Skip to main content

How to fly in Minecraft

If you’ve watched Minecraft gameplay, you may have seen someone flying through their world. “Wow, how do I do that?” you may have said (many of us did). Don’t worry! It’s entirely possible for you to fly in Minecraft too. You can even choose how hard you want to make it on yourself.

Difficulty

Moderate

Duration

20 minutes

What You Need

  • Any version of Minecraft

Let’s look at the two primary ways to fly in Minecraft and how you can use them.

How to fly in Minecraft with Creative mode

Step 1: First, you’ll need to switch your Minecraft game to Creative mode. Flying isn’t always available in every Minecraft mode, but Creative mode is essentially a god mode that you can mess around in just to experiment. It also makes flying very, very easy.

If you are playing on PC, enter Creative mode with a simple command. Open up the chat, and type “/gamemode creative.” Then hit Enter, and you’ll automatically switch to Creative mode. That’s all you need.

If you are playing on a device where you can’t enter commands via chat, you’ll have to start a new game with Create new world and make sure that the game mode is set to Creative before you begin.

Minecraft Create New World.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 2: Once you’re in Creative mode and ready to fly, press the Jump button twice. Now you’re flying! On a keyboard, that’s the Space bar, while on Xbox, it’s the A button, and on PlayStation, it’s the X button.

Step 3: After you start flying, you’ll need to learn how to navigate. Press and hold the Jump button to move upward. You should be able to adjust your flight with the Directional buttons as you move. Pressing Down or the left Shift key should move you downward. This works a bit differently depending on what device you’re using, but the basics don’t take long to learn.

First flight in Minecraft.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 4: You can stop flying at any time by pressing the Jump button twice again.

How to fly in Minecraft with Survival mode

If you take Minecraft seriously and want to completely avoid Creative mode, you still have an option to fly – but it’s a lot harder and will take a lot more time. You’ll need to get a very special item called an Elytra. Here’s what to do.

Step 1: Travel to The End and find an End city. It’s easier said than done! In most cases, you’ll have to defeat the Ender Dragon, which will create two portals. One of those portals will take you to the End islands to explore. Here you can find End cities — sprawling, almost fungal cities that are hard to miss. Since the Ender Dragon is notoriously one of the hardest enemies in Minecraft, you may want to take a look at our guide on how to defeat it.

End city in Minecraft.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 2: Find an End Ship. They spawn at End cities and are easy to see – they look like big, gray ships.

End ship in Minecraft.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 3: Explore the End Ship and look for a special room inlaid with strips of Obsidian (there’s also a Shulker to greet you). At the end of this room, you will find treasure chests and an Elytra. Grab it while you’re looting. In your inventory, it looks a bit like a pair of wings. It is possible to get more than one, but they are hard to find, so it may take some time.

Elytra in Ship.
via Reddit/u/lu_jess_jk

Step 4: Equip the Elytra. Now find a tall space to jump off of and, when in the air, press the Jump button. You should start flying. This is not Creative mode flying; it’s more like using a hang glider. You’ll want to change directions slowly and carefully, and flying straight up doesn’t really work.

Flying with the Elytra.
via Reddit/u/CivetKitty

Step 5: Eventually, you and the Elytra will start shuddering in mid-air and start descending. People have used firework rockets to give themselves another boost at this point, but it’s not necessary unless you really want to see how far you can fly.

Step 6: Elytras have durability and wear down with use. You can repair them with phantom membranes, or combine two Elytras together to get a repaired version.

Editors' Recommendations

Tyler Lacoma
Former Digital Trends Contributor
If it can be streamed, voice-activated, made better with an app, or beaten by mashing buttons, Tyler's into it. When he's not…
How to fix ‘servers at capacity’ error in Helldivers 2
A Helldivers 2 player fires a laser canon.

Helldivers 2 is a ton of fun to play, but the game isn’t without its small list of issues. One of these maladies is an error code that reads “servers at capacity.” If you’ve ever seen this pop-up window, you’ll know just how frustrating it can be to get around. But as far as fixes go, there's not much one can do when it comes to getting around this roadblock.
Can you fix the servers at capacity error?

Unfortunately, this is one error in Helldivers 2 that you have no power over. This issue falls on the game being just too popular for the game's servers to keep up with. A statement posted by developer Arrowhead in its official Discord said: "Our team is working around the clock to solve these issues. While we've been able to mitigate some of the causes, we are still struggling to keep up with the scaling that is needed to accommodate all our Helldivers. Therefore, we’ve had to cap our concurrent players to around 450,000 to further improve server stability. We will continue to work with our partners to get the ceiling raised.”

Read more
How to fix Helldivers 2 matchmaking issues
Two soldiers in a Helldivers 2 trailer.

Helldivers 2 is a ridiculously-fun squad shooter for PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam. With a major emphasis on co-op play, one of the core features of any multiplayer game is matchmaking. This is the game’s ability to group random players together for an online session. While this should be a pretty automated process that players don’t have to worry about, some Helldiver fans have reported failed matchmaking. If you keep finding yourself unable to land in a lobby, here’s a couple of things you can try to fix the issue.
How to fix matchmaking issues
Before offering some potential solutions, know that these are workarounds and not official remedies to the problem. Arrowhead has stated in its official Discord that it is aware of the problems and is working on a fix. However, if you just can't wait to get back to blasting bugs with your pals, here are some methods some players have found success with.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1ami79d/helldivers_2_matchmaking_workaround_easy/

Read more
How to customize controls on the Steam Deck
A suite of retro games in the Steam Deck library.

Your Steam Deck is the beating heart of your everyday gameplay. It’s fast, powerful, and is packed with features and customizations. Regarding the latter, did you know that you’re actually able to customize your Steam Deck’s controls? Doing so isn’t overly difficult, but a little know-how goes a long way.

To that end, we’ve put together this guide to teach you how to re-map and re-tool your Steam Deck controls as quickly and easily as possible.

Read more