Thanks for visiting my channel and watching this tutorial! Do these tips for building spiral stairs make sense? Will you use this system in your builds?
I am more curious how your texturing is working back there. It looks almost like you got stairs interlocking into each other in those walls. What is going on there? This some kind of texture pack?
I think these would be great for my underwater base on Bedrock. Currently I'm using bubble elevators for everything, but I've wanted to change things up
One of the main takeaways I got from this is actually that it's just so much better to have the entrance to the staircase be 1 block wide instead of [the width of the staircase] wide.. Cx I also learnt that you can shift the start step by one for corners, and also that fact about the swords (we need more real life lore facts in building I believe)
Finally someone who goes straight to the point and gives actually good tips that can be generalised easily, no unnecessary fluff around it. Thank you for the vid.
Honestly this is mostly how I generally do spiral stairs after a *lot* of trial and error. Although I will admit that I have also been risky and left the center open with water at the bottom for a speedy descent. 😅
i did a spiral stair tower that comes from layer 10 (old verions where the bedrock layer was 0 and goes to 4) to about 128 blocks high. The tower shape wide and get wider with deep, soo the surface portion is almost a tunnel, the dowards increase, on the top i get a increase in angle to be larger but in a higher angle than in the bottom portion. The entire sutructure that is rising has a huge spiral stair with both stairs and slabs in a complex partner that i developed to be really smoth and the most semetrical i could find, but it is actually two tower one in the middle with a inner space of 6x6 inner round shaped and inside it has item elevators that bring all my farm itens to a storage system on top of it, also has a player elevator with water columns and water fall pads for more easy travel than the stair itself. The design has all posibilities, but i never finish the entire strucuture the top portion is all open without properly walls exposing my storage system all arround, also my bed room that is on the top was just a bed in the main room. I have to build a more elaborated version, and finish it this time LOL
@viniciusschadeck4992 Kind of sounds like my trees, on the server I play on my main bases are almost always some sort of giant tree. My current version honestly isn't that big in comparison to some I have done but they usually also include a pretty intense basement. So I have a tendency to build with a lot of corkscrew and fluid platforms but also use the spiral staircases for when I need something more compact or for my mines.
I never considered the theory behind this; now it makes so much sense. I now also know that the next time I have to launch an assault up a flight of medieval spiral stairs, I’ll take my opponents by surprise by being left-handed
A survey of Norman stairs found about a 50/50 distribution of left and right-handed stairs, even discovering incongruity in the same complex or keep with no regard to strategy. Sometimes, truth is not as much fun as a good theory made up by a British man in his armchair.
What sir Patrick said, there is no real strategic reason to why stairs are built the way they are. In fact, the supposed advantage such stairs give is false, as the high ground is a load of bollocks in melee combat. They can hit your legs no problem, and you hardly have ground to dodge, and you can barely hit them yourself. And if you do, it's on the helm. And it will likely glance off if we consider the common helmets of the infantry (skull caps, kettle hats, nasal helms, bascinets, so on and so forth), most of it are domed, making cuts with bladed weapons, or stabs with polearms, useless. And blunt weapons like a Mace are often quite short. Likewise, if your defense has been reduced to holding a stairwell in the keep, the siege has already been lost.
Damn that gave me flash backs to being in the military. Instructions so clear and concise with every nuance thought of. If you have half a brain cell and paid attention, you will complete this task without mistakes. It made me instantly subscribe lol. Everyone speaks a language to communicate but uh, not everyone is actually communicating :) Flawless video imo, thank you very much.
@@dudieboy love your content also I gotta point out your old man avatar really fits your commentary and voice.....XD😈🤭😜❤ no offense intended just Kidding, technically there’s truth to it...😉❤😈
I always appreciate a clear, concise, and explicit explanation of mechanics and reasoning when it comes to tutorials. I can't say if doing that will help you find success on youtube, but I appreciate it. I've wondered about spiral rails for minecarts as well. I think I might use a spiral staircase for the tailor/cobbler build that I've sat on for six months.
Also good to remember is using a full block as the center pilar (as in this video). I used a wall block to make a more open spiral stairs a bit thinner, but this causes you to go up/down slower because the hitbox collides. Just a tip.
Indeed. Walls or fences in the center are possible, but you force yourself to only use slabs and stairs, since their interaction with full blocks makes the hitbox stick up. And then the central post will not look connected to the stairs themselves.
@@adrianthoroughgood1191 Anywhere a fence connects to a full block (that's part of the spiral) on its side, its hitbox sticks out horizontally beyond the central pillar of fences and vertically beyond the block it connects to (which is why you don't have the same problem with glass panes or iron bars; they do connect sideways, but the block they connect to has the same hitbox height anyways). If you walk to close to the central pillar, you'd stand on the fence's hitbox instead of the full block's hitbox, which firstly makes you look like you're floating half a meter in the air. And secondly you might not even have enough vertical space close to the pillar to fit through with a ceiling height that gives you enough vertical space further away from the pillar. And thirdly, if you've just walked up a step onto the full block, reach the fence's hitbox would be a second step up within a small fraction of a second. If you want to avoid the fences (and walls) from connecting sideways, you have to put non-full blocks next to them.
Ever since i think a specific fantasy book pointed it out to me, the rotational direction is something that always sticks out to me, so I'm glad you brought it up here!
I’m a bit proud because I came to the same basic design on my own when I was building a castle. But I never expanded the towers to be 7-wide circular and that’s a terrific idea!
I always used stairs but OF COURSE I never noticed slabs are the exact same and look much more consistent until you pointed it out in this video! Thanks for the design! It’s perfect!
I love building spiral staircases, to the point that my friends joke about it. I really liked your circular design with the 3-slab landings. I'm gonna start using that.
I found this video accidenatlly and I didn't realise I needed to know how to do stairs properly. It all makes sense now. So I'm going to have to plan a few spiral staircases in my next build. Thank you so much!
Definitely a good tutorial. I've made some spiral staircases that were good, but made plenty that were terrible. I already knew the historical reason why spiral staircases spiral the way they do, but I felt like that was a nice touch of history to add into how to make good spiral staircases.
i've come across some of these tips myself with lots of trial and error but hearing it all laid out so plainly makes it a lot easier to visualize mentally
@@christophersavignon4191 Stairs can be a little bit awkward to traverse stepping onto them from the side, which you'll be forced to do in a design like this. They can work, but generally slabs are easier.
@@sorrowandsufferin924 If you get stuck, you built it wrong. There are no full-block steps if you place the steps correctly. I'm guessing you tried to place them sideways toward the next stairs instead of straight against the wall. Nobody forced you to do that, you just didn't see the alternative.
Having learned to play AD&D in 1983. I've always been fond of the Medieval times or Ancient history and the like. Thank you so much for this strait forward tutorial for great spiral stair cases! You have yourself a new subscriber as I glanced at some of your other videos I want to check out. Thank you!!
this was actually a cool video... easy to listen to with no extraneous hyperactive rambling, simple and effective build walktrough with various hypotecticals cutting out the fluff and leaving plenty of "show" and just enough "tell", AND a few educational fun facts about medieval architecture!!... absolutely well done, great video, I'm definitely gonna make a spiral staircase like this in my next base.
Finally a Minecraft video that is explained clearly and succinctly, with math, ratios, and advisories woven into the video and played out on screen. This is not so hard to do. You're a champion, man. 🎓
This is a fantastic demonstration and tutorial. I've been wanting to build a sort of wizard's tower the next time I play, and this design will fit it *perfectly*. It's almost funny how obvious this seems once I've seen it - I'm a bit surprised this was the first time. I'm feeling inspired! Thank you! Edit to add: I really like your speaking voice, as well.
That was brilliant mate, concise, easy and to the point. No shouting just calm and soothing, loved it. Look forward to your tutorials on roof lines and bridges.
I appreciate your video. You clearly explained different types of staircases and helped me learn those shapes. I never was a good builder, but I had some ideas on how to make things. It's just that I always build in survival and mistakes take too long to fix, which discourages. Now I'll know how to build, I can improvise from here.
This has just inspired me to creat a house where this kind of spiral staircase is the center and i have rooms to the left front right and back at different levels. Thanks.
The first adjectives that came to mind seriously were "simple, straightforward, and solid tutorial" so after that I just had to continue the alliteration.
Oh my god. THANK YOU FOR NOT CALLING THEM HALF SLABS! That is SO refreshing. Im also impressed that you calculated the distances in meters as well,, considering each block is a cubic meter. On a more serious note, I actually figured out how to build spiral stairs with slabs on my own
I've used similar designs and sometimes add stairs to add an extra slant in the diagonal stairs to keep the look neat. This is a good first take into early builds.
from the mouse movement and your voice i can tell that youre ancient. the way you also talk is so formal, very rare for most youtubers to do, and i like your video format bc it reminds me alot of those very humble teachers i used to have. youre in my favorites list!
I have spent so much time trying to perfect my staircases and fireplaces. I have often rebuilt the entire second floor of my buildings because I couldn't get the staircase how I want it. Thank you for this
I just used this design, but 2 wide instead of one, and it turned out REALLY cool and saved me a tonne of time. Not spending forever trying to build stairs is a big relief
You don't need a full block at the corners when using stairs, it'll just be very steep and therefore only possible to ascend by hugging the outer wall. This adds another strategic benefit in that attackers will have more trouble ascending the stairs than defenders descending.
You could actually altogether fix it by putting an inward facing stairs under the next one so the corner stair becomes a corner stair. Or at least, I think you could.
@@NintendoSunnyDee The side facing you must be a halfblock to be able to ascend. An outside corner stair would work for that purpose, but would look weird as there'd be a hole underneath the next bit of stair. It's perfectly ascendable without any corner stairs if you just remember that the side facing you must be a halfblock along its entire length in order to ascend without jumping.
Just orient the corner stair against the wall, and you'll have no hangups both upwards and downwards. There will be a tiny gap at the inward side, which gets closed when you fill the underside with upside-down stairs.
6:30 Very interesting point as to the battle reasoning for the direction of spiral. I am left handed so I never considered that historical fact. Thank you! Great video.
This is how JamziBoy did his stairwells over a decade ago and how I still do them to this day! Glad to see someone else using it in their builds! Off topic - over the last year or so I took a step back from my medieval roleplay realm and started making older “legacy builds” historical sights and ended up going on this fun journey of research finding a bunch of books on castles and that was one of the first things pointed out in several books, about attackers being at a disadvantage when attempting to siege a castle. So awesome to see historical references in your video 👍 Fun fact - that’s the same reason roads on the other side of the world are “backwards” to us, when crossing paths with other travelers you would draw your sword before hand, unless you were left handed, then you would be at a disadvantage 😅
What a beautiful explanation for these staircases. I usually get something I like, but it takes so much trial and error. I never did the math to figure it out, and your explanation makes it super easy to grasp and intuit.
i would love to see a video like this about how to make those grand staircases, that are a quarter circle on each side to reach a central landing. thats the one type of stair i just havent managed to pull off without there being SOME one block high jumps. bonus, came for the stair video out of boredom, liked because your technique is easy to follow and i wish i'd had a video like this 7 years ago when i was learning. Subscribed because of the historical facts!
I really like the topic of stairs and roofwork, because it makes the build that much better if you are putting in the effort. With spiral stairs, I managed to work out 2x2 spiral staircase using stairs, foregoing the middle post. Feels claustrophobic like something in dungeon.
I like how in depth your tutorial is. It is possible to Make a spiral staircase with stairs tho. In the 3 by 3 square you place one stair next to the center pillar, then another stair facing the same way in the corner above, then you turn 90• and repeat. Since you have to walk into the corner block fully to continue up the stairs you are put on top of the stair block and can reach the next set of stairs perfectly fine. I also put upside down stairs on the underside so there’s no gap where the corner stair steps up to the middle stair
You can also make the pillar bigger to either make each step bigger or make you go higher before you are at the next level, such a style would look nice with 2 wide or 3 wide stairs
Clearly and concisely explained, shows different ways of building a staircase, cool skin and pretty builds. This was great! Will definitely br using this knowledge.
You can use a fencepost column at the center instead of full blocks in a 3x3 stairwell as well. This provides the same fall protection while reducing the claustrophobia feel, and makes navigating a little easier as well.
really big fan of this style of video. The instructions are clear, informative, and applicable to real builds, and theres even history spliced in there with examples!! it seems like u have a real affinity for this type of design, and you should use that when you make more of these fairly short videos where you detail how to build it, when you can use it in our builds, how you can build around it, what impact does it have on the build and the experience of walking thru it... really helpful stuff to add to our creative palette! love u stay safe
The Historical insights thrown around are a good idea, but the staircase swordsmanship story which is rather popular from castle tourguides and popular documentaries repeating it, has gotten a lot of criticism and mediæval mythbusting against it over time. From observing certain castles we get bizarre scenes like them having spiral staircases that go both clockwise and counterclockwise that the theory then needs to explain away and it grants the rather dubious claim that people at the very very desperate moment in a siege where the attackers are within such a structure would be fighting on the staircase instead of at the top or somewhere else more beneficial. It's probably got more to do with construction technique and technology than defensive planning. All this to say, I actually appreciate the effort to introduce historical notes into the video like the staircase spiral direction theory or the comment on Norman castles - I just advise to see if there's controversy around a historical theory and if the counterarguments might be more compelling. A lot more work, obviously - but ultimately rather rewarding!
I clicked this video because I saw that it has the spiral staircase that i use, all the time, the 5x5 one!! It is such a good design, and feels much better than running up the 3x3 one! It gives perfect clearance to hang lanterns between the levels. If you are feeling adventurous you can also build a water elevator into the center held by doors and trapdoors, if you're careful
You can use stairs. Its easier in an enclosed space, like 3x3 shafts i did for strip mining. The slabs do look and feel cleaner for builds. Great video
Interesting things to try: - Make the central column out of glass blocks to let sunlight all the way to the bottom of a mine. -Mix in some stairs to wider spiral staircases to try and breakup up the double-sized corner landings some more.
You don't need landings with regular stairs. Just place the corner stairs in the same orientation as the previous stair block, and close the bottom with reverse stairs as usual. You now have a staircase that takes you 8 blocks up with each revolution, and runs smooth as butter.
I would like to point out that the rotation of the stairs on a castle being for defensive purposes is an oft repeated myth. There are many historical examples of castles with stairs ascending in counter-clockwise rotation(in fact, around 30% of all newels found in historical castles have an anti-clockwise orientation), and the tendency for clockwise ascension stems more from the fact that most people are right-handed, and therefore find it easier to descend stairs in a counter clockwise orientation. Generally speaking, it is difficult for both parties to fight on stairs, regardless of the angle they are fighting at, and if the attackers have gotten to the point where you're having to fight on the stairs, the defender has already lost, as the purpose of the castle is to keep attackers out. Still a useful build tutorial.
you can do stair block stair block then rotate around your pillar. you dont need a flat block to rotate on. slightly unorthodox staircase but surprisingly works really well. even villagers can navigate it.
Your tutorial is well made and easy to understand nicely done, and it's interesting how almost every builder (including myself) has such a similar style of building a spiral staircase.
This video came just in time for me as I was thinking of decorating my wizard tower. This is a perfect way to change it up! I have a couple stairways I might replace with one of these.
When I make spiral staircases that are two blocks long, I add stair blocks and slabs mixed around for an organic shaped stair that matches an older or run down kind of build.
This is one of those things where like, now that you put it THAT way it seems so simple! But my previous attempt to do a spiral staircase was.... embarrassing. This video is sooooooo helpful and will really help change the way I think about my builds! thanks!
my go to is playing rightside up stair, 2 upside down that curve around, and then repeat one block up from the second block. Repeatable and it's pretty.
If your staircase is only 1 block wide using just slabs works better, but if it's 2 blocks wide, the stairs feel more like a "squaral" staircase than a spiral staircase. I guess if you like sticking to Minecraft's blocky aesthetic that works fine, but it's easy to make the stairs look like they curve quite naturally. You can build fantastic spiral staircases using a mix of stairs and slabs. My favourite small design is 2 blocks wide (so 5x5 total) with one block taken out of each corner. You build it like this (assuming a clockwise staircase, for CCW switch "left" and "right"): - Place a stair block against the side of the central column (like at 1:15 in the video) - Use an upside down slab for the platform. - Place another slab against the left side of that slab (naturally also upside-down). - Place a slab against the left side of the stair block (right side up this time). The blocks you just placed should be in a 2x2 square. - Lastly, place a slab against the front of the slab you previously placed (so coming toward you). That's all. Just repeat this process for every block you want the staircase to rise, and you'll find that the steps curve beautifully around the central pillar. And the fact that you're leaving out the corners means you can house it in a round-looking structure as well. You can make the staircase 3-wide as well if you want, by going around the outside and placing blocks in this order (starting at a position straight in any direction from the central column, at the same height as the stair block): slab, stair (requires a temporary block to place it on or it'll be upside down), upside down slab, slab. Adding 4 blocks is all you need to widen a single quadrant, so you can just repeat that until you're done. For both the 2-block and 3-block wide designs, you can also pretty up the underside of the stairs a little. Just replace the upside down slab diagonally touching the stairs at the same level with upside down stairs instead, and add an extra upside-down slab below the slab 2 blocks directly ahead from each stair piece. For the 3-wide one, place another upside-down slab below the next slab as well. That's enough to give them a very nice look even from below. If you want your spiral staircase half a block higher to match your door location, you can use this underside pattern on the top and vice versa. You can chop off some of the blocks from the 3-wide design to squarify the 2-wide, and the 3-wide one is pretty easy to squarify as well. Ascending the stairs, every corner needs an upside down slab, an upside down slab behind that, and a right side up slab to the right of the one last placed. You'll want to _not_ place the upside down slabs that made the bottom look nicer for the squarified design. To add a railing to the rounded designs, you'll want to use blocks rather than trapdoors. I recommend a railing of 2 blocks tall for the 2-wide design, and 1.5 blocks high for the 3-wide design. For the 3-wide design you'll have slabs on the top of the 3 blocks that are in a straight line, and no slab on top of the 2 diagonally connected ones. For the 2-wide you can do basically the same thing but reversed (slabs in the corners, flat on the straight edges), but lower the first block of every straight edge by 0.5 blocks so that it rises with a consistent interval.
This is a great video. The explanations teach you a lot more than merely to build a spiral staircase, it exposes the concept behind it. I'm getting ideas again. Thanks so much for this.
Omg i had no idea something so simple could be more complicated than i imagined and yet very useful to know. How have i not thought of this yet? Lol thanks, i will definitely use these tips 😸😜😺
A nicer looking way to build 2-wide staircases (especially if you want to make them square instead of round) is to mix stairs and slabs. Use the layout at 7:52, but instead of using 3 top slabs for the corner, I like to use 2 stairs and 1 top slab. Place the outer stair piece "normally" (bottom end facing the next lower step) and rotate the inner stair piece by 90° (top end facing the next step up) - or even put a top slab there. As an added bonus, aligning the corner step at the top of a block allows you to place 3 wall blocks (instead of full blocks) in the corner. This will make the corners feel less constricted compared to the straight sections.
if you want a thicker staircase you can combine stairs slabs and blocks to get a sturdier looking staircase good for open stairs in the middle of builds
1:29 The more efficient way to build stair spiral stairs is by going 2 stairs, the turn, another two stairs and so on. That way you actually get two block up on two blocks going forward. I use that in 2 by 2 shafts when mining. I use the mines material while going down to build stairs and make a 2 by 2 spiral stair while going back out.
I’ve definitely done this sort of thing on three builds in my personal realm. First time was like 2 years ago when I wanted a way to get to my third level without using a majority of my room. The second one was something I built 1 year ago into a landscape to get to a boat landing/cove/cave. Third was something I did with a semi circular house build for both upstairs and downstairs access. All three are so very different than the others and I ended up having to make a copy of the realm to lay out the stairs, then take screenshots to follow along exactly.
Minecraftian dudieboy I would like to thank you for this idea. I has made traveling up and down my strip mines much much faster VS having to create a ton of stairs to go up and down.. again
Thanks for visiting my channel and watching this tutorial! Do these tips for building spiral stairs make sense? Will you use this system in your builds?
Will make of good use
I am more curious how your texturing is working back there. It looks almost like you got stairs interlocking into each other in those walls. What is going on there? This some kind of texture pack?
I think these would be great for my underwater base on Bedrock. Currently I'm using bubble elevators for everything, but I've wanted to change things up
One of the main takeaways I got from this is actually that it's just so much better to have the entrance to the staircase be 1 block wide instead of [the width of the staircase] wide.. Cx
I also learnt that you can shift the start step by one for corners, and also that fact about the swords (we need more real life lore facts in building I believe)
The Stay True pack and the Continuity mod.
Finally someone who goes straight to the point and gives actually good tips that can be generalised easily, no unnecessary fluff around it. Thank you for the vid.
Thanks for watching!
Honestly this is mostly how I generally do spiral stairs after a *lot* of trial and error. Although I will admit that I have also been risky and left the center open with water at the bottom for a speedy descent. 😅
same, with the water part
i do the same thing but without stairs
i did a spiral stair tower that comes from layer 10 (old verions where the bedrock layer was 0 and goes to 4) to about 128 blocks high. The tower shape wide and get wider with deep, soo the surface portion is almost a tunnel, the dowards increase, on the top i get a increase in angle to be larger but in a higher angle than in the bottom portion. The entire sutructure that is rising has a huge spiral stair with both stairs and slabs in a complex partner that i developed to be really smoth and the most semetrical i could find, but it is actually two tower one in the middle with a inner space of 6x6 inner round shaped and inside it has item elevators that bring all my farm itens to a storage system on top of it, also has a player elevator with water columns and water fall pads for more easy travel than the stair itself. The design has all posibilities, but i never finish the entire strucuture the top portion is all open without properly walls exposing my storage system all arround, also my bed room that is on the top was just a bed in the main room. I have to build a more elaborated version, and finish it this time LOL
@viniciusschadeck4992 Kind of sounds like my trees, on the server I play on my main bases are almost always some sort of giant tree. My current version honestly isn't that big in comparison to some I have done but they usually also include a pretty intense basement. So I have a tendency to build with a lot of corkscrew and fluid platforms but also use the spiral staircases for when I need something more compact or for my mines.
A cleaner version of this is putting a carpet over a powdered snow block
I never considered the theory behind this; now it makes so much sense. I now also know that the next time I have to launch an assault up a flight of medieval spiral stairs, I’ll take my opponents by surprise by being left-handed
🤣
XD yas
FINALLY! THANK YOU! ALMOST WANTS TO MAKE ME SPARE YOUR LIFE - Kai
Or carry a short sword and attack their shins and ankles.
I had no idea about the practical reason spiral staircases go clockwise up. Cool.
A survey of Norman stairs found about a 50/50 distribution of left and right-handed stairs, even discovering incongruity in the same complex or keep with no regard to strategy. Sometimes, truth is not as much fun as a good theory made up by a British man in his armchair.
What sir Patrick said, there is no real strategic reason to why stairs are built the way they are. In fact, the supposed advantage such stairs give is false, as the high ground is a load of bollocks in melee combat. They can hit your legs no problem, and you hardly have ground to dodge, and you can barely hit them yourself. And if you do, it's on the helm. And it will likely glance off if we consider the common helmets of the infantry (skull caps, kettle hats, nasal helms, bascinets, so on and so forth), most of it are domed, making cuts with bladed weapons, or stabs with polearms, useless. And blunt weapons like a Mace are often quite short.
Likewise, if your defense has been reduced to holding a stairwell in the keep, the siege has already been lost.
THEY DON'T, IT'S A COMMON MISCONCEPTION >:(
Damn that gave me flash backs to being in the military. Instructions so clear and concise with every nuance thought of. If you have half a brain cell and paid attention, you will complete this task without mistakes. It made me instantly subscribe lol. Everyone speaks a language to communicate but uh, not everyone is actually communicating :) Flawless video imo, thank you very much.
How do I superheart this comment? Thank you so much!
I think i might have half a brain cell left and was thinking of joining the air force. Should i do it?
@@ravenblackwing7888 Yes. Yes you should. two times. :p
Damn that's really cool comment!
I had the same idea with the whole "By the end of this video" intro. Setting the expectation for a lesson was standard in the military.
I love the context of why it's built a certain way at 6:20. Great video, thank you!
WHAT CONTEXT IS THERE?!? XDD
This video is so clear and concise. I suck a making stairs in general so this will really help my build. Thanks!
Awesome, thanks Franky!
I was about to answer the exact same 😄
Good thing I saw your comment first. 👏
@@dudieboy love your content also I gotta point out your old man avatar really fits your commentary and voice.....XD😈🤭😜❤ no offense intended just Kidding, technically there’s truth to it...😉❤😈
As a builder, I was expecting a much more complicated video, but this was incredibely clear and concise - well done!
This video is spiraling out of control.
lol I love these silly jokes so much, thank you for that one.
Every time I try to build this I just keep going in circles.
This guy's so good at building stairs he's running circles around us!
:|
😂Good one
I always appreciate a clear, concise, and explicit explanation of mechanics and reasoning when it comes to tutorials. I can't say if doing that will help you find success on youtube, but I appreciate it. I've wondered about spiral rails for minecarts as well.
I think I might use a spiral staircase for the tailor/cobbler build that I've sat on for six months.
Awesome! Good luck with the buildup
Also good to remember is using a full block as the center pilar (as in this video). I used a wall block to make a more open spiral stairs a bit thinner, but this causes you to go up/down slower because the hitbox collides. Just a tip.
Thanks!
Indeed. Walls or fences in the center are possible, but you force yourself to only use slabs and stairs, since their interaction with full blocks makes the hitbox stick up. And then the central post will not look connected to the stairs themselves.
@@Pystrocould you explain more what the problem is with using fences for the centre column?
@@adrianthoroughgood1191 Anywhere a fence connects to a full block (that's part of the spiral) on its side, its hitbox sticks out horizontally beyond the central pillar of fences and vertically beyond the block it connects to (which is why you don't have the same problem with glass panes or iron bars; they do connect sideways, but the block they connect to has the same hitbox height anyways).
If you walk to close to the central pillar, you'd stand on the fence's hitbox instead of the full block's hitbox, which firstly makes you look like you're floating half a meter in the air. And secondly you might not even have enough vertical space close to the pillar to fit through with a ceiling height that gives you enough vertical space further away from the pillar. And thirdly, if you've just walked up a step onto the full block, reach the fence's hitbox would be a second step up within a small fraction of a second.
If you want to avoid the fences (and walls) from connecting sideways, you have to put non-full blocks next to them.
Ever since i think a specific fantasy book pointed it out to me, the rotational direction is something that always sticks out to me, so I'm glad you brought it up here!
EEEEE NO
I’m a bit proud because I came to the same basic design on my own when I was building a castle. But I never expanded the towers to be 7-wide circular and that’s a terrific idea!
I always used stairs but OF COURSE I never noticed slabs are the exact same and look much more consistent until you pointed it out in this video! Thanks for the design! It’s perfect!
I love building spiral staircases, to the point that my friends joke about it. I really liked your circular design with the 3-slab landings. I'm gonna start using that.
Architecture and history lessons built in. Love it. Thank you
I found this video accidenatlly and I didn't realise I needed to know how to do stairs properly. It all makes sense now. So I'm going to have to plan a few spiral staircases in my next build. Thank you so much!
Awesome, my pleasure!
Definitely a good tutorial. I've made some spiral staircases that were good, but made plenty that were terrible. I already knew the historical reason why spiral staircases spiral the way they do, but I felt like that was a nice touch of history to add into how to make good spiral staircases.
Awesome, thanks!
Alright this is getting OLD about the rotational direction of stairs, I'm just gonna stop scrolling down >:(
i've come across some of these tips myself with lots of trial and error but hearing it all laid out so plainly makes it a lot easier to visualize mentally
I love how good it matches the 5x5 pattern, but the 7x7 is just *chef's kiss*
If you want a spiral stair case which rises at double the rate, you can use trap doors or carpet on top of a fence post.
Interesting! Thanks.
Or just use stairs in the corners too. The only reason to use slabs is if you want to go only 4 blocks per revolution.
@@christophersavignon4191 Stairs can be a little bit awkward to traverse stepping onto them from the side, which you'll be forced to do in a design like this. They can work, but generally slabs are easier.
@@sorrowandsufferin924
If you get stuck, you built it wrong. There are no full-block steps if you place the steps correctly.
I'm guessing you tried to place them sideways toward the next stairs instead of straight against the wall. Nobody forced you to do that, you just didn't see the alternative.
Having learned to play AD&D in 1983. I've always been fond of the Medieval times or Ancient history and the like. Thank you so much for this strait forward tutorial for great spiral stair cases! You have yourself a new subscriber as I glanced at some of your other videos I want to check out. Thank you!!
Thank you! Wow, I was playing AD&D in 1983 too! 😄
this was actually a cool video... easy to listen to with no extraneous hyperactive rambling, simple and effective build walktrough with various hypotecticals cutting out the fluff and leaving plenty of "show" and just enough "tell", AND a few educational fun facts about medieval architecture!!... absolutely well done, great video, I'm definitely gonna make a spiral staircase like this in my next base.
Wow, thanks!
Very nice! Spiral staircases are not always the most fun to build, but you made it very easy to understand.
Thanks so much JayDee!
Clear and concise explanation of the build theory. Love that you added the historical context as well!
Thanks for watching!
Finally a Minecraft video that is explained clearly and succinctly, with math, ratios, and advisories woven into the video and played out on screen. This is not so hard to do. You're a champion, man. 🎓
This is a fantastic demonstration and tutorial. I've been wanting to build a sort of wizard's tower the next time I play, and this design will fit it *perfectly*.
It's almost funny how obvious this seems once I've seen it - I'm a bit surprised this was the first time.
I'm feeling inspired! Thank you!
Edit to add: I really like your speaking voice, as well.
I would love to see what you build! I will also be adding a tutorial about towers in the near future. Thanks!
That was brilliant mate, concise, easy and to the point. No shouting just calm and soothing, loved it. Look forward to your tutorials on roof lines and bridges.
Thanks! Great ideas for videos. :D
I appreciate your video. You clearly explained different types of staircases and helped me learn those shapes. I never was a good builder, but I had some ideas on how to make things. It's just that I always build in survival and mistakes take too long to fix, which discourages. Now I'll know how to build, I can improvise from here.
Video is a year old when I found it, but it was exactly what I was looking for. Clear and to the point. Now I'm subscribed to the channel.
This is exactly the kind of content I've been wishing for.
Never has a TH-camr inspired so much confidence from me so fast, least of all a Minecraft TH-camr.
This has just inspired me to creat a house where this kind of spiral staircase is the center and i have rooms to the left front right and back at different levels. Thanks.
Awesome!
Definitely more building tutorials like this! I really like consept of taking one specific aspect and explaining it in detail 👍 subscribed!
Thank you! Will do!
Simple, solid, straightforward spiral staircases. Superb showing!
The first adjectives that came to mind seriously were "simple, straightforward, and solid tutorial" so after that I just had to continue the alliteration.
Awesome, thanks! 😃
Oh my god. THANK YOU FOR NOT CALLING THEM HALF SLABS! That is SO refreshing. Im also impressed that you calculated the distances in meters as well,, considering each block is a cubic meter. On a more serious note, I actually figured out how to build spiral stairs with slabs on my own
The stair tutorial I didn't know I needed. Well done.
I've used similar designs and sometimes add stairs to add an extra slant in the diagonal stairs to keep the look neat. This is a good first take into early builds.
Excellent tutorial! Brief but thorough with plenty of modifications to consider applying to our own builds. Love it, much appreciated. Thank you!
Oh my gosh I have been trying to make good spiral stairs for years!! Thank you!!
My pleasure!
from the mouse movement and your voice i can tell that youre ancient. the way you also talk is so formal, very rare for most youtubers to do, and i like your video format bc it reminds me alot of those very humble teachers i used to have. youre in my favorites list!
🤣 OK well at least I'm a favorite, and that's better than I ever hoped. ☺
@@dudieboy i meant it as a compliment 😭 but yeah those things make you so cool! 😁
@@arlynnecumberbatch1056 Just kidding you back a little, I don't mind. 😄
First ever video I’ve seen from this channel. Just had to say I love this guy’s voice. Very soothing in an old sort of way.
I have spent so much time trying to perfect my staircases and fireplaces. I have often rebuilt the entire second floor of my buildings because I couldn't get the staircase how I want it. Thank you for this
I had never even considered that slab spiral stairs have the same rise over run as steps and full blocks in a more "conventional" spiral setup.
I just used this design, but 2 wide instead of one, and it turned out REALLY cool and saved me a tonne of time. Not spending forever trying to build stairs is a big relief
You don't need a full block at the corners when using stairs, it'll just be very steep and therefore only possible to ascend by hugging the outer wall. This adds another strategic benefit in that attackers will have more trouble ascending the stairs than defenders descending.
You could actually altogether fix it by putting an inward facing stairs under the next one so the corner stair becomes a corner stair. Or at least, I think you could.
@@NintendoSunnyDee The side facing you must be a halfblock to be able to ascend. An outside corner stair would work for that purpose, but would look weird as there'd be a hole underneath the next bit of stair.
It's perfectly ascendable without any corner stairs if you just remember that the side facing you must be a halfblock along its entire length in order to ascend without jumping.
Just orient the corner stair against the wall, and you'll have no hangups both upwards and downwards. There will be a tiny gap at the inward side, which gets closed when you fill the underside with upside-down stairs.
6:30 Very interesting point as to the battle reasoning for the direction of spiral. I am left handed so I never considered that historical fact. Thank you! Great video.
This is how JamziBoy did his stairwells over a decade ago and how I still do them to this day! Glad to see someone else using it in their builds!
Off topic - over the last year or so I took a step back from my medieval roleplay realm and started making older “legacy builds” historical sights and ended up going on this fun journey of research finding a bunch of books on castles and that was one of the first things pointed out in several books, about attackers being at a disadvantage when attempting to siege a castle. So awesome to see historical references in your video 👍
Fun fact - that’s the same reason roads on the other side of the world are “backwards” to us, when crossing paths with other travelers you would draw your sword before hand, unless you were left handed, then you would be at a disadvantage 😅
Thanks! That’s cool, hadn’t heard that about roads before.
What a beautiful explanation for these staircases. I usually get something I like, but it takes so much trial and error. I never did the math to figure it out, and your explanation makes it super easy to grasp and intuit.
Thanks!
i would love to see a video like this about how to make those grand staircases, that are a quarter circle on each side to reach a central landing. thats the one type of stair i just havent managed to pull off without there being SOME one block high jumps.
bonus, came for the stair video out of boredom, liked because your technique is easy to follow and i wish i'd had a video like this 7 years ago when i was learning.
Subscribed because of the historical facts!
I really like the topic of stairs and roofwork, because it makes the build that much better if you are putting in the effort. With spiral stairs, I managed to work out 2x2 spiral staircase using stairs, foregoing the middle post. Feels claustrophobic like something in dungeon.
I love it! Thank you so much!
This was truly pleasing for my OCD.
But seriously I love this video. Definitely want to see more like it.
Awesome, thanks!
The 7x7 circular tower was EXACTLY what I was trying to build but I didn't know it. Thank you!!
Glad to help!
I like how in depth your tutorial is. It is possible to Make a spiral staircase with stairs tho. In the 3 by 3 square you place one stair next to the center pillar, then another stair facing the same way in the corner above, then you turn 90• and repeat.
Since you have to walk into the corner block fully to continue up the stairs you are put on top of the stair block and can reach the next set of stairs perfectly fine. I also put upside down stairs on the underside so there’s no gap where the corner stair steps up to the middle stair
You can also make the pillar bigger to either make each step bigger or make you go higher before you are at the next level, such a style would look nice with 2 wide or 3 wide stairs
I will never stop being amazed at the tactical thought process of those in the medieval days.
Me either!
Clearly and concisely explained, shows different ways of building a staircase, cool skin and pretty builds. This was great! Will definitely br using this knowledge.
You can use a fencepost column at the center instead of full blocks in a 3x3 stairwell as well. This provides the same fall protection while reducing the claustrophobia feel, and makes navigating a little easier as well.
really big fan of this style of video. The instructions are clear, informative, and applicable to real builds, and theres even history spliced in there with examples!! it seems like u have a real affinity for this type of design, and you should use that when you make more of these fairly short videos where you detail how to build it, when you can use it in our builds, how you can build around it, what impact does it have on the build and the experience of walking thru it... really helpful stuff to add to our creative palette! love u stay safe
Thanks!
The Historical insights thrown around are a good idea, but the staircase swordsmanship story which is rather popular from castle tourguides and popular documentaries repeating it, has gotten a lot of criticism and mediæval mythbusting against it over time. From observing certain castles we get bizarre scenes like them having spiral staircases that go both clockwise and counterclockwise that the theory then needs to explain away and it grants the rather dubious claim that people at the very very desperate moment in a siege where the attackers are within such a structure would be fighting on the staircase instead of at the top or somewhere else more beneficial. It's probably got more to do with construction technique and technology than defensive planning.
All this to say, I actually appreciate the effort to introduce historical notes into the video like the staircase spiral direction theory or the comment on Norman castles - I just advise to see if there's controversy around a historical theory and if the counterarguments might be more compelling. A lot more work, obviously - but ultimately rather rewarding!
This is actually a useful wnd short tutorial to better a build! I love it! Thanks for sharing this knowledge :D i found your channel from here
You’re welcome!
I am sure I would have eventually figured this out, but you saved me a lot of time with this demonstration. Thanks!
Awesome! Did take me a while to figure out and thought I’d share!
I clicked this video because I saw that it has the spiral staircase that i use, all the time, the 5x5 one!! It is such a good design, and feels much better than running up the 3x3 one! It gives perfect clearance to hang lanterns between the levels. If you are feeling adventurous you can also build a water elevator into the center held by doors and trapdoors, if you're careful
You can use stairs. Its easier in an enclosed space, like 3x3 shafts i did for strip mining. The slabs do look and feel cleaner for builds. Great video
That’s a really nice video dude! I never thought building spiral stairs video could be so educative. Now I want to build one on my World lol
Interesting things to try:
- Make the central column out of glass blocks to let sunlight all the way to the bottom of a mine.
-Mix in some stairs to wider spiral staircases to try and breakup up the double-sized corner landings some more.
You don't need landings with regular stairs. Just place the corner stairs in the same orientation as the previous stair block, and close the bottom with reverse stairs as usual. You now have a staircase that takes you 8 blocks up with each revolution, and runs smooth as butter.
Really love how you explain the "why's" and not simply go: to build a spiral staircase you need X amount of block Y and place them like so.
Thanks for watching!
I never thought i would enjoy so much a class of architecture/ingeneering, you'd make a great teacher, thanks a lot!!
High compliment, thank you!
I would like to point out that the rotation of the stairs on a castle being for defensive purposes is an oft repeated myth. There are many historical examples of castles with stairs ascending in counter-clockwise rotation(in fact, around 30% of all newels found in historical castles have an anti-clockwise orientation), and the tendency for clockwise ascension stems more from the fact that most people are right-handed, and therefore find it easier to descend stairs in a counter clockwise orientation. Generally speaking, it is difficult for both parties to fight on stairs, regardless of the angle they are fighting at, and if the attackers have gotten to the point where you're having to fight on the stairs, the defender has already lost, as the purpose of the castle is to keep attackers out. Still a useful build tutorial.
I won't lie, I clicked to see if you included the historical / strategic reason lol. Excellent video.
I just built a tall watchtower but I was unhappy with the spiral staircase. This video was the perfect answer- thank you so much!!
Thank you!
you can do stair block stair block then rotate around your pillar. you dont need a flat block to rotate on. slightly unorthodox staircase but surprisingly works really well. even villagers can navigate it.
Yes, that's exactly how I've done all of mine for quite some time
Thanks mate for this video. I was always struggling with slab stairs. Cheers for the video mate.
Your tutorial is well made and easy to understand nicely done, and it's interesting how almost every builder (including myself) has such a similar style of building a spiral staircase.
I'm very happy to have found a guide on how to build something practical in a way that looks appealing.
Glad you like it!
Bro this kind of quality deserves more recognition. Subbed immediately ❤
Thanks!
This video came just in time for me as I was thinking of decorating my wizard tower. This is a perfect way to change it up! I have a couple stairways I might replace with one of these.
Nice!
Excellent video, thank you. I just had the slab epiphany before I watched your video and that cemented it.
When I make spiral staircases that are two blocks long, I add stair blocks and slabs mixed around for an organic shaped stair that matches an older or run down kind of build.
This is one of those things where like, now that you put it THAT way it seems so simple! But my previous attempt to do a spiral staircase was.... embarrassing. This video is sooooooo helpful and will really help change the way I think about my builds! thanks!
Awesome! Thank you
I was skeptical, but your approach is fantastic
my go to is playing rightside up stair, 2 upside down that curve around, and then repeat one block up from the second block. Repeatable and it's pretty.
If your staircase is only 1 block wide using just slabs works better, but if it's 2 blocks wide, the stairs feel more like a "squaral" staircase than a spiral staircase. I guess if you like sticking to Minecraft's blocky aesthetic that works fine, but it's easy to make the stairs look like they curve quite naturally. You can build fantastic spiral staircases using a mix of stairs and slabs.
My favourite small design is 2 blocks wide (so 5x5 total) with one block taken out of each corner. You build it like this (assuming a clockwise staircase, for CCW switch "left" and "right"):
- Place a stair block against the side of the central column (like at 1:15 in the video)
- Use an upside down slab for the platform.
- Place another slab against the left side of that slab (naturally also upside-down).
- Place a slab against the left side of the stair block (right side up this time). The blocks you just placed should be in a 2x2 square.
- Lastly, place a slab against the front of the slab you previously placed (so coming toward you).
That's all. Just repeat this process for every block you want the staircase to rise, and you'll find that the steps curve beautifully around the central pillar. And the fact that you're leaving out the corners means you can house it in a round-looking structure as well.
You can make the staircase 3-wide as well if you want, by going around the outside and placing blocks in this order (starting at a position straight in any direction from the central column, at the same height as the stair block): slab, stair (requires a temporary block to place it on or it'll be upside down), upside down slab, slab. Adding 4 blocks is all you need to widen a single quadrant, so you can just repeat that until you're done.
For both the 2-block and 3-block wide designs, you can also pretty up the underside of the stairs a little. Just replace the upside down slab diagonally touching the stairs at the same level with upside down stairs instead, and add an extra upside-down slab below the slab 2 blocks directly ahead from each stair piece. For the 3-wide one, place another upside-down slab below the next slab as well. That's enough to give them a very nice look even from below.
If you want your spiral staircase half a block higher to match your door location, you can use this underside pattern on the top and vice versa. You can chop off some of the blocks from the 3-wide design to squarify the 2-wide, and the 3-wide one is pretty easy to squarify as well. Ascending the stairs, every corner needs an upside down slab, an upside down slab behind that, and a right side up slab to the right of the one last placed. You'll want to _not_ place the upside down slabs that made the bottom look nicer for the squarified design.
To add a railing to the rounded designs, you'll want to use blocks rather than trapdoors. I recommend a railing of 2 blocks tall for the 2-wide design, and 1.5 blocks high for the 3-wide design. For the 3-wide design you'll have slabs on the top of the 3 blocks that are in a straight line, and no slab on top of the 2 diagonally connected ones. For the 2-wide you can do basically the same thing but reversed (slabs in the corners, flat on the straight edges), but lower the first block of every straight edge by 0.5 blocks so that it rises with a consistent interval.
Great video! I'm definitely using these tips. Also just subscribed!
Thanks, and welcome!
This is a great video. The explanations teach you a lot more than merely to build a spiral staircase, it exposes the concept behind it. I'm getting ideas again. Thanks so much for this.
Thank you!
This is a very helpful video! Stairs are something that can completely ruin your builds if not built properly.
5x5 = 3x3
7x7 = 5x5
Rooms are always measured by floor space.
Great video though. Straight to the point and informative 👍
Thank you!! Pinning this as a simple, easy reminder. Clear instructions are appreciated!
Glad it helped!
Omg i had no idea something so simple could be more complicated than i imagined and yet very useful to know. How have i not thought of this yet? Lol thanks, i will definitely use these tips 😸😜😺
I never knew how much i actually needed this
I always mess up and make my houses weird when i try to make a spiral staircase
This was the best👍👍👍
Glad to help!
A nicer looking way to build 2-wide staircases (especially if you want to make them square instead of round) is to mix stairs and slabs. Use the layout at 7:52, but instead of using 3 top slabs for the corner, I like to use 2 stairs and 1 top slab. Place the outer stair piece "normally" (bottom end facing the next lower step) and rotate the inner stair piece by 90° (top end facing the next step up) - or even put a top slab there.
As an added bonus,
aligning the corner step at the top of a block allows you to place 3 wall blocks (instead of full blocks) in the corner. This will make the corners feel less constricted compared to the straight sections.
OK, I need to rebuild my stairs. Thanks for this tutorial, it's perfect and I didn't knew I needed it
You have such great tips, you deserve much more subscribers! Thank you for this video! 😊
Thank you!
if you want a thicker staircase you can combine stairs slabs and blocks to get a sturdier looking staircase good for open stairs in the middle of builds
1:29 The more efficient way to build stair spiral stairs is by going 2 stairs, the turn, another two stairs and so on. That way you actually get two block up on two blocks going forward. I use that in 2 by 2 shafts when mining. I use the mines material while going down to build stairs and make a 2 by 2 spiral stair while going back out.
I’ve definitely done this sort of thing on three builds in my personal realm. First time was like 2 years ago when I wanted a way to get to my third level without using a majority of my room. The second one was something I built 1 year ago into a landscape to get to a boat landing/cove/cave. Third was something I did with a semi circular house build for both upstairs and downstairs access. All three are so very different than the others and I ended up having to make a copy of the realm to lay out the stairs, then take screenshots to follow along exactly.
Minecraftian dudieboy I would like to thank you for this idea. I has made traveling up and down my strip mines much much faster VS having to create a ton of stairs to go up and down.. again