These three endgame mechanics come up constantly for newer players: where do I get an elytra, how do I make netherite, and do beacons even work here? Short answer to the last one: yes, beacons work. Here's the full picture.
Elytra
You can get an elytra two ways on Sunrise:
- Buy one from the server shop. Open
/shop, and the elytra is stocked there. - Find one in the End. Elytra spawn in item frames inside End ships (near End cities), exactly like vanilla — no server changes there.
| Item | Where | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Elytra | /shop | $400,000 |
Using an elytra
- Equip it in your chestplate slot (it replaces your chest armor).
- Jump from some height and hold jump to start gliding.
- Boost with firework rockets — hold a rocket and use it while gliding to accelerate.
Flight from an elytra works server-wide, except inside land claims whose owner has set the NoElytra or NoFlight flag. If you suddenly drop out of the sky over someone's build, that's why. See Land Claiming on SMP for the full flag list.
A couple of things to know:
- The elytra cannot be sold back with
/sell— it's a blocked item, so don't count on recovering the money. - The little launch-jump you get around spawn is the server's DoubleJump feature, not the elytra — they're unrelated.
Netherite
Netherite gear is made the vanilla way on Sunrise. You craft the ingots and upgrade your own gear — there's no shortcut to buying finished netherite armor. Here's the path:
- Mine ancient debris in the Nether (every world that has a Nether has it, deep near bedrock level).
- Smelt ancient debris into netherite scrap.
- Combine 4 netherite scrap + 4 gold ingots into 1 netherite ingot.
- Upgrade a diamond tool or armor piece on a smithing table, using a Netherite Upgrade smithing template.
The one Sunrise-specific shortcut is the smithing template: you don't have to find one in a bastion, you can buy it.
| Item | Where | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Netherite Upgrade smithing template | /shop | $500,000 |
Sell values, if you'd rather cash raw materials in than craft (use /worth in-game to confirm):
| Material | /worth value |
|---|---|
| Ancient debris | $400 |
| Netherite scrap | $1,200 |
| Netherite ingot | $750 |
Finished netherite tools and armor cannot be sold with
/sell— they're blocked, same as the elytra. Only the raw materials above have a sell value.
For earning the money to buy the template, see Making Money on SMP; for how /shop, /worth, and /sell work in general, see Buying and Selling.
Beacons
Yes, beacons work on Sunrise — they're pure vanilla, with no plugin changes to their effects or recipe. Building one is the standard Minecraft process:
- Defeat the Wither (built from 4 soul sand/soil + 3 wither skeleton skulls) to get a nether star.
- Craft the beacon: 5 glass + 3 obsidian + 1 nether star.
- Place the beacon on top of a pyramid of iron, gold, emerald, diamond, or netherite blocks.
The size of the pyramid sets the tier, which controls the range and which effects you can pick:
| Tier | Blocks needed | Range | Effects available |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9 | ~20 blocks | Speed, Haste |
| 2 | 34 | ~30 blocks | + Resistance, Jump Boost |
| 3 | 83 | ~40 blocks | + Strength |
| 4 | 164 | ~50 blocks | + a secondary effect (Regeneration, or level II of your primary) |
No nether stars, beacons, or blocks are sold in the shop — this is all gathered and crafted the normal way.
Bedrock note
These are cross-play mechanics: the elytra glides and the beacon works the same on Bedrock as on Java. The one thing to watch is the smithing-table and anvil UI, which can behave slightly differently through Geyser — see Joining from Bedrock Edition for the Bedrock-specific quirks.