Highest level of Riptide enchantment in Minecraft

Tridents were added to Minecraft a long time ago - in the 1.13 update back in July 2018. Tridents were added with all three of their iconic enchantments: riptide, channeling, and loyalty.

Riptide is the most interesting of these three, and offers the most unique ability of any enchantment. It grants the player the ability to fly when raining, or launch themselves through the water, or out of it.

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What is Minecraft's riptide enchantment and what do the different levels do

What is the riptide enchantment?

A player mid-spin using the riptide enchantment (Image via Minecraft)

The riptide enchantment is a trident exclusive enchantment. The enchantment is mutually exclusive with both the channeling and loyalty enchantments, as the trident never leaves the player’s hand when the riptide enchantment is used.

Channeling is also stopped from combining with riptide, as it would cause lightning to strike the player whenever used. It also stops the player from ever throwing the trident, even if they are outside of the water and it is not raining.

Riptide is also usable in biomes, or altitudes where it cannot rain, even when these biomes have snowy or overcast conditions.

Players that collide with mobs while moving through the air or water will deal thrown trident damage, including critical damage if the player is falling. Java Edition uses one durability on throw and one durability on collision with a mob, meaning the trident is damaged twice for one throw. This issue is not present in the Bedrock Edition of the game.

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The different levels of the riptide enchantment

The levels of flying in blocks on the left, vs the levels of water travel in blocks on the right (Image via Minecraft)

Two different equations designate how far the riptide enchantment can move the player per enchantment level, which caps out at riptide three.

The equation for determining how far a player can move through the air when it is raining or when the player is standing in water is (six * level) + three. This means that the first level riptide can move the player a total of nine blocks in the air, riptide two can move the player 15 blocks in the air, and the highest level of riptide, riptide three, will move a player 21 blocks in the air.

The second formula, which determines how far the riptide enchantment can move the player while they are underwater for the entire time, is (4 * level) + 3. This means that players can move a total of 7 blocks underwater with riptide one. Riptide two will allow players to move 11 blocks underwater, and riptide three will allow players to move a grand total of 15 blocks underwater.