Stairs

Stairs are blocks that allow the player to change elevation without jumping. They are a more compact alternative to Slabs, allowing a greater elevation change in a shorter horizontal distance.

Occurrence
Stairs occur naturally in NPC Villages. Wooden Stairs make seating furniture in houses, as well as roofs for most structures in the village. Cobblestone Stairs occur in front of doors and inside churches. Cobblestone Stairs can also be found within Strongholds. Nether Brick Stairs occur naturally in Nether Fortresses.

Crafting
Stairs can be made using six of either Wooden Planks (all four types), Cobblestone, Bricks, Stone Bricks, or Nether Bricks, producing four stairs per craft. Sandstone stairs are also available in the current snapshot.

Usage


Aside from their given usage, stairs can be used for a number of aesthetic purposes, mostly in simulating items that are not currently present in the game.


 * A popular use for stair blocks is to simulate benches or chairs. As of the Beta 1.8 update, NPC Villages are generated using stairs for seats.
 * Another popular use is as roofing for homes, also seen in NPC Villages but widely used by players prior to the Beta 1.8 update.
 * Just as normal stairs are used to smooth slopes in the floor, upside-down stairs can be used to smooth slopes in the ceiling. This makes it possible to create more realistic arches under bridges or in architectural buildings.
 * Brick and stone brick steps, when stacked at the end of a wall made with other brick or stone brick blocks, gives the appearance of broken masonry.
 * Stairs can be used to hide Redstone Wiring, as power will go through the lower half of a stair block. With the full-sized end facing outwards, it can be used to hide wiring without placing a hole in a wall.
 * Chests can be opened below stair blocks.
 * Stairs can be arranged to form windows or halls with unique properties. These openings will not allow hits or arrows through, will block light (except for the inside edge of the stairs) and fluid, but will allow entities such as items and small animals to pass through (if the opening is large enough). Openings may be made the size of 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, or 1 block. (1 block openings will allow arrows through in a future snapshot )

Behavior
As of Alpha 1.2.0 (the Halloween update) Stairs are placed facing the player so they may be immediately climbed. This may cause problems when constructing a stair; just start at the lower end to fix this. Alternatively, you can face the top of the stairs, sneak, and place stairs at your feet while hanging onto the edge of a block to place them in the correct location while descending the stairs.

Water will flow over stairs as if it were a completely solid block. If one attempts to place a torch on top of a stair block, the torch will be placed instead on the closest available non-stair block.

Previously, Wooden Stairs would not burn, but as of Beta 1.6, Wooden Stairs and Fences have become flammable.

As of 12w08a, stairs can also be placed upside-down by placing them on the bottom of a block.

Sometimes, when you go into third-person mode, while holding a stair, when you go back the stair will be backwards.

History

 * In older versions[which?], hovering the cursor over the stair block would sometimes make the black outline flicker, making mining the stair block glitchy, and the block behind it would often be mined instead.


 * Before Alpha 1.2.0, stairs would determine their orientation based on the surrounding blocks (changing if they were changed). They would attempt to face a block adjacent to the stairs, so as to create a climbable surface towards that block. However, this was often more annoying than helpful, and was therefore changed to be placed facing the player.


 * SunshineThrough.JPG From Alpha version 1.2.2 to Beta 1.5, stairs had the odd property of being transparent to light; when placed one or more spaces above the ground with air beneath, sunlight or other light sources would shine through and light the blocks beneath/behind the stairs exactly as if nothing opaque were present between them. Other atmospheric effects such as snowfall did not penetrate stair blocks, making them an unusually effective material for creating roofing which kept weather out, but still let daylight in. Snow could not accumulate on top of stair blocks, grass was able to grow on the block directly underneath a stair block, and grass wouldn't disappear if a stair block was placed on top of it. Any stair block placed in Alpha 1.2.0_02 to Beta 1.5 would keep this property in later versions until it or an adjacent block is changed or removed, causing a lighting update.


 * In Beta 1.6, the inventory icon for stairs was reversed to show a more recognizable figure.


 * Brick Stairs and Stone Brick Stairs were added in Beta 1.8. Up to Beta 1.8.1, Stone Brick Stairs could drop one of either Mossy Stone Brick or Cracked Stone Brick when broken due to the data value carrying over.


 * Until Beta 1.9pre6, mining a stair block would yield a block of the material it was made of (thus wasting material), rather than a stair block.


 * Nether Brick Stairs were added in Beta 1.9


 * Upside-down stairs were added in snapshot 12w08a (release 1.2). Before they were added, edited data values of 4 through 15 would create invisible stairs that could be walked through; these higher values are now used for upside-down stairs.


 * Sandstone Stairs were added in 12w21a

Trivia

 * Placing 6 Mossy Stone Brick or 6 Cracked Stone Brick in a crafting box will only make Stone Brick Stairs, not Mossy/Cracked Stone Brick Stairs.
 * Unlike slabs, if stairs are placed upside-down, one can place torches on top.