Staircase
| Staircase | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Crafted Item |
| Recipe | Mining (Level 2) |
The Staircase is a portable way down. Placed on a floor of the Mines or the Skull Cavern, it opens a ladder straight to the next level, with no need to hunt through rocks for one. That makes it the key tool for deep Skull Cavern runs, where every minute spent searching is a minute not spent going deeper. It also offers a quick escape from a floor crawling with monsters. Crafting one takes a large stack of Stone, but the Desert Trader swaps them for Jade, which turns a Crystalarium into a staircase factory.
Recipe
The recipe unlocks at Mining level 2, so it is ready very early in the game. Each Staircase eats up a big stack of Stone. Breaking rocks with the Pickaxe gives Stone, on the farm and in every mine.
The Desert Trader in the Calico Desert offers a cheaper route. On Sundays, the trader swaps one Staircase for a single piece of Jade. The desert is reached by bus once the bus at the Bus Stop is repaired. Jade can be copied endlessly in a Crystalarium, so a couple of those machines loaded with Jade supply a steady pile of staircases every week. The first piece of Jade for the machine turns up in the Mines, from Jade nodes and Gem Nodes, or in fishing treasure chests.
These are the ingredients one batch needs.
| Name | Image | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Stone | 
|
99 |
Use
Using a Staircase on an open floor tile creates a ladder at that spot. It works exactly like a ladder found under a rock. Each one is good for a single trip down.
In the Skull Cavern, staircases let a run skip the floors that are not worth the time. A common plan is to bring a big stack of them along with Bombs and drop quickly through the upper floors. The deepest floors hold the most Iridium Ore and the best loot, so reaching them quickly is worthwhile.
Shafts are the other quick way down in the Skull Cavern. A shaft drops the farmer several floors at once, but the fall costs health. A Staircase only goes down one floor, yet it costs no health at all, which makes it the safer choice when health is low.
In the regular Mines, a Staircase is a fast way off a floor that is infested with monsters or simply too dangerous.
Notes
Placing a Staircase in Mayor Lewis's bedroom leads somewhere unexpected. It opens a way down into a hidden basement maze under the Mayor's Manor. At the end of the maze waits a pair of Lewis's Lucky Purple Shorts. Picking them up makes a cursed pair rise into the air and chase the farmer. The trip can be repeated for more pairs.
All Crafting
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
