A Guide to Avoid Portal Traps

Aegnor 29. apr 2025 16:44 52

This guide was written to help the everyday player by raising awareness of the most common forms of being portal trapped.

Please, please, avoid bothering staff when you are trapped in a portal. Many argue that the server is responsible for patching portal traps, but before these patches can be rolled out, please avoid being trapped yourself. There is NO REQUIREMENT that staff have to help you. Staff are volunteers who willingly spend their time to moderate the server. Please be polite.

Section 1. What is a portal trap?

Players cannot type in portals (unless the player has a mod installed that allows for this)
In a land claim, players can't break blocks (e. g. in Survival or Lifesteal)
In a player plot, players can’t break blocks (e. g. in Creative)
When a player logs onto the server, they are not teleported back to spawn
As such, when you get trapped into a portal, your account is effectively stuck there.

Section 2. How will I get trapped and how can I avoid being trapped?

Being aware of how nefarious players will try to trap you is the first step in knowing how to avoid it.
The most common method is to make you /tp to them.
They will use different methods/excuses to convince you to do so

For a complete guide with the most common examples of excuses portal trappers will use, please consult ArchMC Full Portal Trap Guide
This also contains the not-yet-approved new Portal Trap Policy.

As a rule of thumb, avoid doing anything mentioned in a message that also has the word /tp in it, unless you know the person VERY WELL.

The other, much rarer trap, involves knowing where the person spawns when they relog onto the server.
This can happen in a shared land claim or a plot with multiple people added.
Using redstone, they can make pistons push you into the portal when you log back onto the server, and then remove you from the land/plot.