You've spent hours mining. You have stacks of diamonds, a base that looks like a cathedral, and enough iron to build a bridge to the moon. But you’re still walking. Or worse, you’re hopping up mountains like a caffeinated mountain goat. It’s exhausting. Honestly, the jump from being a ground-dweller to actually figuring out how to fly in survival mode Minecraft is the single biggest turning point in any playthrough. It changes everything. The world feels smaller. The dangers feel trivial.
But here is the thing: most people think "flying" just means getting an Elytra. That's barely half the story. If you don't know how to sustain that flight, how to land without shattering your legs, or how to use the weird physics of the game to your advantage, you aren't flying. You're just falling with style.
The End is just the beginning
To fly, you have to go to the one place everyone avoids until they’re "ready." The End. You can't craft the wings. You can't find them in a desert temple. You have to kill the Ender Dragon. Once that beast is dead, you’ll see a tiny portal—the End Gateway—floating out in the void. Toss an Ender Pearl through it.
Now, you’re in the outer islands. This is where the real game starts. You are looking for an End City, specifically one with a floating ship.
Inside that ship, hanging in a frame, is the Elytra.
🔗 Read more: NBA Finals Locker Code: What Most People Get Wrong
It looks like a pair of grey bug wings. When you put it on your chest plate slot, you lose your armor protection. It's a trade-off. You’re trading safety for god-like mobility. But if you just jump off a cliff now, you’ll glide. You’ll go down. To truly learn how to fly in survival mode Minecraft, you need internal combustion. Or, well, gunpowder.
Rockets are your engine
Gliding is cool for about five seconds. Then you realize you're losing altitude. To stay up, you need Firework Rockets. But not just any rockets.
If you use rockets with a "Firework Star" (the stuff that makes them explode in colors), you will literally blow yourself up in mid-air. I’ve seen it happen to veterans. They spend ten hours getting the wings only to accidentally craft "death's-head" rockets and paint the sky with their own loot.
The Recipe for Flight:
One piece of Paper. One to three pieces of Gunpowder. That's it.
The more gunpowder you use, the longer the "Flight Duration" boost. Most players stick to Flight Duration 1 because it’s efficient, but if you’re crossing a 10,000-block ocean, Duration 3 is your best friend. You right-click the rocket while gliding, and boom—you’re a jet.
Why durability is your secret enemy
The Elytra has 432 durability points. Every second of flight uses one point. When it hits 1 durability, it stops working. It doesn't break and disappear, but it becomes "tattered." If you’re 200 blocks in the air when that happens? You’re dead.
You need the Mending enchantment. Period. Without Mending, your wings are a temporary toy. With Mending, every time you pick up an XP orb—from killing a stray zombie or smelting some gold—your wings heal. Pair this with Unbreaking III, and you can basically stay in the air forever.
The Trident trick nobody talks about
There is a way to fly that doesn't involve rockets at all. It’s niche. It’s weather-dependent. It’s also the most fun you can have in the game.
It's the Riptide enchantment on a Trident.
If it’s raining, or if you’re standing in water, a Riptide III Trident will launch you into the sky. If you time it right and open your Elytra at the peak of the launch, you can travel thousands of blocks without using a single rocket. In a thunderstorm, you are essentially Thor. You’re faster than a rocket-powered flyer, and you look way cooler doing it. The downside? If the sun comes out, your "engine" stops working.
Mastering the landing
Landing is where most people fail. They dive-bomb their base and hit the ground at terminal velocity.
Don't do that.
📖 Related: Why the Rock Band 3 Setlist Still Rules the Rhythm Game Genre
The trick to a safe landing is the "spiral." As you get close to the ground, don't look down. Look horizontally and fly in a tight circle. This bleeds off your kinetic energy. You’ll slow down until you’re gently drifting, and then you can just touch down like a feather.
Scaffolding and the "Vertical" problem
Sometimes, flying isn't about horizontal travel. It's about building. If you're trying to figure out how to fly in survival mode Minecraft just to build a massive tower, the Elytra is actually kind of annoying. It’s twitchy.
For precision "flight" while building, you want a Potion of Slow Falling.
- Awkward Potion + Phantom Membrane. This lets you jump off your build and float down slowly, giving you time to place blocks on the way down. It’s not "true" flight, but for a survival builder, it’s a vital tool in the kit. It also prevents any and all fall damage. Phantoms are annoying, sure, but their membranes are the reason you can survive a 300-block drop without a scratch.
Common misconceptions and technicalities
I see a lot of players asking if they can fly using "creative-style" controls in survival. Technically, no—not without cheats. If you have "Allow Cheats" turned on, you can type /gamemode spectator to fly through walls, or /ability @p mayfly true (on some versions) to get creative flight in survival. But that isn't really playing the game, is it?
In the Bedrock Edition, there’s a weird quirk with "crawling" and flying. If you fly into a one-block gap, you’ll enter a crawl state. It’s a great way to make secret entrances to your base.
Also, watch your render distance. If you’re flying at high speeds with a Flight Duration 3 rocket, you can actually move faster than your computer can load the world. I’ve seen people fly straight into a mountain that hadn't even rendered yet. It’s a hilarious way to die, but a frustrating way to lose a hardcore world.
The gear you need right now
If you’re serious about this, stop what you’re doing and prep these three things. First, a sugar cane farm. You need paper. Second, a creeper farm. You need gunpowder—and lots of it. A stack of rockets goes faster than you think. Third, get a villager with a Mending book trade.
Once you have those three pillars, the world of Minecraft ceases to be a series of obstacles. It becomes a map. You stop looking at the ground and start looking at the horizon.
Next Steps for Your Flight Journey:
📖 Related: Why Bendy and the Ink Machine Still Haunts Your Nightmares
- Locate a Stronghold: Use Eyes of Ender to find the portal. Don't go in until you have at least a stack of blocks and a decent bow.
- Bridge the Void: When you get to the outer End islands, bring more blocks than you think you need. Or better yet, use a water bucket to create "safety streams" while bridging.
- The Loot Run: Don't just grab the Elytra. Look for Dragon’s Breath and Shulker Shells. Shulker boxes are the only way to carry enough rockets for long-distance exploration.
- Enchant Immediately: Do not take your Elytra on a long trip without Unbreaking and Mending. It is a heartbreak waiting to happen.
- Practice the Spiral: Go to a high point and practice landing until you can do it without taking a single half-heart of "kinetic energy" damage.
Flying is the ultimate reward for beating the "tutorial" phase of Minecraft. It turns the game into a true sandbox. Just remember: it’s not the fall that kills you; it’s the sudden stop at the end. Use your rockets wisely.