Minecraft player showcases their most efficient staircase design

A recent Minecraft contest has challenged players to create the most optimal in-game staircase that would allow them to climb up to new heights by simply walking forward. A Redditor with the username SomethingRandom took to the platform on November 6, 2023, to share a staircase design that is technically impossible to recreate in the game's Survival Mode due to the nature of the block arrangement.

Without delving too deep into its construction, SomethingRandom utilized Minecraft's Debug Stick and commands to guide the RNG- and coordinate-dependent blocks like dripstone and bamboo/sea cucumbers to create the staircase.

Despite being a relatively flat surface, SomethingRandom showed players that it was possible to scale the structure just by moving forward.

---

Minecraft fans react to SomethingRandom's highly efficient staircase

This is an 8-step "most efficient" staircase. This absolutely cannot be built in survival and requires insane luck in order for the dripstone/bamboo to line up correctly. byu/SomethingRandomYT inMinecraft

When SomethingRandom first shared their creation to the Minecraft subreddit, some players weren't quite sure what they were looking at. This is to be expected, as the optimal staircase build challenge isn't exactly common knowledge among the community and has been more of a niche competition between builders.

With precise block placement that defies what can be accomplished without cheats or the Debug Stick, SomethingRandom showed off the build that effectively allows a player to climb without the use of traditional climbing mechanics seen on vines or ladders. Without breaking a player's walking animation, this staircase is capable of moving players upward eight blocks in total.

Minecraft fans explain the ingenuity of SomethingRandom's build (Image via Reddit)

Since things like ladders or water/bubble column elevators have a defined transit time in Minecraft, structures like SomethingRandom's are capable of nullifying this movement penalty with the right assortment of blocks and slabs. Once fans came to this realization in the comments, they were genuinely surprised at what the build was capable of.

Some fans imagined what the staircase would be like if it were elongated, while others joked about how blindingly fast they might be able to travel upward if they approached the structure while riding a horse. A few players remarked that they'd stick with ladders and traditional stair blocks, regardless of how slowly they have to ascend them.

Players joke that they'll stick to more traditional means of scaling elevation (Image via Reddit)

There's little doubt that even more Minecraft players will share their optimal staircases in the future, but SomethingRandom has put a very strong foot forward in the ongoing challenge. Replicating their build is certainly a tricky one, given the attention to detail needed to pull it off, but players certainly can't argue with the final results.

Sure, fans may prefer a traditional staircase, but builds like SomethingRandom's show the more interesting aspects of the game's engine and how players can interact with it.

By using the properties of countless blocks and entities, fans might be surprised at all of the interesting ways they can manipulate the game engine to perform feats that are typically not considered possible or plausible.