Armoured Elytra

Smith a chestplate + an elytra together and get one item that flies, protects, and actually looks like both. Most plugins that do this just render a plain elytra and you lose your armour's look — this one draws the wings and the chestplate at the same time, using vanilla's own equipment asset system. Cape/elytra texture still shows up too.

The item is literally your chestplate under the hood (same armour, toughness, durability, enchants, dye), it just also has the glider component and a combined-layer texture. So there's basically no custom mechanics to break.

Which file

• 1.21.3+ (incl. 26.x) – ArmouredElytra-x.jar, the full thing with the combined look.
• 1.9.4 – 1.21.1 – ArmouredElytra-Legacy-x.jar. Before 1.21.2 the game only lets a real elytra glide and can't draw armour on it, so here you get an elytra carrying the chestplate's armour, toughness and enchants. Flies and protects the same, just looks like a normal elytra. No resource pack needed.

Wrong jar for your version either tells you which one to grab or just won't load. If you update a server from Legacy to 1.21.3+, old armoured elytras get turned into proper ones when their owner joins.

Recipe

1.20+          smithing table: Netherite Upgrade Smithing Template + Chestplate + Elytra
1.16 - 1.19.4  smithing table: Chestplate + Elytra (no template slot back then)
1.9.4 - 1.15.2 crafting grid:  Chestplate + Elytra

Template item and which tiers are allowed (leather-netherite) are configurable. Tiers your version doesn't have get skipped.

Requirements

• Paper. The 1.21.3+ jar needs the newer item component API (GLIDER/EQUIPPABLE) and equipment assets, so it won't work on Spigot/CraftBukkit. Not tested on Folia.
• Java 21 for the 1.21.3+ jar; Legacy runs on whatever Java your server already uses (8 is fine).
• Resource pack required for the visuals on 1.21.3+ — without it the item still works fine, it just doesn't render the chest layer.

Resource pack delivery (1.21.3+)

Plugin builds its own pack on first run and zips it. Three modes in config:

• SERVE – plugin hosts it itself, sends it on join (set public-address)
• URL – you host the zip somewhere, plugin points clients at it with correct hash
• MANUAL – plugin just writes the zip + logs the hash, you wire it up yourself (e.g. merge into an existing pack)

Pack folder gets re-zipped/re-hashed every start so edits are picked up automatically.

Config (defaults)

recipe:
  template: NETHERITE_UPGRADE_SMITHING_TEMPLATE
  tiers: [LEATHER, CHAINMAIL, COPPER, IRON, GOLDEN, DIAMOND, NETHERITE]
  permission: ''
  disabled-worlds: []

appearance:
  name: '<light_purple>{tier} Armoured Elytra'
  lore:
    - '<dark_gray>Elytra and chestplate, worn as one.'

flight:
  durability-loss: true
  durability-multiplier: 1.0

resource-pack:
  mode: SERVE