You've spent hours mining. Your diamond pickaxe is nearly dead, your inventory is a mess of cobblestone and random mob drops, and you’ve finally stared down the Ender Dragon. But honestly? The dragon isn't the real prize. The real trophy is the ability to stop walking everywhere like a chump. You want to fly.
The problem is that a lot of players head into the End thinking they can just craft a pair of wings. They open up the crafting table, look for a recipe, and find... nothing. That's because when it comes to how to make the elytra in minecraft, the short answer is: you can't. Not in the way you'd make a sword or a chestplate, anyway. You have to take them. They are a relic, a piece of ancient technology found in the floating ruins of a dead civilization.
If you're looking for a crafting recipe involving leather and phantom membranes, you’re out of luck. Mojang decided long ago that flight should be earned through exploration and a bit of genuine peril. This isn't just about clicking buttons in a UI. It's about a multi-dimensional heist.
The End City Grind: Where Elytra Actually Live
Since you can't craft them, you have to go to the End Cities. But not just any End City. You’re looking for the ones with the massive, floating purple ships anchored nearby. These End Ships are the only place in the entire game where an Elytra spawns naturally.
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First, you’ve got to kill the Ender Dragon. Once that beast is out of the way, a tiny portal—the End Gateway—appears on the edge of the main island. Don't try to jump into it. You’ll just fall into the void and lose everything. You need to toss an Ender Pearl through that one-block gap. It’ll teleport you to the outer islands, a surreal, infinite expanse of chorus fruit and emptiness.
Finding a ship is honestly a pain. You can wander for thousands of blocks and see nothing but beige stone. Pro tip: turn your render distance up as high as your PC can handle. You’re looking for a silhouette on the horizon. When you finally find a ship, don't just rush in. The place is crawling with Shulkers. These little boxy jerks shoot projectiles that track you and make you levitate. If you're not careful, they’ll float you 50 blocks into the air and then let you drop to your death.
Inside the ship, usually guarded by a single Shulker, you’ll find an item frame. There they are. The wings. Pop them out, and you’ve officially "made" your way to the endgame.
The Phantom Membrane Myth and Repairing Your Wings
People often get confused about phantom membranes. They think these are part of the recipe for how to make the elytra in minecraft. They aren't.
Phantoms were added to the game after a community vote, and their primary purpose—aside from being incredibly annoying when you haven't slept—is to provide the material needed to fix your wings. Elytra have durability. Every second you spend gliding eats away at that bar. If it hits zero, the wings don't disappear, but they become "tattered" and useless.
To fix them, you have two real options:
- The Anvil Method: You put your broken Elytra in an anvil with some Phantom Membranes. It’s expensive in terms of XP levels, and honestly, it’s a bit of a waste in the long run.
- Mending: This is the only way to play. If you get a Mending enchantment book (from fishing, raids, or a very frustrated librarian villager), your wings will repair themselves every time you pick up XP orbs.
If you aren't using Mending, you’re basically renting your flight. Eventually, the anvil cost will become "Too Expensive," and your wings will be permanent paperweights.
Rockets: The Real Engine of Flight
Getting the wings is only half the battle. If you just jump off a cliff with Elytra, you’re just a glorified paper plane. You’ll glide, sure, but you can’t go up.
To actually fly, you need firework rockets. This is where the actual "crafting" part of the process comes in. You need one piece of paper and one to three pieces of gunpowder. Important: Do NOT add a firework star. If you add a star, the rocket will explode when it boosts you, and you will literally blow yourself out of the sky.
Basic rockets give you a "duration" boost. Use Gunpowder (1) for a short burst or Gunpowder (3) for a long one. Most pros stick to Duration 1 because it offers more control. You right-click while gliding, and the rocket propels you forward. It’s the closest thing Minecraft has to a jet engine.
Why You Shouldn't Use "Craftable Elytra" Mods
You might see videos or tutorials claiming there's a secret recipe. These are almost always using data packs or mods. In vanilla Minecraft—the game as it's meant to be played—the developers have been very clear about keeping Elytra as a "treasure" item.
According to various developer interviews and the official Minecraft Wiki, the rarity is intentional. If you could just craft them with some leather and string in the first ten minutes, the entire progression of the game would break. The world feels huge because you have to walk it. Once you have wings, the world gets very, very small.
There's also a technical reason. Flight puts a massive strain on servers and low-end hardware. Chunks have to load incredibly fast when you’re zooming around with a Firework Rocket. By locking the wings behind the End Dragon, the game ensures that only players who have invested time (and presumably have a stable world) can access that speed.
Survival Tips for Your First Flight
Don't put the wings on and immediately jump off your mega-base. You will die.
Kinetic energy is the silent killer in Minecraft. If you fly into a wall at top speed, the game calculates that impact, and it’s usually enough to one-shot you even in full netherite. Always carry a totem of undying in your off-hand when you're learning to fly.
Also, watch your height. If you fly too high, you might stop seeing the ground. If your rockets run out and you don't realize how fast you're falling, you’ll be a crater before the chunks even finish loading.
The Checklist for Success
- Kill the Dragon.
- Bridge or pearl to the outer islands.
- Find an End Ship (not just a city).
- Grab the wings from the item frame.
- Enchant them with Unbreaking III and Mending immediately.
- Craft stack of gunpowder-only rockets.
If you follow that path, you’ve mastered the mechanics. You haven't just "made" an item; you've unlocked a completely different version of the game.
Actionable Next Steps
Before you head into the End, build a basic gunpowder farm in the overworld using cats and creepers. You will burn through gunpowder faster than you think once you start flying everywhere. Simultaneously, secure a Villager with a Mending trade. Trying to find a second pair of Elytra because your first pair broke is a soul-crushing experience that you want to avoid at all costs. Set up these two systems first, and your transition into the "flying era" of your world will be permanent rather than a temporary luxury.