How to make a ladder in Minecraft, and how fast one really climbs
Seven sticks make three ladders in 26.3. What a stack costs in logs, where a ladder refuses to hang, and the climbing and sliding speeds from the game code.
A ladder takes seven sticks and gives you three ladders. That is the whole recipe, read from data/minecraft/recipe/ladder.json in Java 26.3:
# # # = minecraft:stick
# # #
# # → 3 × minecraft:ladderIt is shaped, so the H has to be an H — the two missing sticks are what tell the game this is a ladder and not something else.
What a stack of ladders costs
Sticks come from planks (two planks stacked vertically make 4 sticks, any of the 13 wood types including the new poplar), and a log makes 4 planks. Two bamboo also make one stick. Because each step rounds up to a whole craft, the cost is not a straight multiplication:
| ladders you need | ladder crafts | sticks | planks | logs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 1 |
| 16 | 6 (makes 18) | 42 | 22 | 6 |
| 32 | 11 (makes 33) | 77 | 40 | 10 |
| 64 | 22 (makes 66) | 154 | 78 | 20 |
| 128 | 43 (makes 129) | 301 | 152 | 38 |
The first row is worth remembering: one log is exactly one craft of ladders, with a single stick left over. For a mine shaft, count one ladder per block of height — a shaft from the surface at Y 64 down to the diamond layers near Y −59 is about 123 ladders — 41 crafts, 287 sticks, 36 logs.
Where a ladder will not hang
A ladder needs a full, solid face directly behind it. The game checks whether the face of the block behind is "sturdy", which rules out a few blocks people try:
- Leaves — their support shape is empty, so nothing attaches to them
- the side of a slab, a fence, a glass pane or anything else that does not fill the face
- nothing at all — if the supporting block is removed, the ladder pops off as an item
Glass, ice and soul sand are fine: they present a full face. A ladder can also be waterlogged, and a piston pushing one breaks it into an item rather than moving it.
How fast you climb
These come from the movement code, not from timing it by eye:
| on a ladder | speed |
|---|---|
| climbing (walk into it or hold jump) | 0.1176 blocks per tick ≈ 2.35 blocks per second |
| sliding down (no key held) | capped at 0.15 blocks per tick = 3 blocks per second |
| holding sneak | 0 — you stop and hang in place |
Climbing sets your vertical speed to 0.2 each tick, then gravity (0.08) and drag (×0.98) take their share, which is where 0.1176 comes from. A 64-block shaft therefore takes about 27 seconds to climb, and about 21 to slide down.
Holding sneak to stop only works for players, and not inside scaffolding. That is the "hands-free mining" trick: sneak on the ladder and your hands are free to break blocks around you without drifting down.
A ladder cancels fall damage
Every tick you are in a climbable block, your fall distance is reset to zero, and your downward speed is capped at 0.15. A ladder at the bottom of a drop — or anywhere along it that you pass through — means you land as if you had fallen from that point, not from the top.
The trapdoor cap
An open trapdoor directly above a ladder, facing the same way, counts as part of the ladder. You can climb straight through it, then close it behind you as a lid on the shaft. The trapdoor is a special case written into the climbing code; the regular list is the #minecraft:climbable tag — ladders, vines, scaffolding, and the weeping, twisting and cave vines.
Ladders as fuel
A ladder burns for 300 ticks (1.5 items smelted), a stick for only 100. So the seven sticks in one craft burn for 700 ticks, and the three ladders they become burn for 900 — though burning the four planks you started from gives 1,200, so if it is fuel you want, skip the crafting.
To size a bigger job — a ladder network, or ladders alongside everything else a build needs — the Crafting Cost Tree Calculator expands ladders down to logs with the same round-up rules.