# HIDDEN STAIRS - Bug Or Feature?

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/hidden-stairs-bug-or-feature/13969>\
**Category:** The Bunker\
**Created:** [July 4, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/hidden-stairs-bug-or-feature/13969 "2017-07-04T17:59:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 14\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![End\_Transmission](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/end_transmission/32/622_2.png) [@End\_Transmission](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/End_Transmission)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/hidden-stairs-bug-or-feature/13969/1 "2017-07-04T17:59:02Z")

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So I just smashed open a bed and found a staircase underneath it. Is this an awesome bug or an intentional feature?

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**Author:** ![Walegrin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/walegrin/32/1392_2.png) [@Walegrin](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Walegrin)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 6:18pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/hidden-stairs-bug-or-feature/13969/2 "2017-07-04T18:18:13Z")

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Possibly the game randomly placed it over the staircase? I _think_ I saw something like that awhile ago with a table or chair…

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**Author:** ![mentos046](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/mentos046/32/11932_2.png) [@mentos046](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/mentos046)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 6:23pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/hidden-stairs-bug-or-feature/13969/3 "2017-07-04T18:23:03Z")

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I’ve seen one of those before. I disassembled a pantry in a house and found a staircase underneath it. It led to the first underground pot farm that I ever saw so I thought it was deliberately done, but I’ve never seen one again, so it’s probably just a result of the random generation of maps.

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**Author:** ![Coolthulhu](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/coolthulhu/32/2446_2.png) [@Coolthulhu](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Coolthulhu)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 9:33pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/hidden-stairs-bug-or-feature/13969/4 "2017-07-04T21:33:10Z")

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It’s unintended and pretty much a bug.  
Stairs should always be visible without having to manually examine all tiles.

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**Author:** ![Azrad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Azrad](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Azrad)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 5:58am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/hidden-stairs-bug-or-feature/13969/5 "2017-07-05T05:58:55Z")

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Happens quite a bit in my current run. Since I figured it was a bug, I just debug teleport a level down when I notice any noise coming from below. Often times there is indeed a basement. Going up the stairs from there often puts my survivor into a wall, a floor tile without stairs, or outside in the dirt.

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**Author:** ![Coolthulhu](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/coolthulhu/32/2446_2.png) [@Coolthulhu](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Coolthulhu)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 6:26am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/hidden-stairs-bug-or-feature/13969/6 "2017-07-05T06:26:36Z")

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Total lack of stairs is a different bug.

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**Author:** ![kimesik](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/kimesik/32/87_2.png) [@kimesik](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/kimesik)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 7:26am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/hidden-stairs-bug-or-feature/13969/7 "2017-07-05T07:26:40Z")

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It is not bug, it is super puper accidental feature!

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**Author:** ![deoxy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@deoxy](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/deoxy)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 1:50pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/hidden-stairs-bug-or-feature/13969/8 "2017-07-05T13:50:55Z")

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Yeah, hidden stairs I have no problem with - it makes sense (as long as it isn’t TOO often… and not UP stairs hiding “under” furniture), but lack of stairs is pretty annoying. In the late game, I usually try to tunnel into the area from a nearby basement to explore them.

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**Author:** ![End\_Transmission](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/end_transmission/32/622_2.png) [@End\_Transmission](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/End_Transmission)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 2:26pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/hidden-stairs-bug-or-feature/13969/9 "2017-07-05T14:26:55Z")

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This was a kickass bug because this is the first gun basement I’ve found in a while and it was REALLY well stocked. If I hadn’t randomly needed some rags to sew with, I’d never have got this tricked out UMP .45, enough ammo to shoot it for days (even the occasional burst), and a Ruger LCR as a backup gun with 100 rounds of .38 Super. There was a bunch of shotgun ammo down there too, so I should probably revisit the “Stairs Under The Bed” now that I picked up an empty Mossberg 500 off a dead Zombie Cop.

Actually, people making some kind of effort to hide their illegal grow operations totally should be a feature. Most of my ahem…acquaintances with…ahem…an interest in counterculture “farming” go to pretty elaborate lengths to hide theirs.

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**Author:** ![NuG](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/nug/32/7057_2.png) [@NuG](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/NuG)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2017, 12:09pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/hidden-stairs-bug-or-feature/13969/10 "2017-07-16T12:09:28Z")

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I had stairs under a dresser or bookcase once time, in one of my first few runs, and thought it was intentional. I later learned from browsing here and the cataclysmdda sub-reddit, that world generation can even fail to place stairs for a basement in a house. Sometimes if you hear a bunch of noise form below, it be the subways or a basement you have no access to without a jackhammer/mining downward(i think this was the solution if you really wanted to get down there, or finding a way top get to it through the sewers and busting through the wall that way).

I also saw a let’s play where someoneaccidentally shot out a boarded window when missing a Z with their bow, and it revealed a hidden staircase to a cult like room with an engraved skull artifact type of thing, that I read in the comments is an unfinished quest line. There was no door or anything to these stairs, and had he not accidentally shot out the window he would have never found the basement.

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**Author:** ![Azrad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Azrad](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Azrad)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2017, 3:03pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/hidden-stairs-bug-or-feature/13969/11 "2017-07-16T15:03:34Z")

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The hidden stairs of that spoiler cabin is intentional. The normal houses with the missing stairs leading down, I got no problem with debugging my survivor to teleport downstairs. Bit of an exploit, but since a bug prevents stairs down from generating I got no problem with it.

That said, unless the survivor doesn’t teleport into solid rock, I won’t short teleport the survivor after teleporting down, which leads to some… interesting situations when there’s so many hulks close together.

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**Author:** ![NuG](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/nug/32/7057_2.png) [@NuG](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/NuG)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2017, 3:12pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/hidden-stairs-bug-or-feature/13969/12 "2017-07-16T15:12:16Z")

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[quote=“Azrad, post:11, topic:13969”]The hidden stairs of that spoiler cabin is intentional. The normal houses with the missing stairs leading down, I got no problem with debugging my survivor to teleport downstairs. Bit of an exploit, but since a bug prevents stairs down from generating I got no problem with it.

That said, unless the survivor doesn’t teleport into solid rock, I won’t short teleport the survivor after teleporting down, which leads to some… interesting situations when there’s so many hulks close together.[/quote]

Nice, yeah I figured the one I mentioned in tags was most likely intentional, just wasn’t 100% sure. I thought that and the one time I found stairs hidden under a dresser interesting. Even if furniture over stairs and furniture spawning in front of doors is unintentional, it creates some nice flavor and exploration opportunities, as well as keeps you on high alert for things similar.

I have also seen labs where stairs going down were under a table/metalrack, similar to the dresser in the house to the basement.

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**Author:** ![leebash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/67e7ee/32.png) [@leebash](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/leebash)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 12:06am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/hidden-stairs-bug-or-feature/13969/13 "2017-07-17T00:06:44Z")

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For example, ant nest(or cavern) under a evac shelter has no stairs.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![NuG](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/nug/32/7057_2.png) [@NuG](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/NuG)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 9:27am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/hidden-stairs-bug-or-feature/13969/14 "2017-07-17T09:27:02Z")

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> [@leebash](#):
>
> For example, ant nest(or cavern) under a evac shelter has no stairs.

I also read recently that ant nest don’t always spawn the way down to the other levels of the nests, that or slime pits…or maybe it was both. Not sure if there was a fix for that or not, but I do have a slime pit and 2 ant nests close by to where I am in my current game, so I might check them out.