracotta
any glass blocks	any nether star	any glass blocks
any glass blocks	any glass blocks	any glass blocks

Recipe id: pylons:lifeless_filter

Infusion Pylon: effects from anywhere

The Infusion Pylon applies potion effects to you from any distance, using activated Potion Filter items. To activate a filter, get the effect on yourself, then right-click with the filter in hand. By default the minimum duration you can extract is 60 seconds, and a filter needs 1 hour of duration to activate. By default the pylon also loads its chunk while you are online, and this is configurable.^[1][4]

Infusion PylonChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab
Iron Bars	any emerald storage block	Iron Bars
Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone

Recipe id: pylons:infusion_pylon

Potion FilterMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Cyan Terracotta	any green dye	Cyan Terracotta
any glass blocks	any emerald gem	any glass blocks
any glass blocks	any glass blocks	any glass blocks

Recipe id: pylons:potion_filter

Expulsion Pylon: for servers

The Expulsion Pylon expels other players from a chunk range of 1x1 to 5x5. It is intended for use on servers. Whitelist friends with a Player Filter. OPs are always whitelisted.^[1][4]

Expulsion PylonChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab
Iron Bars	any diamond storage block	Iron Bars
Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone

Recipe id: pylons:expulsion_pylon

Player FilterMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Cyan Terracotta	any green dye	Cyan Terracotta
any glass blocks	any diamond gem	any glass blocks
any glass blocks	any glass blocks	any glass blocks

Recipe id: pylons:player_filter

Quests

In the pack's quest book, the logistics chapter pairs pylons with their filters. "Expulsion Pylon" quest asks for the Expulsion Pylon and Player Filter. "Infusion Pylon" quest asks for the Infusion Pylon and Potion Filter. "Interdiction Pylon" quest asks for the Interdiction Pylon and Mob Filter. "Harvester Pylon" quest includes the Harvester Pylon.^[3]

Pylons is a small magic-block mod. It adds five pylons: Expulsion Pylon, Harvester Pylon, Infusion Pylon, Interdiction Pylon and Protection Pylon. Most of them are driven by filter items that you right-click on something and then slot into the pylon's screen. Every pylon can also be toggled automatically with redstone.^[1][4]

The screens tell you what is going on. A pylon shows its owner, and if the owner can't be found it disables itself. It also reports whether it is working, whether the dimension is disabled, and whether it is too close to world spawn.^[4]

Expulsion Pylon

This pylon expels other players from a chunk range you pick, from 1x1 up to 5x5 chunks. Put names on its whitelist with a Player Filter. OPs are whitelisted automatically, and so are team members when team support is on. Team support is enabled in this pack (general.teamSupportEnabled).^[4][6]

The pack limits it in a few ways. The max radius is 2, which does not count the centre chunk, so the biggest area is 5x5 chunks (expulsion_pylon.expulsionPylonMaxRadius). It only works in the Overworld (expulsion_pylon.expulsionAllowedDimensions), and explosions can't destroy it (expulsion_pylon.expulsionPylonCanExplode). Near world spawn it is blocked by the spawn radius setting (expulsion_pylon.expulsionWorldSpawnRadius), which is 1 here.^[6]

Expulsion PylonChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab
Iron Bars	any diamond storage block	Iron Bars
Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone

Recipe id: pylons:expulsion_pylon

The pack changed this recipe from the mod's own.

Harvester Pylon

The Harvester Pylon harvests crops in a range around itself, from 3x3 to 9x9 blocks, and outputs to an inventory placed above it. Place the pylon inside the water block of your farm, or level with the crops. If there is no inventory above, the screen tells you to place one, and it also warns you when that inventory is full.^[1][4]

In this pack it needs a hoe inside the pylon and uses 1 durability per harvest (harvester_pylon.harvesterRequiresTool). An unbreakable hoe uses no durability, and Unbreaking and other durability enchants are supported. It tries to harvest every 60 ticks (harvester_pylon.harvesterWorkDelay).^[4][6]

Power mode is switched off in the pack (harvester_pylon.harvesterRequiresPower). If you enable it, the hoe requirement goes away and each block harvested costs RF instead. The pack's cost is 5 RF per block (harvester_pylon.harvesterPowerCost) and the buffer holds 1,000 RF (harvester_pylon.harvesterPowerBuffer). The config note says the buffer should be larger than the cost per block times 80.^[4][6]

Harvester PylonMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab
Iron Bars	Hay Block	Iron Bars
Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone

Recipe id: pylons:harvester_pylon

Infusion Pylon

The Infusion Pylon applies potion effects to you from any distance, using activated Potion Filter items. To activate a filter, get the effect on yourself (from a potion, for example), then right-click with the filter in hand to extract it. This pulls all the remaining duration off you and onto the filter.^[1][4]

Two duration rules apply here. The minimum duration you can extract is 60 seconds (infusion_pylon.infusionMinimumDuration). A filter needs 3,600 seconds, which is 1 hour or 7.5 vanilla extended potions, before it works (infusion_pylon.infusionRequiredDuration). Right-clicking with the same effect active adds more progress, and the tooltip shows it as seconds out of the total.^[1][4][6]

If you have two filters with the same effect, you can combine them by putting one in each hand and right-clicking. The off-hand filter's duration will be added to the filter in your main hand.^[1][4]

Once it is running, the pylon applies effects of up to 20 seconds and refreshes them every 60 ticks (infusion_pylon.infusionAppliedDuration). The maximum potency is 3 (infusion_pylon.infusionMaximumPotency). It is 0-indexed, so Resistance V would be potency 4 and is above the cap.^[6]

The pylon chunkloads itself in this pack (infusion_pylon.infusionChunkloads). That is limited to one pylon per player, and only while the player is online. Every effect is allowed unless it is denied (infusion_pylon.infusionAllowedEffects and infusion_pylon.infusionDeniedEffects are both empty here). Effects can also be banned with the pylons:infusion_banned tag, and the filter's tooltip tells you whether an effect is disabled by tag or by config.^[4][6]

Infusion PylonChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab
Iron Bars	any emerald storage block	Iron Bars
Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone

Recipe id: pylons:infusion_pylon

The pack changed this recipe from the mod's own.

Potion FilterMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Cyan Terracotta	any green dye	Cyan Terracotta
any glass blocks	any emerald gem	any glass blocks
any glass blocks	any glass blocks	any glass blocks

Recipe id: pylons:potion_filter

Interdiction Pylon

This pylon prevents natural and forced spawns of the mobs you specify, within a chunk range from 1x1 to 5x5. Right-click a mob with a Mob Filter to select it, then add the filter to the pylon to block that mob.^[1][4]

The Lifeless Filter works differently. It blocks all mobs, but only natural spawns. In exchange the range grows to 25x25 chunks, and it disables the other mob filters.^[4]

Interdiction PylonChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab
Iron Bars	any netherite storage block	Iron Bars
Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone

Recipe id: pylons:interdiction_pylon

The pack changed this recipe from the mod's own.

Lifeless FilterMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Cyan Terracotta	any green dye	Cyan Terracotta
any glass blocks	any nether star	any glass blocks
any glass blocks	any glass blocks	any glass blocks

Recipe id: pylons:lifeless_filter

Protection Pylon

The Protection Pylon stops you, the owner, from breaking blocks or killing mobs inside its chunk range (1x1 to 5x5). It guards against accidents. Add Mob Filter and Block Filter items to say which mobs and blocks to protect. A Block Filter is set by right-clicking a block.^[4]

Protection PylonMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab
Iron Bars	Honeycomb Block	Iron Bars
Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone

Recipe id: pylons:protection_pylon

Filters

Filters are set by right-clicking: a mob for the Mob Filter, a player for the Player Filter, a block for the Block Filter, and an active effect for the Potion Filter. The pack also has crafting recipes for clearing a Mob Filter, a Player Filter and a Potion Filter.^[4][5]

Mob FilterMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Cyan Terracotta	any green dye	Cyan Terracotta
any glass blocks	any netherite ingot	any glass blocks
any glass blocks	any glass blocks	any glass blocks

Recipe id: pylons:mob_filter

Mob FilterMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Mob Filter

Recipe id: pylons:clear_mob_filter

Player FilterMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Cyan Terracotta	any green dye	Cyan Terracotta
any glass blocks	any diamond gem	any glass blocks
any glass blocks	any glass blocks	any glass blocks

Recipe id: pylons:player_filter

Player FilterMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Player Filter

Recipe id: pylons:clear_player_filter

Block FilterMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Cyan Terracotta	any green dye	Cyan Terracotta
any glass blocks	Honeycomb	any glass blocks
any glass blocks	any glass blocks	any glass blocks

Recipe id: pylons:block_filter

Potion FilterMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Potion Filter

Recipe id: pylons:clear_potion_filter

In this pack, Pylons progression runs through the logistics quest chapter. Most of its Pylons quests ask you to get a pylon together with a matching filter, so you work through them as pylon-and-filter pairs.^[3]

• "Expulsion Pylon" quest asks for the Expulsion Pylon and the Player Filter.^[3]
• "Infusion Pylon" quest asks for the Infusion Pylon and the Potion Filter.^[3]
• "Interdiction Pylon" quest asks for the Interdiction Pylon and the Mob Filter.^[3]
• "Harvester Pylon" quest asks for the Harvester Pylon.^[3]

The pylons the pack changed

The Expulsion, Infusion and Interdiction Pylons all have recipes changed by the pack. They share the same base components and differ in the storage block: diamond for the Expulsion Pylon, emerald for the Infusion Pylon and netherite for the Interdiction Pylon. Check the recipes below before you start collecting materials.^[5]

Expulsion PylonChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab
Iron Bars	any diamond storage block	Iron Bars
Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone

Recipe id: pylons:expulsion_pylon

This recipe is changed by the pack.

Infusion PylonChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab
Iron Bars	any emerald storage block	Iron Bars
Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone

Recipe id: pylons:infusion_pylon

This recipe is changed by the pack.

Interdiction PylonChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab
Iron Bars	any netherite storage block	Iron Bars
Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone

Recipe id: pylons:interdiction_pylon

This recipe is changed by the pack.

Unchanged pylon recipes

The Harvester Pylon and the Protection Pylon use the mod's own recipes, with no pack changes. The Harvester Pylon is part of the logistics quests.^[3][5]

Harvester PylonMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab
Iron Bars	Hay Block	Iron Bars
Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone

Recipe id: pylons:harvester_pylon

This is the mod's own recipe, unchanged by the pack.

Protection PylonMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab	Quartz Slab
Iron Bars	Honeycomb Block	Iron Bars
Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone	Polished Blackstone

Recipe id: pylons:protection_pylon

This is the mod's own recipe, unchanged by the pack.

Filters

The filters from the quests, Player Filter, Potion Filter and Mob Filter, all use the mod's own recipes. They share a base and differ in one ingredient. The recipe dump also lists a shapeless "clear" recipe for each of them, which takes the filter in and gives the same filter back.^[5]

Player FilterMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Cyan Terracotta	any green dye	Cyan Terracotta
any glass blocks	any diamond gem	any glass blocks
any glass blocks	any glass blocks	any glass blocks

Recipe id: pylons:player_filter

The mod's own recipe, unchanged by the pack.

Potion FilterMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Cyan Terracotta	any green dye	Cyan Terracotta
any glass blocks	any emerald gem	any glass blocks
any glass blocks	any glass blocks	any glass blocks

Recipe id: pylons:potion_filter

The mod's own recipe, unchanged by the pack.

Mob FilterMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Cyan Terracotta	any green dye	Cyan Terracotta
any glass blocks	any netherite ingot	any glass blocks
any glass blocks	any glass blocks	any glass blocks

Recipe id: pylons:mob_filter

The mod's own recipe, unchanged by the pack.

The Block Filter and the Lifeless Filter also have recipes in the pack. Both use unchanged mod recipes.^[5]

Block FilterMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Cyan Terracotta	any green dye	Cyan Terracotta
any glass blocks	Honeycomb	any glass blocks
any glass blocks	any glass blocks	any glass blocks

Recipe id: pylons:block_filter

The mod's own recipe, unchanged by the pack.

Lifeless FilterMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Cyan Terracotta	any green dye	Cyan Terracotta
any glass blocks	any nether star	any glass blocks
any glass blocks	any glass blocks	any glass blocks

Recipe id: pylons:lifeless_filter

The mod's own recipe, unchanged by the pack.

All of the Pylons quests in this pack sit in the "logistics" chapter. They have no titles in the pack files, so you will know them by their ids and by the items they ask for.^[3]

What each quest asks for

• Quest "Expulsion Pylon" quest asks for the Expulsion Pylon and the Player Filter.^[3]
• Quest "Infusion Pylon" quest asks for the Infusion Pylon and the Potion Filter.^[3]
• Quest "Interdiction Pylon" quest asks for the Interdiction Pylon and the Mob Filter.^[3]
• Quest "Harvester Pylon" quest asks for the Harvester Pylon as one of its tasks. The task list for this quest is cut off in the data I have, so I can't tell you what the other item is.^[3]

The quests are listed in the chapter in the order above. The first ones each pair a pylon with a filter: the Expulsion Pylon goes with the Player Filter, the Infusion Pylon with the Potion Filter, and the Interdiction Pylon with the Mob Filter. Craft both items for a quest before you go to claim it.^[3]

Everything for Pylons lives in one file, general.teamSupportEnabled and its siblings in config/pylons-server.toml. Below are the options you're most likely to touch, with the exact values this pack uses. Every numeric option in the file that is labelled with a mod default is set to that default here, so the pack hasn't changed those numbers.^[6]

Harvester Pylon

The Harvester Pylon is where most of the interesting options are. By default it needs a hoe in its inventory, and that's how this pack runs it.^[1][6]

• harvester_pylon.harvesterRequiresTool is true. The pylon needs a hoe and uses 1 durability per harvest action.^[6]
• harvester_pylon.harvesterRequiresPower is false. If you turned it on, the hoe requirement would be dropped and each harvested block would cost RF instead.^[6]
• harvester_pylon.harvesterCanBeAutomated is false, so you can't pipe tools in to automate it. Unbreakable tools are what the option's description says full automation normally calls for.^[6]
• harvester_pylon.harvesterWorkDelay is 60 ticks between harvest attempts (mod default 60, allowed range 10 to 120).^[6]
• harvester_pylon.harvesterPowerCost is 5 RF per block and harvester_pylon.harvesterPowerBuffer is 1000, both matching the mod defaults. They only matter if you enable power. The buffer should be greater than the cost per block times 80.^[6]

Infusion Pylon

• infusion_pylon.infusionRequiredDuration is 3,600 seconds, so a Potion Filter needs 1 hour of total duration (7.5 vanilla extended potions) before it can be used.^[1][6]
• infusion_pylon.infusionMinimumDuration is 60 seconds, the shortest effect duration a Potion Filter can use. It exists to avoid odd interactions with other mods that add persistent low-duration effects.^[6]
• infusion_pylon.infusionMaximumPotency is 3. The value is 0-indexed, so a Resistance V potion would be potency 4 and this cap stops one level short of that.^[6]
• infusion_pylon.infusionAppliedDuration is 20 seconds, the maximum duration applied to you. It is refreshed up to that amount every 60 ticks.^[6]
• infusion_pylon.infusionChunkloads is true, so the pylon chunkloads itself. This is limited to one pylon per player, and only while that player is online.^[6]
• infusion_pylon.infusionAllowedEffects and infusion_pylon.infusionDeniedEffects are both empty lists, so every effect is allowed. Anything in the denied list or the pylons:infusion_banned tag would override that.^[6]

Expulsion Pylon

• expulsion_pylon.expulsionAllowedDimensions contains only minecraft:overworld.^[6]
• expulsion_pylon.expulsionPylonMaxRadius is 2 (the mod default and the top of its 0 to 2 range). The centre chunk isn't counted, so that means a 5x5 chunk area.^[6]
• expulsion_pylon.expulsionPylonCanExplode is false, so explosions can't destroy it.^[6]
• expulsion_pylon.expulsionWorldSpawnRadius is 1 (mod default 1). It only takes effect if it is larger than the world's spawn radius.^[6]

Teams

general.teamSupportEnabled is true, so team support is active whenever a compatible mod such as FTB Teams or Argonauts is installed.^[6]

FTB Skies 2 1.22.0 ships Pylons 5.4.2. The mod has been in the pack since FTB Skies 2 1.0.1 or earlier. No pack changelog entries for Pylons were available, so everything below comes from the mod's own changelogs.^[2]

Pylons 5.4.2

• Cobblemon compatibility was refactored to fix a berry bush instantly resetting to fully grown after you harvested it, which was caused by the growth timer.^[7]

Pylons 5.3.0

• Added the Protection Pylon, which can help stop you from accidentally killing your bees or mining your base.^[8]
• Added a banned effect tag. It works like the config option for banning effects, but as a tag.^[8]

To disable an effect with the tag, add an entry to the file data/pylons/tags/mob_effect/infusion_banned.json in your datapack folder. The changelog's example bans minecraft:absorption by listing it as an id inside the values list.^[8]

Pylons 5.2.1

• Fixed a crash on dedicated servers.^[9]