Elytra flight

You can deploy an elytra while overloaded. Carrying more weight reduces lift and rocket thrust, so leave some room in your inventory before a long flight.

With default settings, the penalties grow from zero at no load to their maximum at 1,000 carried pounds:

They stop increasing above that weight. Rocket duration and normal elytra durability use are unchanged.

These percentages describe lift and thrust, not a fixed reduction in flight distance. Your height, pitch, speed, and use of rockets still affect how far you travel.

Carrying capacity doesn’t change the flight penalty

Flight uses your actual carried weight. Strength, Bracing, and Reinforced can give you more room before becoming encumbered, but a 1,000-pound load still has the same flight penalty.

Switching from a Bracing chestplate to an elytra also removes the chestplate’s capacity bonus. Check your load before taking off.

Use Soaring to reduce the penalty

Soaring reduces the weight penalties by 20% per level, up to 80% at level IV. Unload items to reduce them further.

Server owners can change the weight at which flight penalties reach their maximum, adjust each penalty, or disable them in server settings.