Tutorial:Breaking a fall

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Breaking a fall is essential to playing Minecraft, as falling is among one of the most common causes of death. This article will explain different ways of doing a clutch, or an MLG, in order to avoid taking fall damage.

Ways to break a fall

Too high to use a block clutch!

Block clutches

Water bucket clutch

This is the most well-known way to break a fall. The player must have a water bucket in their inventory and quickly place the water just before hitting the ground. Once on the ground safely, the player can then recollect the water with the bucket to use for a future time. Note however that using a water bucket on certain full blocks like leaves and mangrove roots will waterlog them instead of placing a water source on top of them, meaning that the player would still take damage. This method also doesn't work in the Nether where water immediately evaporates.

Powder snow bucket clutch

Similar to the water bucket clutch, but uses the powder snow bucket instead. This technique works in mostly the same way, placing a block of powder snow beneath a player. One key advantage is that it can be used in the Nether, while water cannot, as it evaporates. Powder snow can also be placed on leaves, mangrove roots or top slabs, nullifying fall damage that normally can not be prevented by water buckets. However, the powder snow can be easily broken by any flowing liquid, done intentionally or not.

Cobweb clutch

This technique uses cobwebs to break a fall. Cobwebs can reset fall damage^[1]; however, without shears, flowing water, or a sword, they take a long time to break and will keep the player trapped for a while.

Block clutch

This uses any solid block (excluding hay bales and beds) to break a fall by reducing the distance by one block. This is useful to reduce damage from falling less than 25 blocks. Above 25 blocks, the player dies regardless of placing a block.

Slime block clutch

This clutch uses a slime block to fully negate fall damage. The player can hold sneak or jump to land on the slime block without bouncing back.

Hay bale clutch

This clutch uses hay bales to reduce fall damage by 80%.

Bed clutch

This clutch uses a bed to reduce the fall damage by 50%.

Ladder clutch

This clutch uses ladders to break a fall. To perform this clutch, the player needs to find a block and place a ladder on one of its vertical faces, then get on the ladder, resetting their fall distance and stopping fall damage. The player must be careful not to land on the ladder's top side as they will take fall damage as normal if they do so.

Scaffolding clutch

Landing on scaffolding while sneaking negates any fall damage. However, scaffolding can only be placed on solid blocks with a flat top surface; it can't be placed on blocks like leaves.

Item clutches

Elytra

If the player is wearing an elytra, they can break their fall by gliding safely to the ground.

Potion of Slow Falling

If the fall is great enough, there may be sufficient time to drink a potion of Slow Falling before hitting the ground. Similarly, the player may splash themselves with a splash or lingering variant at the bottom of their fall.

Boat clutch

This involves placing a boat and entering it moments before the player hits the ground. If done correctly it can completely negate fall damage. An easier method is to place down the boat before falling and then row it away instead. This still negates all fall damage.

Horse clutch

This clutch uses a horse, or any of its variants, at the bottom of the fall and mounting it just before the player lands. If done right it can negate fall damage, but it requires the horse to be in the right position at the right time. Pigs and striders can also be used, provided they are equipped with a saddle.

Wind charge

This clutch uses a wind charge to break a fall. The player throws the wind charge at the ground before they land, stopping fall damage and slightly bouncing the player into the air. Wind charges are stackable and can be thrown some time before hitting the ground, making for easy saves. However, they are difficult to acquire, as they are only found in trial chambers.

Mace

This clutch uses a mace to stop a fall by hitting a mob, another player, or armor stand, negating all fall damage. This method is useful because it will not only negate your fall, but also eliminate you opponent. However, like the horse clutch, the entity has to be in the right position at the right time. Also, a mace is difficult to obtain, requiring a rare drop from an ominous vault.

Ender pearl

This clutch uses an ender pearl. Before hitting the ground, an ender pearl should be thrown, reducing the built up damage to only two and a half hearts. Ender pearls are a 50% drop from endermen, which makes getting an abundance of them not very difficult. However, the clutch will result the player dying anyway if they have only two and a half hearts or less.

However, the terminal velocity of ender pearl is lower than that of a player, meaning that if you throw the pearl too early, you may fall and die before the pearl lands.

Table of comparison

Block/Item	Advantages	Disadvantages
Water	Water is found all over the overworld.	Only method that doesn't work in the Nether; putting water on leaves, mangrove roots or similar full blocks waterlogs them instead
Powder Snow	Can be concealed underneath carpets.	Slightly difficult to find, due to having to find specific biomes, or having to wait for cauldrons to fill; easily broken by any liquid; destroyed when touched by an entity that is on fire.
Cobweb	Cobwebs are already used for PvP.	It needs shears, flowing water, or a sword to break; otherwise, it will take significantly longer. It is also much more expensive than other options.
Block	Blocks are found everywhere, there is practically no situation where one can't acquire blocks.	Unless one uses them to scale down a wall, they only reduce half a heart from the fall damage, it cannot be performed if the fall is too high (>25 blocks or higher when one doesn't have Feather Falling or Protection).
Slime Block	The player bounces upwards unless they are pressing the sneak/jump button. This can be useful in certain situations, and it is very easy to not bounce if bouncing is undesirable.	Slimeballs can be hard to acquire.
Hay Bale	Found in bulk in the common village, or can be crafted with 9 wheat.	While the fall damage negation is quite large (80% of the fall damage that the player would take is removed, requiring the player to fall 100 blocks to die at full health), it is not absolute.
Ladder	Crafted from sticks, making it extremely cheap.	Quite difficult to perform, as one must aim at the side (not the top or bottom) of a block to place the ladder^{[verify for Java Edition]}, and if there is no side of a block available, then placing a block to create a side and placing a ladder on it is even more difficult
Boat	Crafted from planks, making it extremely cheap. It is the easiest method of preventing fall damage early-game by falling while you are in the boat. As a bonus, it can also be used to quickly travel across water, trap mobs, or prevent knockback.	Can't be crafted from warped or crimson planks. The method that involves placing and entering the boat in the same fall is very difficult to perform, requiring high CPS. Cannot be done from falls of over ~30 blocks because the high momentum makes it so that there are no ticks between placing the boat and hitting the ground.
Scaffolding	The materials are cheap if one gets lucky.	Requires a solid block with a flat top surface to place scaffolding on; the player must be sneaking. Can be difficult to obtain if jungles are far away.

References

↑ Cobweb § Effects

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