If you’ve spent any time wandering Miraland, you’ve probably stared up at floating flower islands, high cliffside chests, and distant cloud peaks you can’t reach on foot. I spent my first three weeks of playing running in circles trying to climb those heights, only to slide off edges or hit invisible walls every single time. Learning how to fly with the Astral Swan in Infinity Nikki completely changed how I experience the game, cutting travel time by 70% and unlocking dozens of rewards I never knew existed. I’ve logged over 15 hours of flight time with the swan to work out all the kinks, so you don’t have to waste time guessing how the mechanic works.
What You Need Before You Learn How to Fly With the Astral Swan in Infinity Nikki
You can’t summon the Astral Swan right out of the gate, and I see a lot of new players getting frustrated when they click the mount icon and it doesn’t pop up. The first requirement is completing the “Wings of Star Lake” main story quest in Chapter 4, which unlocks after you beat the first styling duel against the Lake Guardian. This quest walks you through the backstory of the Astral Swan and gives you your first 10 Star Dew fragments, the core resource needed to summon the mount.
Next, you’ll need to collect 20 more Star Dew fragments to fully unlock the summon. These are scattered in chests around the Star Lake area, hidden under lily pads and on small rock outcrops you can reach on foot before you unlock flight. You don’t need any specific styling items or wing accessories to summon the swan, I wasted two hours testing different wing outfits thinking they were required, and that’s not the case at all. The only other thing to note is that your regular stamina bar doubles as your flight time bar, so if you want longer flights, invest a few skill points in the stamina upgrade tree first.
It takes most new players about 90 minutes to complete all the prerequisites if they follow the main quest line, so you don’t have to grind for days to unlock this feature. If you’re stuck finding Star Dew fragments, check the small caves on the west side of Star Lake, I found 8 of mine there in under 10 minutes.
Step-by-Step Process to Summon and Fly the Astral Swan
Once you’ve unlocked the summon, flying it is pretty intuitive once you get past the common control mistakes most new players make. First, open your mount tab from the main menu, and pin the Astral Swan to your quick access bar for easy summoning. You can only summon the swan in open outdoor areas, so if you’re in a dungeon, indoor shop, or story instance, the summon button will be greyed out.
Hold the summon button for 2 full seconds to trigger the swan’s appearance, tapping it will only open the mount selection menu, which is the most common mistake I see new players make. Once the swan lands and you’re seated, the controls are straightforward: use your movement stick to steer left and right, use the camera stick to adjust your altitude up or down, press the action button to flap the swan’s wings for a speed boost, and press the descend button to drop down quickly. If you want to land mid-flight, just descend until you’re a few feet off the ground and the swan will automatically set you down safely.
I messed up my first three flights because I didn’t know these simple rules, so I’ve put together a list of common mistakes to avoid when you’re first starting out:
- Don’t summon the swan near low-hanging tree branches or cliff faces, it will get stuck and despawn immediately, wasting 10% of your stamina reserve
- Avoid flying during the Astral Storm random world event, wind gusts will throw you off course and force you to land early, even if you have plenty of stamina left
- Don’t press the descend button too fast when you’re near the ground, you’ll take fall damage and lose all collected temporary flight buffs you picked up mid-flight
It takes most players 3 or 4 practice flights to get the controls down, so don’t get frustrated if you veer off course or land in the wrong spot the first few times. I crashed into a mountain my first flight, it’s all part of the learning process.
Pro Tips to Extend Flight Time and Unlock Exclusive Rewards
Once you have the basic controls down, there are a ton of little tricks you can use to get more out of your flights and unlock rewards you can’t get any other way. First, collect floating Star Sparkles mid-flight to refill 15% of your stamina bar each. These small glowing blue orbs are scattered along all the main flight paths across Miraland, and if you plot your course to hit as many as possible, you can stay in the air for up to 20 minutes at a time without needing to land.
Flying also triggers exclusive hidden quests you can’t access on foot. For example, if you fly over the Cloud Top Meadow in the northern part of the map, you’ll get a pop-up quest to return a lost baby swan to its nest on the highest cloud peak. Completing that quest gives you the exclusive Astral Veil hairstyle, a 5-star item that isn’t available in any gacha pull or event shop. I also found a hidden styling chest on a floating island last week that had the full Star Swan outfit set, which gives you a 10% flight speed boost when you wear it.
If you want even better flight performance, complete the “Wind Whisperer” side quest in Chapter 4, which rewards you with a permanent badge that gives 20% extra flight speed and 25% faster stamina regeneration while you’re riding the Astral Swan. Make sure you have auto-stamina refill turned off if you’re saving Star Dew for higher level upgrades, the game will automatically use your fragments to refill stamina if you run out mid-flight, and you don’t want to waste rare resources by accident.
You can also take photos while riding the swan, and aerial shots count for almost all of the weekly photo challenge rewards. I earned 600 diamonds last month just by submitting photos of the Star Lake sunset from 100 feet in the air, which is way easier than trying to climb a tall rock to get the same shot.
Troubleshooting Common Astral Swan Flight Issues
Even if you follow all the steps correctly, you might run into a few common issues when flying the Astral Swan, and most of them have simple fixes. The most common issue is the swan not summoning even after you’ve completed all the prerequisites. If that happens, check that your Star Dew fragments are in your main active inventory, not your storage box. The game only counts fragments in your main inventory for summons, so moving them from storage will fix the problem immediately.
If your flight gets cut short randomly even when you have full stamina, you probably wandered into a restricted flight zone. These zones are marked with faint red borders on your map when you get close, and they’re usually around story boss arenas or upcoming quest areas that haven’t been unlocked yet. Restricted zones are usually near story boss arenas, so stick to marked open exploration areas for uninterrupted flight. If you do accidentally fly into one, the game will give you a 3-second warning to turn back before it forces you to land.
If you’re playing on PC and the flight controls feel jittery or laggy, turn off the “dynamic camera shake” setting in the gameplay menu. I had this issue for a week before I found this fix, and it completely eliminated input lag and made steering feel smooth and responsive. If you’re playing on mobile, turning down your graphics settings to medium will also fix any frame rate drops you experience while flying over large open areas.
Once you get the hang of how to fly with the Astral Swan in Infinity Nikki, the whole world of Miraland feels way bigger and more accessible. You don’t have to spend 20 minutes running across the map to get to a quest marker, you can fly there in 2 minutes, and you’ll find dozens of hidden chests, quests, and styling items along the way that you never would have found on foot. Take 10 minutes to practice flying tonight, and you’ll wonder how you ever played the game without this feature. If you find any cool hidden spots I didn’t mention, feel free to share them with other players in the comments.