Flight

Basic Flight

It is possible fly through the air using Elytra wings.

Usage

Elytra are equipped in the chestplate slot, either by placing the item directly in the slot, by pressing F 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 Survivor is wearing. They maintain their in-world texture design even when they're broken or enchanted.

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 Survivor'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 Survivor 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 your vertical (fall) speed, which also greatly decreases your horizontal speed (clearly, it depends on the vertical fall rate, as one might expect from flight modeling). The net result is that you fly extremely slowly - but your 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 Survivors won't use. The Feather Falling enchantment does not affect Elytra speed (but can help protect you if you land hard).

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 Survivor 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 Survivor's lift. At a pitch of 30° above the horizon, the Survivor has the lowest possible airspeed of 7.2 m/sec. Above that, the Survivor 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 Survivor 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 right-clicking. Using a firework rocket while gliding quickly maximizes the Survivor'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.

A trident enchanted with Riptide can be used for propulsion as well, but only in water when in the Overworld or The End. It can alternatively be used in a biome that has precipitation.

It is possible to gain altitude during powered flight. This makes it possible to glide for extreme distances.

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.

Flying

To fly, the Survivor must press the spacebar key while falling, and the elytra spread apart like a beetle's elytra. The Survivor 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. Another flight method is using the Riptide-enchanted trident. Additionally, speed is quickly lost from sharp changes in direction.

Directly hitting any surface while gliding too fast causes damage proportional to flight speed (although this may be calculated from another factor). The Survivor 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 Survivor 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 Survivor's speed is slow enough to allow them time to do other things during a long flight, like sort out their inventory.

Technica Flight

It is possible to engage in controlled, powered flight using Technica. Using this capability the Survivor may fly in arbitrary directions and is able to hover in place. This technique is particularly useful for construction work. Technica flight consumes 1 popped chorus fruit per 30 seconds of flight time.

• To engage flight, hold an Elytra in your offhand. Your active item can be swapped into your off-hand with the F key.
• If you are powering up for the first time, this will consume 1 fuel unit and grant the corresponding amount of flight time. During this window, flight can be engaged and disengaged any number of times by holding the Elytra.
• If the fuel charge runs out while in the air, another fuel item will automatically be consumed. If no fuel units are available, flight will disengage.
• While holding the Elytra in your off-hand, double-tap space bar to fly. While flying, double-tap space again or remove the Elytra from the off-hand to disengage. Hold space to climb. Hold shift to descend.
• If flight disengages while at altitude, the Survivor will fall. It is possible to double-tap space to fall, and then to double-tap space to again begin flying. Falling is not inherently lethal. Stopping suddenly is. Falling into water, from any height, will arrest the fall safely.