Crafting in Minecraft- Advanced Tools 3- Mobility Tools (Part One)

Stair Blocks

Stair blocks are crafted using a crafting table.  You can make them out of smooth stone, cobblestone, and wood.  By placing a diagonal line of three blocks of whatever you’re crafting, then filling in the space below them, you create a triangle of material.  Each of these then produces a number of ‘stair’ blocks.  Half of each of these blocks is the height of a full block, and the other half is half that height.  Stair blocks have a number of interesting properties.

Stair blocks function as stairs in the real world- but because they change heights in half-blocks, when walking up or down them in Minecraft, you do not do any jumping or falling.  This can make a climb easier, so stairs are very useful when you have a hill or tunnel you regularly go up or down.  They are not, however, transparent, so they block light and stop arrows and fireballs.  This makes them surprisingly useful as windows, since you can see out or in them without letting light or attacks pass.  Water and lava cannot flow through stair blocks either, so stairs (non-wooden stairs, in the case of lava) can be used to break flows.  Liquids will still flow on top of these b locks, as though they were whole blocks, so be careful when using them this way.

Stair blocks will always be placed so that the ‘taller’ side of the block is in the direction you are closest to facing.  This makes placing them properly when you are facing a diagonal a bit tricky, but a little practice can make that easier.

Because of their shape, they are very good for equating to slopes, which makes stair blocks invaluable for decorating.

With Minecraft 1.2.4 or later, you can also place stair blocks upside-down.  This gets a bit tricky, but when making decorations or shaping things can be very fun and adds a lot more options.

Ladders

Ladders are another simple mobility tool, also requiring a crafting table.  By creating an ‘H’ shape out of sticks in the crafting space, you can make ladders.  Ladders are placed on the side of nearly any block, and ‘occupy’ the space they are in.  They will be knocked free by water or falling sand or gravel and knocked free and destroyed by lava, but you can place sand and gravel ‘on top’ of them and they will hold in place.  Ladder blocks provide a place to climb- if you try to move towards the block the ladder is on when you are already next to it, you will instead move up the ladder.  Releasing the direction key and staying where you are lets you slowly slide down the ladder.

You can stay in your vertical place on a ladder by holding the Shift key, just as though you were trying not to fall off the edge of a block.  You can also move sideways off a ladder, though you have to be careful or you’ll fall to your death in the process.

Monsters and animals are actually incapable of using ladders most of the time- while this doesn’t really affect spiders, it keeps creepers, zombies, skeletons, and slimes a bit more managable than they would otherwise be.