Elytra (2023)

Elytra (/ˈɛl ɪ trə/ᴇʟ-i-trə^[1]) are rare wings found in end ships that are a source of flight in Survival mode.

Obtaining

Natural generation

Elytra are found only in end cities in item frames in the treasure room of the end ship. A shulker guards the elytra and the ship's two loot chests.

Repairing

Elytra can be enchanted with Mending so that they get repaired as the player collects experience orbs while wearing/holding them.

Elytra can also be repaired in the player crafting grid, by combining two damaged pairs of elytra together.

Similarly, two damaged elytra pairs can be combined on a grindstone.

Elytra can also be repaired at an anvil using phantom membranes, which has the advantage that it preserves enchantments on elytra. Each phantom membrane restores 108 durability points, exactly 25% of the elytra's total durability.

Each repair on the anvil, however, also increases the prior work penalty for the Elytra, making every subsequent repair increasingly expensive and eventually reaching an upper limit where repairs are no longer allowed because they are "too expensive" (even if the player has many xp levels to spare). However, the prior work penalty can be reset to 0 for an enchanted elytra pair when it is disenchanted on a grindstone. Unenchanted elytra cannot be used on the grindstone alone.

Usage

Elytra are equipped in the chestplate slot, either by placing the item directly in the slot, by pressing use item while held in hand, or by firing a point-blank dispenser at a target. They are gray in color by default, but they adopt the design of any cape the player is wearing. They maintain their in-world texture design even when they're broken or enchanted.

Flying

To fly, the player must press the jump key while falling, and the elytra spread apart like a beetle's elytra. The player can aim their view around to turn or adjust their pitch. Losing altitude increases speed, and gaining altitude decreases speed. Firework rockets can be used to increase speed. Additionally, speed is quickly lost from sharp changes in direction.

Directly hitting any surface while gliding too fast causes damage to the player and their armor proportional to flight speed (although this may be calculated from another factor). When a player dies in this way, they receive the death message "<player> experienced kinetic energy". The player does not take fall damage from colliding at a shallow angle or a low enough speed. The critical, damaging angle is about 50° with the collision surface, and the calculation for damage seems to be as if the player had fallen from their maximum potential glide height to the height of the struck surface.

A safe and simple cruise with the highest travel distance can be achieved by aiming directly at the horizon while at the glide's altitude limit. The player's speed is slow enough to allow them time to do other things during a long flight, like sort out their inventory.

In Creative mode or when the "mayfly" ability has been given, the player can alternatively hold the jump key to fly up,‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} or double press the jump key to move around freely.

Flight can be stopped by pressing the jump key.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Speed and altitude

Elytra have a minimum speed of about 7.2 m/s (obtained by gliding at the altitude cap with a strong upward pitch of 30°). If the diver drops to 0 speed, they quickly get accelerated back up to at least this minimum. The diver can increase speed by choosing to descend faster, but afterward, they do not regain nearly as much altitude. In the real world, drag increases with speed, and drag, in turn, slows the aircraft; Minecraft mimics this. To glide from cliff to cliff, a player's best bet is to aim slightly above the horizon.

Sharp turns are a fast way to lose speed. Quicker turns cause greater losses, while gentle movements have small effects. Making a hairpin turn can actually be used for making high-speed landings safe as well as for precise landings on small targets like rooftops. The player aims to glide just above the target, then as they're right over it they immediately reverse directions, then they make readjustments as necessary.

The lowest rate of altitude loss is about 1.5 m/sec, obtained by gliding at the altitude cap with a slight upward pitch (12° or 15°).

To get the best possible glide ratio (and thus the furthest distance out of their altitude), the diver pilot should aim directly at the horizon. This ratio is about 9.47 to 1.

Slow Falling potions greatly decrease the player's vertical (fall) speed, which also greatly decreases their horizontal speed (clearly, it depends on the vertical fall rate, as one might expect from flight modeling). The net result is that the player flies extremely slowly - but their Elytra still takes durability damage at the usual rate (1 durability per second without Unbreaking, etc.). Due to this combination, Elytra plus Slow Falling is largely a novelty that most players won't use. The Feather Falling enchantment does not affect Elytra speed and does not reduce fall damage from hitting things with elytra.

It is possible to calculate the glide range by dividing the altitude by tan of the glide angle (altitude/tan(glide angle)). For example, if the player glides from an altitude of 64 blocks above ground with a glide angle of 15 degrees, they can glide for 237 blocks (assume that they are on superflat), since floor(64 / tan(15)) is 237.

Stalling

Trying for too high a pitch reduces the player's lift. At a pitch of 30° above the horizon, the player has the lowest possible airspeed of 7.2 m/sec. Above that, the player might be considered to be in a stall. Increasing the pitch gets closer to a free-fall, and stalled flight at 60° is enough to cause fall damage. Stalling at 90° is a true free-fall.

Recovering from a stall is done by readjusting to any safe pitch as quickly as the player likes. This can be just changing to look at the horizon.

Powered flight

Firework rockets can be used for propulsion during flight by placing it in either hand and using. Using a firework rocket while gliding quickly maximizes the player's speed for a time similar to the rocket's flight duration.

If the rocket is equipped with firework stars, it explodes at the end of its flight, inflicting damage based on the number of stars.

It is possible to gain altitude during powered flight. This makes it possible to glide for extreme distances and had been used extensively by far lands/World Border challenges.

Durability and Repair

Durability decreases by one point each second when gliding. A pair of elytra has 432 durability, allowing 7 minutes and 12 seconds of gliding time without enchantments, providing more than 10,000 blocks of transport distance. It is possible to apply the Unbreaking enchantment using an anvil and an enchanted book, which affects the elytra, in the same way it does to tools. Unbreaking III increases elytra's flight time to about four seconds per durability point, a total of 28 minutes and 44 seconds.

When the durability reaches 1, elytra stop working until they are repaired, adopting a tattered texture in the inventory. The damage ends at durability 1, so they can never fully break. A pair may be repaired by either using the Mending enchantment, combining two pairs in a grindstone, or combining it in an anvil with phantom membranes. In an anvil, each piece of membrane repairs elytra by 108 durability points, requiring 4 pieces to fully repair them.

Each repair on the anvil will also increase the prior work penalty for the Elytra, making every subsequent repair increasingly expensive, with an upper limit where repairs are no longer allowed because they are "too expensive". However, the prior work penalty can be reset to 0 for an enchanted elytra pair when it is disenchanted on a grindstone (by adding nothing to it). Unenchanted elytra cannot be used on the grindstone alone.

Enchantments

Elytra can receive the following enchantments by combining in an anvil:

Sounds

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Achievements

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	Sky's the Limit	Find elytra	The City at the End of the Game	Have a pair of elytra in your inventory.	end/elytra

History

Java Edition
1.9		October 5, 2015			Tommaso Checchi tweets that Jeb is working on a secret feature for Minecraft Java Edition, saying "it's like Mario 64."
		October 6, 2015			Jeb tweets a animated GIF revealing a player gliding around an end city. Elytra have a dragon-wing texture.
		October 6, 2015			Jeb tweets an image of folded wings, which replace the cape the player is wearing.
		October 6, 2015			Jeb tweets another animated GIF of his character with Mojang-themed elytra, gliding along a river through a taiga forest.
		15w41a			Added elytra.
					Elytra are currently repaired with leather when using anvil.
		15w42a			Elytra now spread slightly when the player crouches.
					The player can now take damage from gliding into walls, and crashing into a wall now has its own death message.
					When flying with elytra, players are only 0.6 blocks tall. They, therefore, can now fit through 1-block gaps while gliding.
					The player can no longer go higher than the starting point of the glide.
		15w43a			The player's point of view now shifts while gliding.
		16w06a			Elytra now recognize the player's cape and adopt a different elytron design for every official cape (see Gallery). In addition, Jeb is working on a feature to allow players to change the elytron design like regular player skins.
		16w07a			Elytra are now activated by jumping mid-air. The player no longer glides automatically when falling.
					The cape option in the options menu now also disables custom elytra textures.
					Added the game rule disableElytraMovementCheck.
1.9.1		pre1			Sounds while gliding with elytra have been added.
1.11		16w32a			Elytra can now be placed on armor stands, just like any other chestplate.
		16w38a			Elytra are now visible on zombies, skeletons, and armor stands.
		16w41a			Elytra now have their own sound when equipped.
1.11.1		16w50a			Elytra can now be propelled through the air by using firework rockets.
1.13		17w47a			Prior to The Flattening, this item's numeral ID was 443.
		18w14a			Elytra now require phantom membrane to be repaired, instead of leather.
1.14		18w43a			The textures of the elytra have been changed.
1.15		19w39a			The deployment animation of elytra causes player blinks when the deployment events has overlapped.
		19w42a			The deployment and folding animations of elytra have been improved and become smoother.
					Elytra can now start to glide immediately after a jump, not only during falls.
1.18		experimental snapshot 7			Elytra no longer use up durability when gliding regularly. Durability is now only consumed when a firework rocket is used.
					Speed boosts from firework rockets are slightly weaker.
					Now break when the item reaches 0 durability.
		21w37a			The elytra changes in experimental snapshot 7 have been reverted.
1.19		Pre-release 1			Equipping elytra through the inventory now plays a sound.[2]
Upcoming Java Edition
1.19.4		23w05a			Equipping elytra while held with an item already in the chestplate slot now swaps the two items.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0		alpha 0.17.0.1			Added elytra. In-game, they are known as elytra wings.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0		beta 1.2.0.2			Elytra can now be propelled through the air by using firework rockets.
1.2.3		beta 1.2.3.3			Elytra Wings have been renamed to Elytra.
1.6.0		beta 1.6.0.5			Elytra can now be repaired in an anvil using phantom membrane, instead of leather.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The textures of the elytra have been changed.
Legacy Console Edition
TU46	CU36	1.38	Patch 15	1.0.1	Added elytra.
TU53	CU43	1.49	Patch 23	1.0.3	Elytra can now be propelled through the air by using firework rockets.
TU69		1.76	Patch 38		Elytra are now repaired on the anvil using phantom membrane instead of leather.
		1.90			The textures of elytra have been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
1.7.10					Added elytra.

Issues

Issues relating to "Elytra" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

• The singular form of elytra is an elytron.
• In reality, elytra are not used for flight. They are the tough forewings of beetles and earwigs that cover the wings they actually use for flight. However, like Minecraft elytra, in beetles they can be used for gliding.
• A flying player has a shorter hitbox than usual: A 0.6 block cube centered on the player's feet.
• It is possible to glide while on a ladder, by pressing ⇧ Shift followed by space, causing the player to fall with a speed determined by the player's visual angle. This means that the player can descend fast on a ladder, but if the speed is too fast when hitting the ground, they can take fatal fall damage. Using a firework rocket can also speed up the player's descent.
• In Java Edition if the player glides into deep water with elytra equipped, the animation does not stop, giving it the appearance of a swimming animation.^[3] The animation stops once the player touches the ground. Additionally, firework rockets can be used with elytra underwater with a short boost duration.
• Elytra do not deactivate when the player flies into lava.^[3]
• Elytra can be equipped onto some mobs using commands. This has no effect unless the mob has the FallFlying tag set to 1b. Mobs glide forward, unable to control the movement before landing, at which time they regain their AI.
  • Exceptions to this are squids as the squid's AI causes it to attempt swimming in midair, making it fall straight down because it conflicts with the elytra mechanics.
  • Because chickens fall slowly, they can move more distance.
  • Endermen, tamed wolves and tamed cats that are not sitting cannot teleport until they hit the ground.
  • Because mobs do not regain control until they hit the ground, vexes fall until they die or despawn as they cannot touch the ground.
  • Mobs capable of flying, such as parrots or vexes can steer in air, though they cannot travel up or down. Dolphins also have this ability.
• 4J Studios created an elytron-centered tutorial map for console edition when elytra were first introduced to this platform, this map is themed as "ruins of an ancient civilization of Minecraft worshipers" and showcases the new amplified terrain generation. This map can be seen behind the scenes.^[4] On 28 March 2017, 4J Studios added an elytron-themed Mini Games for console edition called "Glide;" it consists of Time Attack and Score Attack mode.^[5][6]
• A player who jumps with both elytra and the Slow Falling effect travels slightly upward, which is a cheap but time-consuming alternative to fireworks and Riptide-enchanted tridents.
• On May 5, 2019, Mojang tweeted 'The End never yields enough adequate resources, sadly,' along with a sad emoji.^[7] The first letter of each word spells 'T E n y e a r s' (Ten Years). Attached was a picture of Steve and Alex wearing both a chestplate and elytra. The next day, they tweeted, "Have you noticed something suspic10us here lately?"^[8]
• Mojang has considered the suggestion of combining elytra with a chestplate, but eventually decided against it, stating that elytra taking up armor is an intentional decision of game balancing.^[9]

Gallery

• 

  The first image of elytra, tweeted by Jeb. Click to play.

  (Video) Everything About How to Use Elytra in Minecraft 1.19

• 

  Folded elytra, which resembles the cape the user is wearing.

• 

  Elytra in an end ship.

• 

  See Also

  The Blug: Fireflies - SciencelineElytra | How to craft elytra in Minecraft | Minecraft WikiWhat Is a True Bug? Definition, Traits, ExamplesTrue Bugs of Kentucky - University of Kentucky Entomology

  A player wearing elytra.

• 

  A player using elytra.

• 

  Elytra with only 1 durability.

• 

  Elytra designs fitting to the official capes, posted by Jeb on Reddit.

• 

  A player gliding while blocking with a shield.

• 

  An image of players using elytra.

• 

  Steve gliding with elytra.

• 

  Alex gliding with elytra.

• 

  A pair of enchanted elytra.

Console exclusive

• 

  Screenshot of Glide mini-games.

  (Video) How To Get & Use ELYTRA In Minecraft!! - The Ultimate Elytra Guide

• 

  Another screenshot of Glide mini-games.

• 

  Glide launch poster.

• 

  Official elytra themed tutorial map.

(These maps can be found for a price on the Microsoft Store)

Designs when wearing capes

Designs that are not listed here have default elytron texture or don't have any.

• 

  Old Mojang cape

• 

  See Also

  Functional value of elytra under various stresses in the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneumTrue Bugs (Heteroptera) | Smithsonian InstitutionDo All Insects Have Wings? - Colonial Pest ControlKids' Inquiry of Diverse Species, Hemiptera: INFORMATION

  New Mojang cape

• 

  Mojang Studios cape

• 

  Crowdin Translator cape

• 

  dannyBstyle's cape

• 

  JulianClark's cape

• 

  Millionth Customer cape

• 

  MINECON 2011 Attendees cape

  (Video) The Ultimate Minecraft 1.19 Survival Guide - New World To Elytra

• 

  MINECON 2012 Attendees cape

• 

  MINECON 2013 Attendees cape

• 

  MINECON 2015 Attendees cape

• 

  MINECON 2016 Attendees cape

• 

  MINECON Live 2019 Founder's cape

• 

  Mojira Moderator cape

• 

  MrMessiah's cape

• 

  Prismarine cape

• 

  Realms mapmaker's cape

  (Video) I Added CUSTOM ELYTRA to Minecraft...

• 

  Cobalt cape

• 

  Scrolls cape

• 

  Turtle cape

• 

  Pancape cape

• 

  Migrator cape

• 

  Gr8_Escape's cape

• 

  Valentine cape

• 

  Vanilla cape‌^{[Java Edition only]}

• 

  Vanilla cape‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

References

External Links

• Taking Inventory: Elytra – Minecraft.net on December 14, 2019