I know, you want to fly in Minecraft. Luckily, Mojang has provided us with an item that can let you do just that. Elytra is a late-game game item, that you can find by exploring the End Dimension. But you can’t just find it lying on the ground somewhere. You have to do a couple of things first, one of them being that you actually beat the Ender Dragon. Let’s explore the End together!
How to Get to the End?
The End is considered as the Endgame area (if it wasn’t obvious enough), so before making the trip you should be fully prepared to survive one of the toughest fights in the game. You can check out our post about beating the Ender Dragon for equipment recommendations!
Eyes of Ender
Before you can even think about finding an Elytra, you need to get to the End dimension. The first thing you have to do is collect all the necessary Eyes of Ender. They are used to both locate the portal to the End and to activate it too. Finding the required components to create them can take some time and effort though. It can only be obtained by crafting, where you combine blaze powder with an Ender Pearl.
To obtain blaze powder, you will have to create a Nether Portal and locate the Nether Fortress. Blaze, the mob that drops Blaze rods, can only be found there. Every Blaze rod gives you 2 Blaze powders, so make sure you grab enough of them (at least 6). Make sure to grab some extra rods, just in case you lose an eye or two.
Collecting the required Ender Pearls can take a bit more time. The best way for you to get a lot of Ender Pearls is by visiting the Warped Forest biome in the Nether. Every time you kill an Enderman, there is a chance that he drops the Pearl. As Endermen spawn in abundance there, this is your best chance of collecting enough pearls.
How to Find the End Portal?
Now that your Eyes of Ender are prepared it’s time to find the portal to the End. The portal is located in a Stronghold, a structure that randomly generates anywhere underground in the Overworld.
Locating it is pretty straightforward. Hold one of your Eyes of Ender in your hand and throw it. It will naturally fly in the direction where the nearest Stronghold is. Then just pick it back up and head in that direction. There is a chance the Eye breaks when used, that is why it’s always good to have some backup Eyes of Ender with you. When the Eye floats in place after being used it means it’s time to dig down!
Activating the End Portal
Once you reach the portal room of the Stronghold, you will most likely see that some of the Eye of Ender slots are already filled. Each slot has a 10% chance for an Eye of Ender to already spawn in there, but don’t count on it too much while collecting your materials. Activate the portal by setting your Eyes of Ender in the slots and jump through!
You will spawn on a platform made of obsidian, and in front of you, there should be an island with massive pillars and an Ender Dragon flying around. It’s time you get ready for a fight!
Finding the Right End City
After you defeat the Ender Dragon, two portals open up. One rolls credits and sends you back home, and the other leads to the real End Dimension. There you can explore the End freely in the search for the elusive Elytra. To have a shot at the Elytra, you must find the End City, which is a castle-like structure.
You can find very valuable loot in End Cities, but it is guarded by the shulkers. They are small box-shaped hostile mobs, which shoot bullets at you that do damage and inflict Levitation. They are also the only source of shulker shells, which you can use to craft shulker boxes (portable chests).
If it’s Elytra you’re after, then you must look for a specific End City. Elytra can only be found in an End Ship, a floating boat-like structure, which can be found docked at some End Cities. You shouldn’t go through too many End Cities before finding it, as every tower of every End City can generate 4 bridges (50% chance per bridge) which can dock the ship. And then every bridge has a 12.5% chance of actually generating the ship.
Each End Ship only has one Elytra, so if you’re playing with your friends you will have to find more End Cities with the End Ship.
What Are the Best Elytra Enchantments?
The best enchantment for Elytra and the only one I usually use is Unbreaking III. If you’d like to know more about enchanting check out our full guide on enchanting!
