6 best trident enchantments in Minecraft 1.19 update

Tridents are quite a useful Minecraft weapon. They give players a ranged weapon that does not require ammo outside of enchanted bows, though they can still make for dangerous melee weapons. Dropped rarely by drowned, these weapons have a multitude of unique and useful utility enchantments.

Due to the rarity of tridents and how many of their enchantments are mutually exclusive, knowing which trident enchantments are better than others is vital to effectively use a trident and avoid having to grind for another one.

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The best Minecraft trident enchantments ranked by usefulness

6) Impaling

A coral reef, where many of the aquatic mobs can be found (Image via Minecraft)

Impaling is a trident-exclusive enchantment. It has two slightly different functions that drastically change how the enchantment works in the different versions of Minecraft. The damage bonus is the same between versions, at 2.5 extra damage, or 1.25 hearts, for each level of impaling per hit.

For Java players, it allows the trident to deal more damage to aquatic mobs. This short list of mobs includes all fish, axolotls, dolphins, guardians, elder guardians, squids, glow squids, and turtles. Even though drowned are underwater zombies, they count as undead, not aquatic. Since almost every mob on this list outside of the guardians is already a one hit kill, the effect of the enchantment is quite limited.

For Bedrock players, the enchantment is both more practical and less useful. It instead applies the bonus damage to any mob in contact with water, be it underwater, in flowing water, or in the rain.

Due to the limited use cases of bonus damage and total inability to be used in the nether, this enchantment makes a nice supplement but is not very useful on its own.

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5) Unbreaking

Unbreaking functions by giving items enchanted with it a chance to avoid durability reduction when used. Since a trident has the durability of an iron sword, unbreaking is quite useful since they rely entirely on RNG to acquire. This means extending the trident's lifespan helps players avoid grinding for more tridents.

The math behind this is that there is a 100/(level + 1)% chance that the item will reduce durability. This means that, on average, items will have their lifespan extended by level + 1 times as long.

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4) Mending

Mending is effectively unbreaking+. Mending converts experience points dropped by mobs, ore, or any other source into durability on the held item or armor players are wearing with the enchantment. This means that players with mending on their trident will, if they make sure to repair it when the durability runs low, never have to worry about their trident breaking and having to find another one.

However, mending and unbreaking are not mutually exclusive; both works to keep tools from breaking. When viewed as a pair, they become much more useful, though mending is inarguably the better of the two.

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3) Riptide

A player using riptide to fly in the rain (Image via Minecraft)

Riptide is an incredible enchantment, without a doubt. It is incredibly useful for moving around, increasing players' movement speed in the water by a considerable amount, and even allowing players to fling themselves upwards from any source of water and begin using their elytra.

Despite this utility, riptide finds itself held from the title of the most useful Minecraft trident enchantment for one simple reason: its effect is almost replicable. Firework rockets will allow players to take to the skies with their elytra, though they cannot help in water very much.

Since its arguably more impactful ability can be gained elsewhere and is mutually exclusive with the other most useful trident enchantments, players should seriously consider which enchantment setup they want on their trident.

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2) Loyalty

Loyalty functions by returning a thrown trident to players. The speed at which the trident will return to players is based on the enchantment level. According to tests run by Spectator on YouTube, the return speed of loyalty one is 10.14 blocks per second or b/s. The return speed of loyalty two is 15.96 b/s, while the return speed of loyalty three is 26.55 b/s.

Tridents begin returning after hitting a block or entity. In Java, a trident in the void is lost as it will never hit either of these things. For Bedrock players, tridents return after 15 seconds in the void.

Both editions of Minecraft feature the trident dropping to the ground in item form if players die while it is in the middle of returning. Additionally, the trident will stay in the dimension it is thrown in. Tridents are safe from despawning in this suspended state.

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1) Channeling

This enchantment allows players to summon lightning whenever players hit a mob with a trident if there is an ongoing thunderstorm in the area. This will not work underground or when there is otherwise something blocking off the sky.

This allows players to create charged creepers, witches, and zombified piglins and change mooshroom color at will.

Channeling is the most useful enchantment for tridents for one simple reason: its effect is completely unique. The closest thing in Minecraft to this effect is a lightning rod, but mobs have to wander nearby or be kept in place until the rod works. Channeling can allow players to avoid having to trap mobs or rely on RNG mob pathfinding to utilize lightning strikes.

Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinions.