When Starfield got its cinematic teaser at E3 in 2021, eager fans had lots of questions. But one in particular rung out loudly because the character in the teaser was shown doing something unheard of in a Bethesda RPG: climbing a ladder.
Todd Howard was even grilled about the trailer's ladder-climbing by the Telegraph, admitting that it was just cinematic flair. "Well... climbing is not... don't read too much into the ladder," he said. "It’s a ladder to get you in and out of the spaceship. That’s about it." In other words, ladders in Starfield will act the way they do in Skyrim: like doors. Click a ladder and a new area loads.
You no longer have to settle for that in Fallout 4, however, because a modder has gotten ladders to actually work. And those working ladders are in the place it most matters: your settlements. Kiss those ramps and stairs goodbye with the Climbable Ladders for Settlements mod by neeher. You can craft 'em. You can place 'em. And you can, finally, climb 'em.
Above please enjoy one of the most charming mod tutorial videos I think I've ever seen (the presenter has even dressed up in a tuxedo to mark the occasion) to learn how the ladders work and see how good they look in action.
The mod includes ladders of three different heights: single story, two-story, and two-story-plus-a-scooch-more for warehouses which are just a little higher than standard two-story buildings. The climbing animation looks great (stick to third-person, though, because in first-person it'll be a bit wonky) and it even includes the cool action hero slide down the ladder instead of a slow climb like us regular folks have to do it. And as an especially nice touch, NPCs will use your new climbable ladders, too.
This is great for builders because ladders take up much less space than stairs and ramps, and it's also just nice to see ladders actually working in Fallout 4. Not that Bethesda is alone in struggling with ladders. Ladders are often the worst.
Installation shouldn't be a problem—one version of the mod requires the Workshop Framework mod but the other will work just fine with vanilla Fallout 4. All the details you need are on the mod's page here at Nexus Mods.
