I decided to pop into the new snapshot to test a few things which I have been wondering about and I have not seen confirmed/denied. Here is why I found:
The pyramid can be made using more than one type of metal block (gold, iron, diamond, or emerald):
Each in their own layer:
Random:
I did a test to see if you could do this:
After I saw that each of them were accessible, I thought how I could change it to be full sized:
Without the WIP block (emerald is the base pyramid, gold is adding one more, iron is adding the second, diamond is to add the third):
Proof that the blocks turn on:
I thought about seeing if you could then get all 5 perks and made this (the larger bit of diamonds is what is needed to add the final WIP block):
The blocks turn on as before:
When I did try to use two of the WIP blocks, the game crashed and the world corrupted, but I do not believe this is from this exploit because it happened when I made two pyramids too close to each other as well.
Now for the math behind it:
1st perk costs 164 metal blocks or 1476 of the item.
2nd perk costs an additional 24 metal blocks or 216 of the item.
3rd perk costs an additional 24 metal blocks or 216 of the item.
4th perk costs an additional 4 metal blocks or 36 of the item.
5th perk costs an additional 24 metal blocks or 216 of the item.
+ the regen perk.
In total that is 240 metal blocks or 2160 of the item. It is only 76 more blocks for 4 more perks.
This can and will be exploited in the near future assuming no fix comes out.