Trident

A trident is a weapon used in both melee and ranged combat and is a rare drop from drowned.

Obtaining[]

Tridents are not craftable. A trident can be obtained only when dropped by a drowned, or looted from trial chambers. Converted drowned are never equipped with tridents.

Mob loot[]

Java Edition[]

6.25% (or 1 in 16) of Drowned in Java Edition spawn with a trident of random durability as their natural weapon. They have an 8.5% chance to drop their trident when killed by a player. The chance is increased by 1% for each level of Looting up to a max of 11.5% with Looting III. This means the overall chance of obtaining a trident from any given drowned is 0.53125% (about 1 in 188) or 0.71875% (about 1 in 140) with looting III.

In Java Edition, a trident held by a drowned has a chance to be enchanted, but the trident's enchantments have no effects for drowned.^[1]

Bedrock Edition[]

Only 15% (or 3 in 20) of Drowned in Bedrock Edition spawn with tridents. Of these, they have a 25% chance to drop their trident when killed by a player. This chance is increased by 4% for each level of looting up to a max of 37% with looting III. This means the overall chance of obtaining a trident from any given drowned is 3.75% (or 3 in 80) or 5.55% with looting III.

Thrown tridents[]

Tridents thrown onto the ground by a player can be picked up; however, tridents thrown by drowned cannot be picked up, similar to arrows shot by skeletons, strays, and pillagers. Only the owner of a trident thrown in Creative mode or enchanted with Loyalty can pick it up; other players in Creative and players in Survival mode including its own owner can't pick up the trident thrown in Creative.

Trading[]

Drowned who are holding tridents will sometimes drop their trident at full durability if given a nautilus shell when they aren't attacking anything.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Usage[]

Drowned[]

15% of drowned in Bedrock Edition, and 6.25% in Java Edition, spawn with a trident as its natural weapon. It throws the trident at its opponent every 1.5 seconds, dealing 9 damage in normal difficulty. A drowned can throw unlimited tridents, and these tridents cannot be picked up by the player.

A villager can be turned into a zombie villager if it is killed by a trident thrown by a drowned: the chance of conversion is 0% on Easy difficulty, 50% on Normal, and 100% on Hard and Hardcore.

In Bedrock Edition, a drowned can use the trident's melee attack if its target is within three blocks. The melee attack deals 9 damage.

Melee attack[]

Pressing attack while holding a trident deals damage to both mobs and players. Tridents deal 9 melee damage. A successful hit consumes durability of the trident.

Ranged attack[]

Pressing and holding use while holding a trident charges it. When released at half charge or more, the trident is thrown and deals damage to any entity it hits. Note that it doesn't have to be full charge for the complete damage and length. It flies on a ballistic trajectory similar to that of an arrow, but at 80% strength. If the trident hits a block, it sticks to the block. If it hits an entity, it bounces off the entity and lands nearby. It is also blocked by shields and can be retrieved once it lands in the ground. Thrown tridents can trigger wooden buttons, wooden pressure plates, and target blocks. A trident can be thrown at a chorus flower or pointed dripstone to break it, which causes the block to be dropped as its respective item.

In Bedrock Edition and Java Edition Combat Test 4, tridents can be shot by dispensers regardless of enchantment.

Tridents enchanted with Loyalty return to the thrower after hitting an entity‌^{[Java Edition only]}/hitting and bouncing off an entity then hitting a block‌^{[Bedrock Edition only][2]} or just a block. A Loyalty-enchanted trident fired from a dispenser just sticks to the block it strikes. Higher levels of enchantment result in shorter recovery times. In Java Edition, throwing a trident enchanted with Loyalty into the void destroys it,^[3] while in Bedrock Edition it automatically returns to the player. Tridents (if enchanted with Loyalty), can take fire damage but still return to the player if thrown in lava. This is especially helpful in the Nether should the player be using a trident instead of a bow. If a trident enchanted with Loyalty attempts to return to a player with no available inventory space, the trident floats near the player until inventory space becomes available.

Thrown tridents take 1 durability damage, regardless of whether it hit an entity or not. Tridents with 1 durability remaining cannot be thrown.

Tridents enchanted with Riptide launch the player a certain distance when thrown, with the distance increasing for higher enchantment levels. They can be thrown only if the player is standing in water, or if it is raining on the block they are standing on. If the player charges it but walks into a nearby dry area, the charge is canceled. If the player throws a Riptide trident and collides with a mob, the mob takes melee damage (including critical damage if the player is falling). In Java Edition tridents enchanted with Riptide take one durability damage upon throwing, and lose an additional 1 durability if it collides with an entity on both editions. Each level of Riptide increases the distance traveled by six blocks. The enchantment at level one launches the player nine blocks, fifteen blocks at level two, and twenty-one blocks at level three.

Tridents enchanted with Channeling summon a lightning bolt if there is a thunderstorm, although only upon hitting a mob or player standing in the rain as well as a lightning rod placed in the rain.

Unlike other projectiles, the trident does not slow down when thrown through water or lava.

In Java Edition, the Impaling enchantment affects all water mobs. In Bedrock Edition, it deals extra damage to players and mobs in water or rain.

Unlike arrows, thrown tridents do not despawn.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} Tridents despawn after 60 seconds if they are not picked up.‌^{[Java Edition only][4]}

Magical damage

Using Riptide, nearby players or mobs are dealt splash damage within an 8.25×8.25×4.25 cubical area. It stacks with the Impaling enchantment and Strength effect. Critical hits do not increase splash damage, but affect the target.

In Bedrock Edition, thrown tridents can damage the ender dragon while resting on the bedrock fountain. In Java Edition, they act just like arrows — deflected, but burn as if they had Flame.

Damage[]

Thrown tridents and splashes deal 8 damage. The damage remains the same regardless of the trident's speed. It has a faster charging speed than a bow or crossbow (barring the Quick Charge enchantment.)

Java Edition[]

In Java Edition, tridents have an attack speed of 1.1 and take ~0.91 seconds to recover.

Attack	Melee	Melee (critical)	Range
Attack damage	9	13.5 × 6.75	8
Damage/Second (DPS)[note 1]	9.9	14.3	?
Lifetime damage inflicted[note 2]	2250 × 1125	3375 × 1687.5	2000 × 1000
Durability	250

Bedrock Edition[]

In Bedrock Edition, tridents have no attack cooldown and do the following damage:

Attack	Melee	Range
Attack damage	9	8
Lifetime damage inflicted[note 1]	2259 × 1129.5	2008 × 1004
Durability	251

Elytra[]

A trident with the Riptide enchantment can be used to propel a player with a pair of elytra, but only in rainy weather, during snowy weather in certain biomes^[5] or while the player is in a body of water. A Riptide trident can boost the player to speeds as high as 125 blocks per second,^[6] much faster than the 33.5 blocks-per-second speed achievable using firework rockets.

Impaling damage[]

In Java Edition, the Impaling enchantment deals extra damage to all water mobs. In Bedrock Edition and in Java Edition Combat Test 3, it deals extra damage to all players and mobs in water or rain.

Trident Damage by Impaling level

Level	Increase	Melee	Ranged
I	adds 2.5 × 1.25	11.5 × 5.75	10.5 × 5.25
II	adds 5	14 × 7	13 × 6.5
III	adds 7.5 × 3.75	16.5 × 8.25	15.5 × 7.75
IV	adds 10	19 × 9.5	18 × 9
V	adds 12.5 × 6.25	21.5 × 10.75	20.5 × 10.25

Enchantments[]

Tridents have a base enchantability of 1 and can receive the following enchantments:

Name	Max Level	Method
Loyalty[note 1]	III
Channeling[note 1]	I
Riptide[note 1]	III
Impaling	V
Unbreaking	III
Mending	I
Curse of Vanishing	I

Notes

Repairing[]

Tridents have the same durability as an iron sword. Whenever a trident deals damage, its durability decreases by 1.

Tridents can be repaired by:

• combining two damaged tridents in a grindstone, or on a crafting table or the 2×2 inventory grid, which removes any enchantments except for Curse of Vanishing and Curse of Binding
• combining a damaged trident with another trident on an anvil, which preserves enchantments.
• applying the Mending enchantment.

Sounds[]

Java Edition:
Thrown tridents use the Friendly Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Trident stabs	Friendly Creatures	When a trident hits a mob	item.trident.hit	subtitles.item.trident.hit	1.0	1.0	16
	Trident vibrates	Friendly Creatures	When a trident hits the ground	item.trident.hit_ground	subtitles.item.trident.hit_ground	0.9	12⁄11-4⁄3	16
	Trident clangs	Players	When a player throws a trident	item.trident.throw	subtitles.item.trident.throw	1.0	1.0	16
	Trident thunder cracks	Friendly Creatures	When a Channeling trident hits a mob	item.trident.thunder	subtitles.item.trident.thunder	5.0	1.0	16
	Trident thunder cracks	Weather	When a trident with Channeling strikes a lightning rod	item.trident.thunder	subtitles.item.trident.thunder	5.0	1.0	16
	Trident zooms	Players	When a Riptide I trident is used	item.trident.riptide_1	subtitles.item.trident.riptide	1.0	1.0	16
	Trident zooms	Players	When a Riptide II trident is used	item.trident.riptide_2	subtitles.item.trident.riptide	1.0	1.0	16
	Trident zooms	Players	When a Riptide III or higher trident is used	item.trident.riptide_3	subtitles.item.trident.riptide	1.0	1.0	16
	Trident returns	Friendly Creatures	When a trident starts returning [sound 1]	item.trident.return	subtitles.item.trident.return	8.0	varies [sound 2]	16
	Drowned throws Trident	Hostile Creatures	When a drowned shoots a trident	entity.drowned.shoot	subtitles.entity.drowned.shoot	1.0	5⁄6-1.25	16
	Item breaks	Players	When a trident's durability is exhausted	entity.item.break	subtitles.entity.item.break	0.8	0.8-1.2	16

Bedrock Edition:

Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Players	When a trident hits a mob	item.trident.hit	1.0	1.0
	Players	When a trident hits the ground	item.trident.hit_ground	0.9	1.0
	Players	When a player throws a trident	item.trident.throw	1.0	1.0
	Players	When a trident with Channeling strikes a mob[sound 1][sound 2]‌[upcoming: BE 1.20.30]	item.trident.thunder	1.0‌[until BE 1.20.30] 1000.0‌[upcoming: BE 1.20.30]	1.0
	Players	When a Riptide I trident is used	item.trident.riptide_1	1.0	1.0
	Players	When a Riptide II trident is used	item.trident.riptide_2	1.0	1.0
	Players	When a Riptide III trident is used	item.trident.riptide_3	1.0	1.0
	Players	When a trident starts returning [sound 3]	item.trident.return	8.0	varies [sound 4]
	Hostile Creatures	When a drowned shoots a trident[sound 5]‌[upcoming: BE 1.20.30]	mob.drowned.shoot	1.0	0.8-1.2

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	Translation key
Trident	trident	Item	item.minecraft.trident

Name	Identifier	Entity tags	Translation key
Trident	trident	impact_projectiles	entity.minecraft.trident

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Form	Translation key
Trident	trident	546	Item	item.trident.name

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Translation key
Trident	thrown_trident	73	entity.thrown_trident.name

Entity data[]

Tridents have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the entity.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements[]

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
PS4	Other
		Do a Barrel Roll!	Use Riptide to give yourself a boost	Obtain a trident enchanted with Riptide and launch yourself any distance with it.	30G	Silver
		Bullseye	Hit the bullseye of a Target block	—	15G	Bronze

Advancements[]

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	Not Today, Thank You	Deflect a projectile with a Shield	Suit Up	Block any projectile with a shield.	story/deflect_arrow
	A Throwaway Joke	Throw a Trident at something. Note: Throwing away your only weapon is not a good idea.	Monster Hunter	Hit a mob with a thrown trident.	adventure/throw_trident
	Very Very Frightening	Strike a Villager with lightning	A Throwaway Joke	Hit a villager with lightning created by a trident with the Channeling enchantment.	adventure/very_very_frightening
	Sniper Duel	Kill a Skeleton from at least 50 meters away	Take Aim	Be at least 50 blocks away horizontally when a skeleton is killed by an arrow after the player has attacked it once.	adventure/sniper_duel
	Bullseye	Hit the bullseye of a Target block from at least 30 meters away	Take Aim	Be at least 30 blocks away horizontally when the center of a target is shot with a projectile by the player.	adventure/bullseye

History[]

Java Edition
November 18, 2017					A trident was shown killing a zombie in a clip presented at MineCon Earth.
1.13		18w07a			Added tridents, which are currently unobtainable in Survival.
		18w10a			Tridents now have a new texture in the inventory.
		18w11a			Added drowned mobs, which can spawn with a trident, allowing tridents to now become obtainable in Survival.
		18w14a			If the player is not in water and it is not raining, the player can no longer throw tridents enchanted with Riptide, but they can still deal melee damage.
		18w20a			Like with swords, tridents no longer can break blocks when held in Creative mode.[7]
1.14		18w43a			Thrown tridents can now break chorus flowers.
1.15		19w39a			Tridents that are enchanted now have a glint.
					Trident items use a 3D model again. When dropped, it rotates off center[8] (like with beds at the time and shields currently).
		19w42a			Trident items now use the 2D sprite again.[9]
1.17		20w48a			Thrown tridents can now break pointed dripstone.
Upcoming Java Edition
Villager Trade Rebalance (Experimental)		23w31a			Trident-exclusive enchantments are no longer obtainable from villager trading.
Combat Tests		1.14.3 - Combat Test			The attack speed of tridents has been increased to 2.
					The base damage of tridents has been decreased from 9 to 7.
					The attack reach of tridents has been increased to 4 blocks.
		Combat Test 2			The damage of tridents has been increased to 8.
		Combat Test 4			Tridents can now be shot from dispensers.
					Tridents with Loyalty that fall into the void now return to their owner upon breaking in the void.
					Tridents with Impaling now deal enchantment damage to all mobs that are in water or rain.
		Combat Test 5			The damage of tridents has been decreased to 7 again.
Bedrock Edition
1.4.0		beta 1.2.13.8			Added tridents.
					Tridents are currently a part of Experimental Gameplay.
		beta 1.2.14.2			Tridents have been fully implemented.
		beta 1.2.20.1			A new animation has been added for tridents with Riptide when they are thrown.
1.5.0		beta 1.5.0.0			Tridents can now be enchanted with Mending and Unbreaking.
		beta 1.5.0.7			Tridents no longer break blocks in Creative mode.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			Thrown tridents can now break chorus flowers.
1.16.0		beta 1.15.0.51			Drowned can no longer have a trident when converted.
					Drowned that are not holding a trident are no longer able to drop one.
1.16.220		beta 1.16.220.50			Tridents are now able to break pointed dripstone.
		beta 1.16.220.51			Drowned now hold their tridents correctly when targeting a player.
Legacy Console Edition
TU69		1.76	Patch 38		Added tridents.
Education Edition
1.4.0					Added tridents.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Trident" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[]

• If a player throws a Loyalty-enchanted trident and the player's inventory subsequently fills, the trident hovers around or through the player's skin until an inventory slot opens, which it fills immediately. Multiple tridents can be 'queued' to re-enter the player's inventory in this manner.
• In Java Edition in Creative mode, sword enchantments can be applied to tridents. This includes Sharpness, Fire Aspect, and Looting. Sharpness, Smite, and Bane of Arthropods increases their damage against their specific mobs, as well.^{[more information needed]}
• Thrown tridents pass through nether portal blocks without being transported to the Nether or the Overworld.
• Using a trident enchanted with Riptide while riding an entity cancels the charge and does nothing.

Gallery[]

• 

  Tridents are shown in a clip of Minecon Earth 2017.

• 

  A trident enchanted with Loyalty returning to the player.

• 

  A player "flying" high in the air after throwing a trident enchanted with Riptide III vertically upward.

• 

  A trident stuck in sand.

• 

  A drowned holding a trident and a nautilus shell.

• 

  An enchanted trident.

• 

  An official T-Shirt design of Alex with a trident.

• 

  "Acid Drowned," an officially licensed T-Shirt featuring a drowned with a trident.

• 

  First image of a trident in Bedrock Edition.

References[]

External Links[]

• Taking Inventory: Trident – Minecraft.net on January 30, 2020