BEST ENCHANTMENTS FOR ELYTRA
The optimal enchantment setup for your Minecraft elytra.4 enchantments are compatible with this item.
Recommended Combination
Essential
Elytra can only be enchanted with Unbreaking and Mending (plus curses). Mending matters most, because every other repair has a catch: phantom membranes raise the anvil penalty each time, and a crafting grid repair strips the enchantments.
All Compatible Enchantments (4)
Prevents the item from being removed from an armor slot once equipped (except by dying or breaking).
Causes the item to disappear (be deleted) upon the player's death instead of dropping.
Uses experience orbs to repair the item instead of adding to the player's experience bar.
Increases item durability by giving a chance to not consume durability on use.
Which elytra to enchant
None of these 4 rule each other out, so one elytra can carry all of them at the same time.
There is one elytra in the game and no enchanting table will touch it: the elytra has no enchantability at all, so everything on this page has to arrive as a book on an anvil. It has 432 durability.
| Item | Durability | Enchantability |
|---|---|---|
| Elytra | 432 | 1 |
Keeping an elytra in the air
Gliding costs one point of durability per second, so a bare elytra with its 432 points flies for 7 minutes and 12 seconds. At 1 point it folds shut and stops working until it is repaired; it never breaks outright, and boosting with firework rockets costs no durability at all.
Unbreaking treats an elytra like a tool and not like armor, so each point of wear is skipped with a chance of the level over the level plus one. Unbreaking III skips three points in four, which stretches the average flight to 28 minutes and 48 seconds.
Mending turns every experience point into 2 durability. A spent elytra is 431 points down, so a full repair takes 216 experience, the same amount that lifts you from level 0 to level 12. Each orb repairs one damaged Mending item you wear or hold, picked at random, so an elytra that shares orbs with Mending armor fills up more slowly.
Phantom membranes repair it on an anvil, 108 points per membrane for 1 level each, plus the work penalty. That penalty is what runs out: once Unbreaking and Mending went on as two books it stands at 3, so repairs with four membranes cost 7, 11, 19 and 35 levels, and the one after that is Too Expensive. Merging two elytra in a crafting grid or a grindstone skips the penalty but wipes every enchantment except the curses. Mending is the only repair that keeps an enchanted elytra flying for good.
No enchanting table will take an elytra, since it has no enchantability, so both books go on at an anvil: Unbreaking III costs 3 levels, Mending 2, and the second book adds 1 for the penalty the first one left. That is 6 levels for the pair, in either order.
Curse of Binding is worse on an elytra than on armor. A bound item comes off when it breaks, and an elytra never breaks, so in survival the only way out of it is dying.
Enchanting Cost Notes
Anvil Costs: Each time you combine items on an anvil, the prior work penalty increases. Plan your enchantment order to minimize total XP cost.
Order Matters: Combine the most expensive enchantments first, then add cheaper ones. This keeps anvil costs lower overall.
XP Limit: Anvil operations are capped at 39 levels in survival mode. If the cost exceeds this, you need to restructure your combination order.