I am making a Tile Based game using Libgdx. I took the idea from SuperKoalio platformer demo by Mario Zencher. When I wanted to implement Collectables in my game , I simply draw the coins using Tiled Map Editor. When my player hits that, I use to set that cell as null.

Someday on this site suggested me not to do so... never use null. I agreed. What can be any other way. If I am using layer.setCell(x,y) to set the cell to any other cell... even if an transparent one .. my player seems to be stopped by an invisible object/hurdle.

This is my code:

for (Rectangle tile : tiles)
                {
                    if (koalaRect.overlaps(tile))
                    {
                        TiledMapTileLayer layer = (TiledMapTileLayer) map.getLayers().get(1);
                        try{
                            type = layer.getCell((int) tile.x, (int) tile.y).getTile().getProperties().get("tileType").toString();
                            }
                            catch(Exception e){
                                System.out.print("Exception in Tiles Property"+e);
                                type="nonbreakable";
                            }

                        //Let us destroy this cell
                        if(("award".equals(type))){
                        layer.setCell((int) tile.x, (int) tile.y, null);
                        listener.coin();
                        score+=100;
                        test = ""+layer.getCell(0, 0).getTile().getProperties().get("tileType");
                        }

                        //DOING THIS GIVES A BAD EFFECT
                        if(("killer".equals(type))){
                            //player.health--;
                            //layer.setCell((int) tile.x, (int) tile.y, layer.getCell(20,0));
                        }

                        // we actually reset the player y-position here
                        // so it is just below/above the tile we collided with
                        // this removes bouncing :)
                        if (player.velocity.y > 0)
                        {
                            player.position.y = (tile.y - Player.height);

                        }

Is this a right approach? OR I should create separate Sprite Class called Coin.