Mastering Elytra in Minecraft: A Complete Guide for Beginners

Are you a Minecraft player looking to take your adventures to new heights?

Elytra are a sought-after item in the game that allow you to soar through the skies like never before. In this article, we will explore what Elytra are, how to obtain them, and how to use them effectively.

From fast travel to combat, Elytra have a variety of uses that can enhance your gameplay. Stay tuned to discover tips, tricks, and common mistakes when using Elytra, as well as how to repair them for endless flying fun!

What Are Elytra in Minecraft?

In Minecraft, elytra refers to a pair of wings or a chestplate slot item that allows players to glide and fly horizontally with great speed. They currently cannot provide upward lift on their own but can be used in conjunction with firework rockets to propel them upward. They were added to the Java Edition expecting to be released with 1.9, the Combat Update, but had not been finished in time. They were released as part of an update to this edition on March 1, 2016.

Elytra is an anagram of alteri meaning two wings in Latin. They are always plain black with a subtle pattern and lack the nature of glider-like wings. Where elytra originated from is never touched upon in any Minecraft lore or media. In a game with this many features, it is such a unique item that its mysteriousness only adds to the allure.

How to Obtain Elytra?

You obtain Elytra in Minecraft by heading to the End City located at the outer End Islands (The End). Once there, you will need to look for an End Ship flying the End City banner. This place is a long way to get to and requires a lot of advanced gameplay, previous boss fights, and carefully packed gear. To get there, you will need to build a portal which requires the final encounter with the Ender Dragon. Once at the End City, you will need to find the End Ship. It is hard to find because only a small percentage of end cities spawn with the end ship.

Once you eventually find an End City with a ship, you will have to fight shulkers and avoid falling into the void while carefully navigating the ship. Elytra is inside the loot chests of the end ship so within these loot chests, you will find your hard-earned elytra Here is a step-by-step guide for how to obtain Elytra so you better understand the process.

Finding an End City

End cities are structures that are found in the outer islands of The End. These islands are heavily forested, and they are usually accessible by forging through the forest or breaking stone walls to break into the enclosed islands.

End cities are liked for having the highest concentration for solid chests and have numerous regular chests with an overall high chance of elytras and enchanted iron/diamond gear, tools, and enchanted books (often very high quality loots) and shulkers.

Defeating the Ender Dragon

The most important goal of Defeating the Ender Dragon is to obtain a pair of Elytra, and it requires the End Portal to be located. Finding the Stronghold is difficult because it is indicated by only a locked room known as the End Portal Room. Once you have located the End Portal Room and the Ender Dragon is defeated, you may access the End City Portal which can be found at (0,0) in the Outer End. It takes note of the coordinates of the centrally located portion on the island from where they entered the Outer End to navigate to it as efficiently as possible.

Once you locate an End City and navigate through it, you will find yourself at (0,-2147483648) if going straight and hitting the X=-2147483648 border. Because every player’s negative X has been set that way. When you get there, you must adjust it to 400 or higher. Navigate from there such that if you hit the X=-2147483648 again, you should be around (0, 400). Continue past it to find a minimal obsidian platform approximately at (1000, 1000) which contains a floating boat. This boat, when expanded upon, includes Outpost Gates and End Gateways.

How to Use Elytra?

To use elytra in Minecraft, the player must equip it in their chestplate slot and activate it with flight controls which vary by platform. Controls to fly with elytra in Minecraft are similar to those for [=flying in creative mode with a jetpack].

Once equipped, to activate Riptide mode the player must dip elytra wings in water. This negates true flight but Elytra will deliver the player to destinations. Riptide will help you land fast without taking fall damage if using an ender pearl to reach the location you’re looking for.

The basics of elytra take some mastering to even fly after spending a few moments practicing. But after that initial awkwardness disappears, the power of elytra in a Minecraft survival and exploration game is immense. It may not allow full control of compact spaces but it still gives the power of flight by sacrificing the players’ ability to block below them while available tools for control rather than falling under high altitudes.

Equipping Elytra

To wear elytra in Minecraft, drag them from your inventory to the chestplate slot. This slot can be accessed by pressing the E key on PC, the U key on MAC, or the corresponding button on console or pocket editions. The elytra can also be equipped by first putting them in an armor slot on the player’s inventory bar, then right-clicking.

When you are underwater with Elytra on, move quickly to gain lift-off, and glide up using the underwater rocket technique.

The Elytra can take damage in the same way that other armor pieces can. You can repair the elytra by using either a damaged anvil and leather, or a grindstone. When equipped, the Elytra provides a +3 armor value and does not grant any additional protection. The Elytra offers no protection against drowning and produces a 0.5 reduction in the Maximum Air visual without altering the time that can be spent underwater. It has an Item Durability of 431 and is considered Curable. The maximum available flight time in Creative mode with an Elytra is reduced when wearing it in Survival mode, as shown in the table above.

Early-game elytra usage can be achieved by locating the End Gateway portal using the ender pearl and blaze rod method mentioned in the end section. This allows the player to explore the outer end fringes where they might find end ships containing elytra. They can jump from high mounts and attempt to glide using the elytra, though they might want a long-lasting feather fall IV golden boots.

Taking Off and Flying

The most important part of using elytra in Minecraft. To take off and fly, you first need to jump from some height off the ground. There is a brief pause while the elytra equip animation plays (the appear and spread from Penguin’s chest). If you know you are about to take off with the elytra, this pause can be taken as prep time to align your view to the direction you plan to travel.

Penguin notes that you need to be careful when jumping and taking off, as breaking your legs will take off as well. If you land without moving forward at the proper angle before landing, you will cease gliding and fall, potentially taking fall damage.

After taking off with the elytra, you can tuck in or spread the wings until you land (assuming you don’t fall to your perishing first). Tucking in the wings by pressing space will make flight steeper and faster (the rocket at best probably), and spreading the wings makes flight flatter and slower (for relatively slow flying in the air). If you hit the ground or water without first tucking in, a part of your armor (chestplate, leggings, boots, cap) will break.

Another quick note: unlike using fireworks to fly, you will have your hands and hotbar available during the elytra flying. This means you can use enderpearls, end crystals, tridents, or wield your weapons of choice while wearing elytra.

Using Fireworks to Boost Flight

When you have your elytra open, you can boost your speed by using fireworks. To begin, open your inventory menu, take firework rockets from your inventory, and place them alongside their respective rockets in a crafting table. Take the boosted fireworks, stock them in your hotkey, and then activate them by right-clicking in flight. During a rocket-powered flight, you can go from 0 meters per second to 9 meters per second within 25 blocks.

What Are the Uses of Elytra?

The uses of elytra in Minecraft are the following: flying a distance of approximately 1800 blocks one way, providing basic horizontal travel across terrain, accessing somewhat difficult-to-reach locations and items such as the various functions of the End Ship, avoiding mobs, and just having a fun sports activity in the game. The elytra provides the same speed as a regular sprint run in the normal world.

Fast Travel

By the time you acquire the Elytra, you may already have launched the Nether dimension for fast travel. However, the Elytra is another method of quick travel, particularly in realms like the Overworld or End dimensions without a Nether counterpart.

If you are on the ground at coordinates a: 200, b: 64, c: 100 with your destination coordinates to which you want to quickly travel halfway across the map at -5240, 64, -900, using the Elytra for travel might be quicker than creating and maneuvering through a Nether portal system. However, it will be much slower for traversing z coordinates.

Exploration

A notable use of Elytra is for exploration. Exploration is a fundamental theme in Minecraft as the game is open-world and especially for players joining Minecraft for the first time, exploring is a huge part of learning the game.

When going on long journeys on foot, elytra can save an enormous amount of time. For experienced players, the extended jumps elytra enables can be useful for evading pursuing mobs or players or unexpected falls. The paired wings of the elytra also provide space for the player to keep a shield easily accessible for defense while wearing the item.

Exploration of features and solving puzzles in many of the different Minecraft challenges, such as parkour, adventure, or CTM maps, also benefit from the use of elytra. Although elytra has a limited flying time, this adds a difficulty element to its exploration use and changes the game dynamics by requiring additional strategies such as falls from a height to refill the mobility bar or trading its use for that of a jetpack.

Combat

Elytras have a Military application in Minecraft. In aerial dogfights in close quarters, elytra by itself are useful getting to an enemy or as a tactic to flee or get cover.

In Elytra vs. Shulker Rockets competition, the user kept the elytra activated and waited with bow in hand for the Shulker to fire at him. He says “I’m probably be bad at this”. Indeed, the Shulker killed him in one shot. The application of Elytra in military operations was also featured as part of a video game competition at Fortnite where the Fortnite player Tfue used the elytra as cover during a gunfight.

Aesthetic Purposes

In many Minecraft worlds, developers will use Elytra wings for decorative purposes. Many will build flying castles, dungeons, or platforms to match the feel of the Elytra in Minecraft.

Redditor u/UnicornFartsGlitter made a build for the decoration of their tower. Then, via slime launchers, they use them to fly with the Elytra wings.

If you are starting out with Elytra, then an early step is making an Elytra launcher. To make an Elytra launcher in Minecraft, you have to fire a fully grown and preferably older chicken from a vertical dispenser mechanism. Then, stop the chicken from spawning into the world when it breaks free from the egg.

Following this, surround the chicken with transparent blocks to get it to jump more. Make sure there is a headroom of 1.5 blocks. Lastly, try to get a redstone-laden mine cart into a position where it can power the vertical dispenser and then ride it back to shore.

What Are the Tips and Tricks for Using Elytra?

Throughout this article, all the tips and tricks for using Elytra in Minecraft have been touched upon. The key points are as follows:

1. You need fireworks with various levels of rocket flight duration to adjust for different altitudes/flight distances. Know how to craft them.
2. Jump to launch without using ladders or other constraints. Highly important to know before using the Elytra!
3. Better to use Elytra in first person but F5 can give you different views.
4. Control with WASD and look and aim with the mouse. Use E to open/close wings and ctrl while flying (or pressing double space) to lower altitude without attacking rockets.
5. Watch altitude and frequently ways to increase/decrease altitude (places to gain altitude) and use fireworks as means for acceleration.
6. On descent, if you are going to crash be sure to slow down.

Use Fireworks to Boost Flight

Fireworks in Minecraft are items that help the player fly and gain altitude quickly. They were introduced specifically to aid players who use the Elytra wings for airborne travel. The two new sections of the player Equipment and Equipment UI in the official Bedrock Edition Minecraft Guide provide details about fireworks can be used for boosting flight. Numerous additional flying benefits from using fireworks to ignite the elytra can be found in the Minecraft Bug Report section.

According to game designers in the Java Edition 1.11 of Minecraft, the player needs to switch to the hotkey for elytra and combine the firework rocket key so that both can be pressed simultaneously during flight. Note that you must hold the fire key down continuously and the rocket will be rocket released as soon as you do so. a video posted by YouTuber Dwayne the Rock Hard Johnson on May 7, 2018, with all of the stats for the different types of fireworks that have been prepared, making it easier to choose the correct one for starting a flight or adding speed during flight.

Avoid Flying Too High

It is a good idea in Minecraft to stay low to the ground when flying with a Elytra. There are many hazards involved with flying high, including difficult-to-see Mob and Vehicle Hazards and an increased risk of Fall Damage. Staying low provides the ability to take evasive action if a hazard presents itself, and makes visual navigation during flight much easier.

Additionally, falling from little more than seventy blocks can be deadly to unarmored players even if they are not struck mid-fall, and the player may have gained a significant amount of altitude before noticing. The screen being obscured during a rapid descent can make recovery impossible, while players flying near ground level have a much easier time locating the ground to make safe landings even if they have already experienced a significant drop.

Practice and Master the Controls

Practicing and mastering the controls refers to players using the controls of elytra flight and launch frequently enough that it becomes second nature and that they have a good sense of how useful it is for their current and future needs minus the trial and error of constantly crashing and burning. There are 5 very important aspects to mastering the control of elytra in Minecraft.

First is the deployment of your elytra which occurs at the very last moment of your jump with great risk of failure and damage. Practice makes perfect here.

The remaining four refer to mastering the controls of elytra flight. Second is proper orientation and angling of elytra jumps against the wind. When flying in the same direction as the wind, more upward controlled movement is required, while lesser upward control is critical for weathering the wind when flying against it.

The third and fourth aspects of controlling elytra in Minecraft are determining direction changes made with the keyboard once in flight and managing smooth and controlled descents.

The final and fifth aspect of elytra control mastery is kinetic conservation. As demonstrated here, decreasing your forward speeds will cause a slow standstill, and increasing falls will accelerate your speed toward the ground in a nose-dive movement.

What Are the Common Mistakes When Using Elytra?

The most common mistakes in Elytra use in Minecraft are the following:

1. Running out of durability and falling to one’s doom while flying.
2. Forgetting to charge the Elytra and not paying attention to its failure.
3. Failing to correctly aim the transportation while gliding, which results in massive errors.

To ensure these do not happen, make sure that the Elytra you are using has a decent amount of durability and either have an anvil repair the item or equip yourself with your backup Elytra. Forgetting to charge the Elytra, prevent this by naming the Elytra, so that it will take longer time to get it to 0%. While flying, watch your altitude. Ensure no structures and cliffs are in your flight path. You might want to grab fireworks for extra propulsion to prevent this from happening, particularly as you are still learning to move with Elytra.

Not Repairing Elytra

There is no way to repair original Elytra in Minecraft. Instead, replace them with new Elytra or upgrade to Netherite Elytra. Some modifications in the Electroblob’s Wizardry and Too Many Items mods allow repairing broken Elytra. One must weigh the efficiencies of the best unbreaking enchantments versus their preferences for using the original Elytra or Netherite Elytra.

Not Bringing Backup Elytra

There is no mistaking that the Elytra is the endgame item in Minecraft that can turn any journey into an adventure. Losing it should be a frustrating moment, but it is a moment that can easily pass into annoyance for some players. Without a solid backup, players will find themselves deflated in their journey. Thankfully, a solid backup has become quite easy to obtain, as the End, and thus The End City and End Ship are relatively simple to trip to, as the End Portal can easily be found in any stronghold.

Losing an Elytra can happen quite easily if not careful in certain areas, and being without one while exploring can mean losing access to large parts of the Minecraft landscape. Especially if another End City is not a reachable distance away. So it is recommended that players never journey without two Elytras, with the second being stored carefully at home in the event the primary becomes lost.

Not Using Fireworks to Boost Flight

Not using fireworks is the third most common mistake people make when flying with elytra in Minecraft. While Elytra wings give the player the ability to fly in survival mode, providing autonomy without the need to enter creative, fly through open natural caves which are echoey and make the engine sound ever more ominous, chillingly hpk mak makyamong the best. Long win ecl elt electrolytic tinning provides those benefits with the exhilarating resolution that you may glide too long and may be in need of a fireworks boost to continue flight.

Typically, using fireworks as a flying boost is the favored method for those that must travel. You do not have enough altitude? Oh, no. Fire off a firework rocket (in the air), it will add enough altitude to resume your flight. The Boost Elytra section of this article explores how to benefit from this incredible use of fireworks. Despite fireworks adding a significant distance and height to flight, people sometimes forget that they are low on rockets, or they avoid using them, mistakenly waiting for the worst to happen and becoming stranded. First and foremost, using fireworks overhead before you are stuck in water or on the ground, you will enjoy a pick-me-up.

How to Repair Elytra?

Elytra in Minecraft can be repaired in survival mode by using an anvil and either phantom membrane or leather. The experience cost to repair the elytra does not reset between repairs, meaning it is best practiced on the mildly damaged elytras as they will be cheaper to fix if the anvil lottery decides to give you a high cost. If one’s elytra breaks, it is possible to repair it the same way one would repair any tool or armor: by fixing it with diamonds in the crafting table.

With the Minecraft history of glitches and repairs, users quickly found that repairing elytra with diamonds was far too expensive. Anvil repairs are the best alternative to fixing elytra, as long as there are other elytras to use in the meantime, as anvil level costs will not reset across repairs.

Using the Anvil and Mending Enchantment

To repair Elytra wings, you must use an anvil to combine one set of elytra with another one in perfect condition. The cumulative costs then decrease as the durability of all wings becomes low. The mending enchantment can be used instead of the anvil. By granting individual XP levels to the player, mending prevents any tools with the Mending attribute from consuming durability. Between the two repair styles, the mending technique is preferable as it is the most cost-effective way to repair Elytra. Ensure you have the Elytra wings in your inventory after you have gained the mending enchantment. When working on gaining XP orbs, your equipped Elytra wings may be used for a journey simultaneously.

Using the Ender Dragon’s Breath

The Ender Dragon’s Breath has only one unpublished use. The Ender Dragon’s Breath can refill a lingering elixir, which is a potion created with dragon’s breath. Such a potion cannot be modified. It is only the dragon’s breath fumes that give the potion a greater duration. When the A player attacks or interacts with the ender dragon (/summon ender_dragon), the ender dragon releases the dragon’s breath near the Elytra wearer, refilling the timer with a decreasing potion.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Use Elytra in Minecraft?

What is an Elytra in Minecraft?
Elytra is a pair of wings that allows players to glide through the air in Minecraft.

How to Use Elytra in Minecraft?

How do I obtain Elytra in Minecraft?
Elytra can be found in End Cities in the End dimension or can be obtained by trading with a villager or killing an Ender Dragon.

How to Use Elytra in Minecraft?

How do I equip Elytra in Minecraft?
To equip Elytra, hold it in your hand and then press and hold the “use” key while in midair.

How to Use Elytra in Minecraft?

How do I activate Elytra in Minecraft?
To activate Elytra, jump off a high place and press and hold the “jump” key while in midair.

How to Use Elytra in Minecraft?

How do I control my glide with Elytra in Minecraft?
To control your glide, use the “forward” and “backward” keys to change your direction and the “left” and “right” keys to turn while in midair.

How to Use Elytra in Minecraft?

Can I repair Elytra in Minecraft?
Yes, Elytra can be repaired using Phantom Membrane in an anvil, or by combining two damaged Elytra in a crafting table.