Have you ever gazed at something beautiful and functionally crafted in Minecraft and thought about how you could create something similar, although it might not turn out quite the same? If such thoughts have crossed your mind, it’s likely that you’ve spent a considerable amount of time in communities where other players gather, like Reddit. Interestingly, this can be a very rewarding activity. Recently, the brilliant minds of the Reddit community took on the challenge of designing the smoothest staircase; while it may not be the most practical endeavor, it certainly is fascinating!
The goal of these staircase enthusiasts was straightforward: to design a collection of stairs that minimized the height increase between steps. They aimed to ascend one stair block using as many blocks as possible. This seemingly pointless, peculiar, and slightly absurd competition became a hot topic among international users.
Here is the stair block they needed to climb by creating the smoothest staircase.
It all kicked off with an exceptionally smooth staircase crafted by user Crystlon. His first block was a red carpet—just what we need in Minecraft Bedrock! Rolling out the red carpet provides a warm welcome for this ridiculous community project. What came next? His subsequent step was the Red Repeater. To be honest, it feels more like a step down. Nevertheless, the staircase remains smooth.
From right to left: carpet, Red Repeater, trapdoor, snow, campfire, slab, stone cutter, snow, pipe, snow, chorus plant, enchanting table, grass path, stone.
This staircase has set a benchmark for all subsequent projects. In fact, it was quite an ambitious goal, as 15 blocks were utilized to craft this smooth staircase. A wonderful investment of time. Truly impressive! However, it’s also quite hazardous—did you notice the mason? Nevertheless, it’s a solid start! Can anyone surpass this?
Another Reddit user, ShazZ, drew even more attention to this absurd contest with his attempt to construct “the most ineffective staircase in history.” He managed to use snow blocks for a smooth ascent. It looks decent, though it initially lacks a red carpet.
Brown staircases are always in style due to the abundance of mud blocks in Minecraft Bedrock. Moreover, when combined with snow, they become even dirtier. Well, never mind, color isn’t crucial in this competition.
The red carpet is a crucial initial step, not only because we all deserve to be treated like royalty, but also due to the fact that it adds a mere 0.0625 meters to your height (assuming one pixel in the game equals 1 to 3). Stepping onto the red carpet requires hardly any effort at all. Therefore, remember to utilize the carpet as your first move when constructing ineffective staircases. With its assistance, you won’t gain even a centimeter.
The next challenger to take on the task was user Nlvya. He titled his creation: “The Truly Least Effective Ladder.” Sounds quite bold! Let’s take a look at his ladder, which was just one block short of reaching our record holder!
This ladder includes everything necessary for survival in the desert: a chest, a campfire, a boat, a stone cutter, and a good book. The suggested title for this ladder could be: “How to Waste Time in the Game in 14 Steps.”
Hey, this time there’s a carpet! However, it’s white instead of red, which immediately confuses me and makes me feel awkward. Why create an item that we step on to be so light in color? The second item in the ladder is a hatch. Besides the fact that stepping on a hatch is always a risky and unpleasant action, it also serves as a great tool for getting rid of adversaries; just place it in front of your enemy, and voilà—no more foe! But we all know that the second step should have been a Red repeater. Can someone please take out the first contender for victory?
Here’s another creation by mael_cookie. It seems her ladder has almost matched up with Crystlon’s ladder. Let’s compare who will surge ahead in this race. So, the first block again is a white carpet. Next are two stacked snow tiles, and only at the third step do we find the hatch. Despite using different blocks, our contenders for victory have equal heights between their blocks. For Crystlon, it was also a carpet, followed by a Red repeater and then the hatch.
Press F3 in Minecraft Java to open the debug screen. On the left, you can see numbers next to XYZ. The middle one represents your current height in the world. You can use this panel to determine how high you’ve climbed.
Let’s revisit the mael_cookie staircase. It features the same blocks as Crystlon: a daylight sensor, campfire, furnace, stonecutter, and a stack of six snow blocks. However, there are notable differences; mael_cookie opts for an enchanted table and chorus instead of snow. Unfortunately, these blocks play a crucial role, indicating that mael_cookie only required 14 steps to ascend one stair block. As we recall, Crystlon needed 15. This means that the mael_cookie staircase is one block too efficient to claim victory in the contest. It was very close!
So, is the competition over? Not by a long shot, my friends. We have user ChillYourJetskis stepping up to demonstrate what a truly inefficient staircase looks like in Minecraft Bedrock! This isn’t just idling; the staircase indeed serves its purpose, but this time it requires traversing a full 17 blocks instead of the previous 15! That’s two extra steps!
How did they achieve such heights? The first breakthrough involves using lily pads after the initial step with carpet. “The lily pad stands about 1.5 pixels tall, making it higher than the carpet yet lower than the Redstone repeater,” explains ChillYourJetskis. Utilizing water-based items like this is brilliant, as it provides the lazy staircase with an additional step.
The second additional step is made possible through an even more clever use of water. ChillYourJetskis positioned two stair blocks facing each other and filled the gap between them with water, resulting in a marshy block. With just a few adjustments, one can make a boat sink into this tiny pool of water. In this way, ChillYourJetskis cleverly created an extra step between three snow slabs and a daylight sensor.
The winner of the contest for crafting the most inefficient staircase was ChillYourJetskis! Observing how skillfully he maneuvered to create an extra step by blending blocks, I realized that there are many more possibilities to design an even less efficient staircase. So you too can come up with additional blocks and make your mark in Minecraft as the creator of the most ineffective staircase!
