If you want a creative way up your home or tower, you can make stairs to make the ascent look more interactive than simply placing wood platforms at each level. There is no crafted stairs, you have to make them yourself. Stairs can be simple to make, but the more intricate stairways take more time. Today I will show you how to make a simple staircase, a spiral staircase, and a “ladder”.
The amount of materials greatly depends on how high you want to build your staircase. The type of material does not matter as any platform or wall can work for your staircases.
- A Hammer (any tier or hammer will do)
- Platforms
- Walls
The hammer is used to turn platforms into stairs. There is not a tier requirement for hammers to turn platforms into a slope. The only effects a higher-tier hammer has is a faster swing speed and longer range.
Use any type of platform you would like. I used wooden platforms and found that they go well with planked walls, so that is what I chose.
For spiral staircases especially, you will want to match the type of wall with your platforms. It is not required but the texture difference can help sell the staircase look and feel.
Start by making some platforms. You do not need a crafting station to make most platforms. Some platforms like bone or honey platforms will require a special crafting station, but most can just be made from your inventory as long as you have the required materials for them.
Make some wood platforms. If you do not have a hammer you can make one at a workbench with wood.
If you have an anvil with some bars you can make anything from iron/lead to gold/platinum pre-boss and pre-hardmode. Grab your hammer of choice and start placing platforms where you would like your stairs.
The slope outside my house is a bit steep so I started there. Place a platform where you want the top of the stair to be. Then place platforms diagonally down.
Next take your hammer and hit each platform once. The game will recognize which direction you are trying to face the stairs. If the game does not recognize which direction you are trying to face the stair, just keep hitting the platforms with the hammer to cycle through the different slopes.
As you can see the platforms have combined into a stair slope. NPCs, mobs, and players can walk up and down these without any extra inputs.
There is no limit to how high you can make this staircase.
Despite the jagged look you can combine two different directions of staircases to go up and down.
Going up does not require you to jump and you do not have to be afraid of falling through the connected piece. Going down will require you to fall through the top platform. This is still a functional staircase, but if you would like to make it seem more level, break the platform between the two stairs and place a platform in the place of it.
You can continue to platform up if you would like. This unfortunately still requires you to drop from the top platform staircase to the bottom.
Spiral staircases look nice, but there is no real way to simply walk up the stairs. You will have to jump your way up. Nevertheless, a lot of what this staircase looks like is tricking your eyes and making the platforms seem like they are spiraling around a foundation. Start by making some wooden beams at a sawmill.
Each piece of wood will make two wooden beams, make as many as you need to go up as high as you would like. Beams are a background furniture item. They will not take the same position as walls, but you cannot place a chair or table in front of them.
Place them where you would like the spiral staircase to be. Use platforms and start by placing the “front” of the stairs by cutting through the wooden beam. Start at the bottom two or three tiles away from the wooden beam. Do not worry, we will clean up the blank space you see.
Plan for where the “back” of the staircase would spiral up. Do not break beams for this step. Just place platforms around the beam.
It can help if you establish “rules” for yourself about the size of the staircase. For example I have four as the longest platform and the platforms around the wooden beams only go out to three. Establish a pattern and continue your way to the top.
At this point you should be able to see the swirling pattern for your staircase. Time to fill in the gaps. This is where the planked wall comes in. Planked walls can be made at a sawmill with one stone and one wood. I placed wooden walls around the staircase so it is easier to visualize.
Now fill in planked walls wherever there are platforms and especially between the wooden beams. Do not worry too much about getting it perfect, just place planked walls where they seem to make sense.
If you look closely, the stony parts of the planked wall are being covered by the platforms and the wooden parts of the planked wall help give the platforms a wooden base. Fill in the rest of your walls with a matching type of wall and remove any problem walls. Connecting another wall to the planked wall helps give the rest of the stairs definition.
The planked walls help the platforms pop a little and the texture helps sell the spiral theme.
You can also make a ladder as a means to move up and down. There is no crafted ladder, similar to how there is not a crafted recipe for stairs. However, you can make wooden beams and platforms with planked walls to make what resembles a ladder for ascending or descending.
Place platforms as high as you would like, and place wooden beams around them.
Just like with the spiral staircase you can use planked walls to help give the ladder some definition.
It does not look like much on its own but can make the descent into a mineshaft seem more cultivated.
NPCs can use the basic wood platform stair system to climb up or down. The problem is when multiple of these platforms are connected. You may find that with certain arrangements they may not be able to climb down. They cannot use ladders or spiral staircases.
Slopes are made with hammers. If you click on any tile with a hammer it will change the slope of a tile by angling the tile into triangles or a half block.
Congratulations! You are now capable of making stairs for your homes and bases. Putting effort into making a spiral staircase or ladder can help make a build more defined and stand out compared to just a sloped platform. It honestly looks much nicer and knowing what goes into making a staircase can help you plan as you build your towers or homes.
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