In Minecraft, tridents are melee/ranged weapons that can be enhanced with several unique and shared enchantments via an enchanting table, anvil, or grindstone (for removal). Because tridents share the general "weapon" and "vanishing/curse" categories, they take a mix of trident-specific and universal enchantments.
Trident-exclusive enchantments:
- Loyalty (I–III): Makes a thrown trident return to the player after hitting a target or landing. Higher levels return faster. Cannot be combined with Riptide.
- Channeling (I only): During a thunderstorm, if a thrown trident hits a mob, it summons a lightning bolt at that spot, dealing damage and (if applicable) turning nearby zombies into drowned or villagers into witches. Cannot be combined with Riptide.
- Riptide (I–III): Launches the player along with the thrown trident, letting them use it like a spear for fast travel and combat. Only works when the player is wet (rain, water, etc.) and cannot be combined with Loyalty or Channeling.
- Impaling (I–V): Increases damage dealt specifically to aquatic mobs (like guardians, elder guardians, drowned, and turtles) — up to +2.5 damage per level.
General enchantments that also apply to tridents:
- Mending: Repairs the trident's durability using experience orbs collected by the player.
- Unbreaking (I–III): Increases durability, giving a chance to avoid using durability on each use.
- Curse of Vanishing: Causes the trident to disappear upon the player's death instead of dropping.
Because Loyalty, Channeling, and Riptide are mutually exclusive with each other, a trident can have at most one of the three at a time, but can still carry Impaling, Unbreaking, Mending, and Curse of Vanishing alongside whichever of those three is chosen. This makes tridents highly customizable — for example, a "Riptide + Impaling + Mending + Unbreaking" build is popular for aquatic combat and traversal, while "Channeling + Loyalty" setups (via anvil combining, since they can't be enchanted together directly) are impossible due to their exclusivity, though villager trading or loot can sometimes yield unusual combinations.
Enchantment availability and exact mechanics can vary slightly between game versions, so checking in-game or the Minecraft Wiki for your specific version is recommended.