Stairs are an essential type of platform in the Terraria building experience. When it comes to both stairs and platforms, other than creating a firm interactive path anywhere, including into thin air, they can be handy for blocking some enemies and fighting bosses.
It’s time to begin your journey of becoming a master builder!
This guide covers the Terraria PC, Consoles, and Mobile versions.
How to Make Stairs in Terraria
Making stairs in Terraria is relatively simple once you have all the materials. Here’s how to get started:
Step 1 – Stair Prerequisite Materials
You can skip this step if you have the material. Any hammer will do for making slopes out of the platforms. The rest of the type and amount of the materials will vary accordingly with what you envision building.
If you lack a hammer, you can use a workbench and wood to craft one. An anvil and bars will let you make more types of hammers, such as iron, gold, and platinum ones. So, if you want to build stairs faster, a higher tier hammer could help thanks to the extended range and faster swing it offers. In the end, it’s up to the player’s pace. Still, the “Smart cursor” remains a good alternative.
Step 2 – Stair Building in Terraria
Most platforms aren’t craftable using the workbench. Instead, you can build them using your inventory. To make a simple staircase, check out the following instructions:
- Gather these materials: platforms, walls, and a hammer.
- Place the platforms mid-air in diagonal, right where you want to build the staircase.
- Hit each platform once using your hammer. Doing this will change these into slanted stairs.
The “Smart Cursor” is recommended to place stairs since you don’t have to hammer each platform when using it. To correct a misplacement and other errors, you can also use the fourth hammer blow. Doing this will return a platform to its default position.
You can use the pickaxe for misplacements. It is possible to combine staircases with different directions creatively to move around with ease. You can go as high as you want.
Wielding a pickaxe to correct mistakes helps speed up the process. Additionally, point and click on the platforms whose shapes you would like to alter for correction.
Building Ladders
A bonus tip for the builders is that you can also make ladders to move up and down. Ladders also consist of platforms and beams with walls. To make a ladder, start by putting some platforms as high as necessary. Surround these with, for example, wooden beams. To top it off, give the ladders a suitable finishing using walls. One should wield a pickaxe to remove accidentally placed blocks.
How to Make Stairs for NPCs
If you’ve been trying to make NPCs move around in your building and socialize with ease, a carefully connected building helps. Making stairs for the NPCs is no different than making “basic” stairs. As such, the regular wood stairs are enough.
Note that when you put multiple staircases together in specific arrangements, the NPCs may find it harder to climb down. Unless intentional, do not put platforms on top of the staircases since NPCs can’t go through them, which would leave them stuck on a floor.
Additionally, NPCs won’t use spiral stairs or ladders. Follow the steps from the early section for further details about constructing stairs.
How to Make Spiral Stairs
While spiral stairs lack the same functionality as regular stairs, they make up for it with aesthetics. In short, you can’t walk up these stairs. Instead, you’ll have to jump on the platforms.
Follow these instructions to make spiral stairs:
- Obtain wooden beams from a sawmill. One wood piece can make two wooden beams.
- Place the beams where you want to build the spiral staircase.
- When starting at the bottom, begin by placing the platforms a few miles away from the beam.
- Next, place the platforms on the wooden beam structure by cutting through it where necessary. Following a pattern is recommended.
- Do not break the wood beam structure when placing the platforms on its side or “behind” it.
- Finish building the staircase following a swirling pattern.
- It’s time to fill in the gaps using whatever type of wall you see fit. A matching type is preferable.
Wood beams aren’t essential for functionality, but only the aesthetics. You can’t place something in front of the beams unless you break some of the blocks. Hence, wood beams and Spiral Stairs offer décor instead of functionality. As Terraria players care about aesthetics when building, a material like wood beams is subjectively essential for Spiral Stairs to please the eyes.
How to Make Stone Stairs
Remember, when you use a hammer on a block, you can make half-blocks and slopes after hitting it. Both slopes and half-blocks make for convincing stairs when made with a suitable type of block.
You can craft many platforms using your inventory as long as you have the materials. The same applies to Stone platforms.
Before building, you’ll need a hammer, gray bricks for crafting Stone platforms and walls. Also, remember to bring a pickaxe to the construction site for quick corrections. Once you’ve collected the requisite materials, it’s time to start building. To make a Stone staircase, follow these instructions:
- Once crafted, put the Stone platforms diagonally right where you want to make a staircase.
- You can connect the platforms by hitting each one once with the hammer.
All platforms are essentially the same. So, the “whys” behind building Stone platforms can be due to two reasons: an aesthetic one or a practical one.
The practical reason is that Stone platforms are immune to contact with lava (like the Obsidian ones). Weapon projectiles and liquids can pass through platforms. Though it seems contradictory, all platforms will melt down if you drop them directly into lava, including Stone and Obsidian ones. As an exception, Stone and Obsidian platforms will survive lava only when you place them on blocks. They will melt after being thrown into lava.
How to Make Stairs on Terraria Mobile
The Terraria Mobile version is quite similar to the PC and Console ones. Hence, the previous information also applies here. You can craft most of the platforms using your inventory, with exceptions.
Before building, craft walls, platforms, a hammer and, bring a pickaxe for corrections. All these materials can be of any type. Once gathered, follow these instructions for building staircases:
- After crafting your platforms, diagonally place them right where you want to build the staircase.
- Use the hammer to hit each platform once. Doing this will build slanted stairs.
A fourth hammer blow returns a platform to its default position, which comes in handy for corrections. You can combine staircases with different directions for better mobility. Note that you can build as high as you want.
Use a workbench and wood to craft a hammer if you have none. You can build more hammers using an Anvil and bars, such as platinum, gold, and iron hammers. Higher-tier hammers can speed the building process somewhat.
Equip a pickaxe to rectify mistakes. Additionally, point and click on the platforms whose shapes you would like to alter for correction.
Why Can’t I Make Stairs in Terraria?
Unlike on Console, the PC version of Terraria will only show you what you can craft with the resources you currently possess. Due to this limitation, you’ll need to talk with the “Guide” for tips and crafting recipes, including stairs. The Guide is the first NPC. He will spawn near you when you create your Terraria world.
If you lose your Guide or any other NPC, building them a house will make them respawn.
Wood is the only ingredient you will need to build a functional wood house. After gathering wood, use a Workbench to craft a chair, a table, and walls for your house. You can choose any material, though you should avoid making houses using sand and dirt. Note that some NPCs do need specific types of homes for living in them.
A small house made of wood and a wooden door is enough for its outer part. On the inside, you need to fill the entire house with wooden walls, a few torches, a wooden table and, a wooden chair. Once the house is built, open your inventory while inside it. Select the Housing Icon on the right and click on it to spawn the missing NPC. This house will get assigned to this NPC. You can change what NPC lives in a house by clicking on the Housing Icon.
While consulting with the Guide can help you make stairs and other things, there are other minor things to consider for proper building. These are:
- Craft the necessary platforms.
- Make sure to craft a hammer and equip it.
- Place the platforms close enough to make staircases.
- Connect each platform with the hammer. Practice makes perfect.
To Build Is to Entertain Oneself
It’s time to start bridging gaps, stop certain enemies from getting through, have stable roof access. You can even create a fighting arena for enemy hordes and bosses. These and many more adventures await you in your Terraria world. Make sure to share them.
What uses will you be giving your platforms? With what materials are your ideal spiral stairs built? Let us know in the comment section below.
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