Stairs

Stairs

Transparency	Partial (blocks light)
Luminance	No
Blast resistance	Wood: 15 Stone: 30 Sandstone, Quartz, Red Sandstone: 4
Tools
Renewable	Cobblestone, Stone Brick, Wood, Purpur: Yes All others: No
Stackable	Yes (64)
Flammable	Wood: Yes Stone: No
Drops	Itself
Data values	See Data values
Name	See Data values

Stairs are blocks that allows mobs and players to change elevation without jumping.

Obtaining

Stairs can be crafted, or can be found in villages, strongholds, nether fortresses, and end cities.

Breaking

Wood stairs drop themselves as items when broken with any tool, or with no tool, but an axe is fastest. Non-wood stairs drop themselves as items only if broken with a pickaxe.

Block	Brick Cobblestone Nether Brick	Stone Brick	Quartz Sandstone	Wood
Hardness	2	1.5	0.8	2
Tool
Breaking time
Hand	10	7.5	4	3
Wooden	1.5	1.15	0.65	1.5
Stone	0.75	0.6	0.35	0.75
Iron	0.5	0.4	0.2	0.5
Diamond	0.4	0.3	0.2	0.4
Golden	0.25	0.2	0.1	0.25

Crafting

Wood stairs must be crafted entirely from one type and color of wood, and they retain the style of that wood's type and color.

Natural generation

Oak wood and cobblestone stairs generate naturally in plains villages, and sandstone stairs generate naturally in desert villages.

Cobblestone stairs also generate naturally in strongholds, as well as stone brick stairs.

Nether brick stairs generate naturally in nether fortresses.

Spruce wood stairs generate naturally in witch huts and in igloos.

Purpur stairs generate naturally in end cities.

Usage

Walking

Walking up stairs is faster than jumping up the same distance. It also only costs 0.01 exhaustion from the player's hunger bar per horizontal meter walked on a stairway, versus 0.2 exhaustion per jump.

Placing

Stairs Reconfiguration — Left: Original facing when separate. Right: Changed shape when adjacent (top: inner corner; bottom: outer corner).

To place stairs, use a stairs item while pointing at a surface facing the space the stairs should occupy. Stairs will place with the half-block side closest to the player.

Stairs can be placed either right side up or upside-down:

• Pointing at a block top or the bottom half of a block side will place the stairs right side up.
• Pointing at a block bottom or the top half of a block side will place the stairs upside-down.

Stairs will change their shape to join with adjacent stairs (of any material):

• When a stairs' half-block side is adjacent to the side of another stairs, the stairs' full-block side will wrap into an "L" shape to join the other stairs (it creates an "inner corner").
• When a stairs' full-block side is adjacent to the side of another stairs, the stairs' full-block side will shorten to join only the other stairs' full-block side (it creates an "outer corner").

Right side up stairs won't join with upside-down stairs and vice versa.

Fuel

Wooden stairs can be used as a fuel in furnaces, smelting 1.5 items per block.

Data values

Stairs are defined by their ID and block data. Stairs also have a block state which is expected to replace the functionality of block data in a future version.

ID

A stairs' ID specifies its material:

Name	ID Name	Block ID
Oak Wood Stairs	oak_stairs	53
Cobblestone Stairs	stone_stairs	67
Brick Stairs	brick_stairs	108
Stone Brick Stairs	stone_brick_stairs	109
Nether Brick Stairs	nether_brick_stairs	114
Sandstone Stairs	sandstone_stairs	128
Spruce Wood Stairs	spruce_stairs	134
Birch Wood Stairs	birch_stairs	135
Jungle Wood Stairs	jungle_stairs	136
Quartz Stairs	quartz_stairs	156
Acacia Wood Stairs	acacia_stairs	163
Dark Oak Wood Stairs	dark_oak_stairs	164
Red Sandstone Stairs	red_sandstone_stairs	180
Purpur Stairs	purpur_stairs	203

Block data

See also: Data values

A stairs' block data specifies its facing and whether it is upside-down:

Bits	Description
0x1 0x2	A two-bit field containing a value from 0 to 3 specifying the direction of the stairs' full-block side: 0: East 1: West 2: South 3: North
0x4	Set if stairs are upside-down
0x8	(unused)

Block state

See also: Block states

Name	Value	Description
facing	north south east west	The direction the stairs' full-block side faces. When placed in-game by a player, this matches the direction the player faces.
half	top bottom	Top if the stairs are upside-down.
shape	straight inner_left inner_right outer_left outer_right	"straight" is the default stairs shape. "inner" is an "inside corner" stair shape, with two full-block and two stair-shaped side faces. "outer" is an "outside corner" stair shape, with two stair-shaped and two half-block side faces. "left" and "right" specify in which direction is the higher part of the step.

Video

Note: This video is outdated, as red sandstone stairs were added in 1.8 and purpur stairs were added to 1.9.

History

Alpha
1.0.0				Added wood and cobblestone stairs (originally called "Stone Stairs"). Wooden stairs do not burn up.
1.2.0				Before this version, 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.
1.2.2				The old light transparency Stairs now 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.
Beta
1.6				Wooden stairs and fences are now flammable.
				Fixed light transparency from Alpha 1.2.2. Reversed the inventory icon for stairs to show a more recognizable figure.
1.8				Added brick and stone brick stairs. Stone brick stairs could drop one of either mossy stone brick or cracked stone brick when broken due to the data value carrying over. Mining a stair block would yield the stair's source material, rather than a stair block, thus wasting material.
1.8.1				Stone brick stairs now always drop regular Stone Brick.
Official release
1.0.0		Beta 1.9-pre1		Added Nether brick stairs.
		Beta 1.9-pre6		Mining a stair block now drops the stair block instead of the stair's source material.
1.2.1		12w08a		Added upside-down stairs. 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.
1.3.1		12w21a		Added sandstone stairs.
		12w25a		Redstone, repeaters, torches, levers, pressure plates and rails can now be placed on stairs positioned upside down.
				Added wooden stairs for the remaining three wood types (birch, spruce and jungle).
		12w26a		Added crafting recipes for birch, spruce and jungle wood stairs.
1.4.2		12w34a		Stairs now automatically change shape into corner stairs depending on location.
		12w39a		Stairs interact properly with lighting now.
				Smooth lighting on stairs is slightly bugged.
1.5		13w02a		Added quartz stairs.
		13w05a		Fixed stairs lighting when Smooth Lighting is on.
		13w05b		Stairs no longer stop sprinting.
1.7.2		1.7-pre		Added acacia and dark oak stairs.
1.8		14w21b		Upside down sandstone and quartz stairs each had their top and bottom textures switched.
		14w31a		Renamed "Stone Stairs" to "Cobblestone Stairs".
		14w32a		Added red sandstone stairs.
1.9		June 22, 2015		Jeb reveals purpur stairs on Instagram, with the words "MINECON 2015 HYPE!"
		15w31a		Added purpur stairs.
				Stairs are now rotated 90° in the inventory.
		15w43a		Spruce wood stairs act as corners of a table generated within igloo basements.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.1.0				Added wooden (original oak) and cobblestone stairs.
0.3.0				Added brick stairs.
0.6.0				Added Nether brick, sandstone, stone brick and quartz stairs.
				Corner stairs and upside-down stairs added.
0.8.0		build 2		Birch, spruce and jungle wood stairs added.
0.9.0		build 1		Added acacia and dark oak wood stairs.
				Stone brick stairs now naturally generate in strongholds.
				Cobblestone and oak wood stairs now naturally generate in villages.
				Corrected the name for stairs.
0.11.0		build 1		Acacia and dark oak wooden stairs are now flammable.
				Quartz stairs can be crafted in Survival mode.
0.14.0		build 1		Added red sandstone stairs.
Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	Added wood (original oak) and cobblestone stairs.
TU5				Added stone brick stairs and brick stairs.
TU7				Added Nether brick stairs.
TU9				Added spruce and birch wood stairs and sandstone stairs.
TU12				Added jungle wood stairs.
				Stairs now automatically change shape into corner stairs depending on location.
				Stairs can be placed upside down. Items can be placed directly on upside down stairs.
TU13				Jungle wood stairs are now flammable.
TU14		1.04		Added quartz stairs.
				Changed placement of upside down stairs and slabs.
TU27	CU15	1.18		Added acacia and dark oak stairs.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3	Added Red Sandstone Stairs.
				Renamed "Stone Stairs" into "Cobblestone Stairs".

Issues

Issues relating to “Stairs” are maintained on the issue tracker. Report issues there.

Gallery

• 

  Naturally occurring cobblestone stairs in villages.

• 

  Naturally occurring Nether brick stairs in Nether fortresses.

• 

  First image of upside-down stairs released by Jeb.

References

Blocks

View at: Template:Blocks/content [edit]