The Trident is one of the most unique and powerful weapons in Minecraft. It works as both a melee and ranged weapon, it can be enchanted with exclusive abilities that no other item has, and with the right setup, it can even turn you into a rocket-powered flying machine. The only problem – you can’t craft a trident. The only way to get one is to explore dangerous new structures or to kill the right mobs under the right conditions.
This guide covers everything you need to know to get a Trident in Minecraft as efficiently as possible for Java Edition and Bedrock Edition 1.21+.
Why Get a Trident?
Before we get into how to farm one, here’s a quick reminder of what makes the trident worth the grind:
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Melee damage | 9 (Java) / 9 (Bedrock) |
| Ranged damage | 8–9 when thrown |
| Durability | 250 (same as iron tools) |
| Unique enchantments | Loyalty, Riptide, Channeling, Impaling |
| Can it be crafted? | No – drop only |
The trident’s exclusive enchantments are what really set it apart—more on those later.
Option 1: Looting Trial Chambers (New in 1.21)
With the Minecraft 1.21 update, you no longer have to rely solely on grinding underwater mobs. Tridents have been added to the loot tables of Trial Chambers.
This is an incredible alternative for players who prefer exploration and combat challenges over building repetitive farms.
How to Get a Trident From a Vault
Tridents are found primarily inside Vaults – the heavy, copper-trimmed blocks that reward players when unlocked with a Trial Key, though they can occasionally appear in reward chests sharing the same pool.
1. Find a Trial Chamber: These massive structures generate underground in the Deepslate layer.
2. Defeat Trial Spawners: Battle the waves of mobs that spawn. Once defeated, the spawner has a chance to eject a standard Trial Key.
3. Unlock the Vault: Approach a Vault block and use your key.
Note: Standard Vaults have a low base drop chance (around 2%) for a Trident. Because Vaults can only be opened once per player, you may need to find and explore multiple Trial Chambers to successfully score one this way. However, you’ll get plenty of copper, diamonds, and rare items while trying!
Option 2: Hunting Drowned Mobs
Tridents cannot be crafted or found in chests. If you aren’t looting structures, your alternative is hunting Drowned, the underwater zombie variant. However, there’s a critical detail that trips up most players:
Not all Drowned can drop tridents. Only drowned that naturally spawn holding a trident can drop one. Drowned that converted from zombies drowning in water never drop tridents, regardless of edition.
Drop Chances by Edition
Java Edition:
- 6.25% of naturally spawned drowned spawn holding a trident
- Of those, there is an 8.5% base drop chance when killed by the player
- Each level of Looting increases the drop chance by 1% (so Looting III = 11.5%)
- Converted zombies: never drop tridents
Bedrock Edition:
- 15% of naturally spawned drowned in ocean biomes spawn holding a trident
- Base drop chance is lower than Java – roughly 0.53% per naturally spawned drowned killed
- Looting also increases the drop rate
- River drowned: 8.5% spawn holding a trident
- Converted zombies: never drop tridents
The key takeaway: Trident farming is a numbers game. The drop rate is low, which is why building a dedicated drowned farm is far more efficient than hunting for tridents manually.
Method A: Build a Drowned Farm (Best Long-Term Method)
Best for: Players who want tridents efficiently with repeatable results
A drowned farm is the most reliable way to get tridents in Minecraft. The principle is simple – create conditions where drowned spawn in large numbers, funnel them to a kill zone, and kill them yourself to trigger the drop chance.
Java Edition: Ocean-Based Drowned Farm
On Java, you need naturally spawned drowned from ocean biomes – converted zombies won’t work. The most effective design uses a large dark ocean platform to maximize natural drowned spawns, then funnels them via water streams into a kill chamber below.
Key requirements for Java:
- Build in or near a Deep Ocean or Ocean biome for the best spawn rates
- The farm must be dark enough (light level 0) to allow spawning
- You must kill drowned yourself – using lava or fall damage kills won’t trigger player kill drops
- Use Looting III on your sword to push the trident drop chance to 11.5%
Important Java note: On Java Edition, only naturally spawned ocean drowned can drop tridents. This makes Java trident farming slower than Bedrock overall, since you’re dependent on natural spawn rates in the open ocean rather than being able to convert large numbers of zombies.
Bedrock Edition: Zombie Conversion Farm
On Bedrock, the farming situation is slightly different – while converted zombies still can’t drop tridents directly, naturally spawned drowned in rivers and oceans have a higher spawn holding rate (15% in oceans vs 6.25% on Java). This makes well-positioned Bedrock farms more productive.
A simple and effective Bedrock design uses a river biome where drowned naturally spawn in large numbers at night. Funnel them with water streams into a trap and kill them with Looting III for the best drop rate.
Tips for Any Drowned Farm
- Always kill drowned yourself – no tamed wolves, lava, or fall damage to the kill point
- Use Looting III – it’s the single biggest multiplier on Trident drop rate
- Build AFK platforms near the farm (but not so far away that spawns stop)
- Depth Strider or Dolphin’s Grace potion makes navigating the ocean much faster while building and farming
- Light up the surrounding areas to force drowned spawns toward your platform
Method B: Manual Ocean Hunting
Best for: Early game, players who haven’t built a farm yet
If you don’t have a farm set up yet, heading to a Deep Ocean or Ocean biome at night and hunting drowned manually is your best option. Drowned spawn in large numbers in ocean biomes, particularly in deeper water.
Best Biomes for Manual Trident Hunting
- Deep Ocean – highest drowned spawn density, best for manual hunting
- Ocean – good spawn rates, easier to navigate than Deep Ocean
- River – drowned spawn here too, convenient if you’re near one
Tips for Manual Hunting
- Go out at night – drowned despawn rates are lower, and spawn rates peak
- Bring Night Vision potions – visibility underwater makes a huge difference
- Use a Sword with Looting III – always
- Bring Water Breathing potions for extended sessions
- Conduits built in ocean monuments provide permanent underwater breathing and haste in a large radius – worth setting up if you plan on farming an ocean long-term
Method C: Trident Killer (Advanced Farm Upgrade)
Once you have your first trident, you can use it to build a trident killer – an automated farm mechanism that uses a thrown trident (via a dispenser or a contraption) to kill mobs while crediting the kill to the player. This lets you go semi-AFK while still triggering player kill drops.
For Trident killers to apply Looting, you must be holding a Looting III sword when the Trident completes the kill. This is a popular upgrade to iron golem farms and drowned farms for players who want passive income without standing at the kill zone constantly.
Best Enchantments for Your Trident
Once you have a trident, enchanting it is the most important next step. Here are all four Trident-exclusive enchantments explained:
Loyalty (Max Level III) – Must Have
Loyalty causes a thrown trident to automatically return to you after it hits something. This is the most important quality-of-life enchantment for the trident – without it, you lose your trident every time you throw it.
Return speeds by level:
- Loyalty I: ~16.67 blocks per second
- Loyalty II: ~33.33 blocks per second
- Loyalty III: 50 blocks per second
Loyalty III is incompatible with Riptide. Pick one or the other based on how you want to use the trident.
Riptide (Max Level III) – Game-Changer for Travel
Riptide transforms the trident into a personal launch system. When you throw it while standing in water or rain, it launches you forward with it instead of flying as a projectile. The distance covered depends on level: (6 × level) + 3 blocks in rain or shallow water, and (4 × level) + 3 blocks while fully submerged.
The most exciting use: Riptide III + Elytra in rain can propel you to speeds exceeding 500 blocks per second – roughly 15 times faster than firework rockets. It’s by far the fastest travel method in the game.
Riptide is incompatible with Loyalty and Channeling.
Channeling (Max Level I) – Lightning Strike
Channeling summons a lightning bolt when the trident hits a mob during a thunderstorm. This is extremely useful for converting mobs – hitting a villager with Channeling during a storm converts them to a Witch, hitting a pig converts it to a Zombified Piglin, and hitting a creeper converts it to a Charged Creeper (which drops mob heads on kill).
Channeling is incompatible with Riptide.
Impaling (Max Level V) – Damage Boost
Impaling adds extra damage to aquatic mobs (guardians, squids, dolphins, axolotls, etc.). In Java Edition, it only works on aquatic mobs. In Bedrock Edition, it also works on any mob while in water or rain – making it much stronger on Bedrock for general combat.
Extra damage per level: +2.5 per level on Java, +2.5 per level on Bedrock (but applicable to all mobs in water/rain on Bedrock).
Don’t Forget These Universal Enchantments
- Mending – essential so XP orbs repair the trident passively
- Unbreaking III – dramatically increases durability between repairs
- Loyalty III is the default – always put this on unless you specifically want Riptide
Best Trident Build: Recommended Enchantment Combos
| Use Case | Enchantments |
|---|---|
| General combat / everyday use | Loyalty III, Impaling V, Mending, Unbreaking III |
| Ocean / underwater combat | Loyalty III, Impaling V, Mending, Unbreaking III |
| Travel / elytra booster | Riptide III, Mending, Unbreaking III |
| Thunderstorm utility | Channeling I, Loyalty III, Mending, Unbreaking III |
Java vs Bedrock: Key Differences
| Factor | Java Edition | Bedrock Edition |
|---|---|---|
| Converted zombie drops trident? | No | No |
| Ocean drowned hold trident rate | 6.25% | 15% |
| River drowned hold Trident rate | 6.25% | 8.5% |
| Base drop chance | 8.5% | ~0.53% (lower base, higher spawn rate) |
| Looting effect | +1% per level | +1% per level |
| Impaling damage scope | Aquatic mobs only | All mobs in water/rain |
| Trial Chambers available | Yes (1.21+) | Yes (1.21+) |
The bottom line: Bedrock has more drowned holding tridents, but the base drop chance per kill is lower. Java has fewer holders but a higher drop rate per qualifying kill. Both editions benefit enormously from Looting III.
Pro Tips for Getting Tridents Faster
1. Always use Looting III. This is non-negotiable. It increases your trident drop chance by 3 percentage points – that’s a 35% relative improvement on Java. Every kill without Looting III is a wasted opportunity.
2. Build in a Deep Ocean, not a river. Deep Oceans have a higher drowned spawn density than rivers. If you’re going to commit to a farm, position it in a deep ocean biome.
3. Don’t kill drowned with non-player methods. Lava, fall damage, wolves, and other non-player kills do not count for item drop purposes. You must land the killing blow yourself (or use a trident killer with Looting III in hand).
4. Be patient – it’s RNG. Even with Looting III, you might kill 50+ drowned before your first trident drops. That’s normal. The farm just needs to keep running.
5. Get Mending on your trident immediately. Once you have one, protect it. A trident without Mending will eventually break, and getting another one takes just as long. Mending is your top priority after Loyalty.
6. Use Night Vision potions while farming. Visibility in deep ocean biomes at night is nearly zero without it. Night Vision makes identifying and killing the drowned dramatically faster and safer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you craft a trident in Minecraft?
No. Tridents cannot be crafted under any circumstances in vanilla Minecraft. The only way to obtain one is as a rare reward from Trial Chamber Vaults/chests or as a drop from a naturally spawned Drowned.
Why are drowned not dropping tridents?
The most common reason is that the drowned were converted from zombies rather than naturally spawned. Converted drowned can never drop tridents on any edition. Make sure you’re farming in an ocean or river biome where drowned spawn naturally, not in an area where zombies can fall into water.
Does Looting affect Trident drop rates?
Yes. Each level of Looting increases the Trident drop chance by 1% on both Java and Bedrock. With Looting III, the Java drop chance goes from 8.5% to 11.5%. Always use Looting III for Trident farming.
Can you get a Trident on Peaceful mode?
No. Drowned don’t spawn on Peaceful difficulty, making tridents completely unobtainable without changing the difficulty setting.
What is the best enchantment for a trident?
For most players, Loyalty III is the most important enchantment – it makes the trident return to you after throwing, so you don’t lose it. Pair it with Impaling V, Mending, and Unbreaking III for a well-rounded combat trident. If you want a travel tool instead, use Riptide III in place of Loyalty.
Can drowned drop enchanted tridents?
Yes. Drowned that naturally spawn holding a trident may have enchantments on it, and those enchantments carry over to the drop. The trident can be enchanted with Impaling, Loyalty, or Riptide when dropped. This makes each trident drop potentially even more valuable.
How rare is a Trident drop in Minecraft?
On Java Edition, roughly 6.25% of natural drowned spawn with a trident, and of those, there’s an 8.5% chance it drops on kill – meaning roughly 1 in 188 natural drowned kills result in a trident drop without Looting. With Looting III, that improves to roughly 1 in 145. On Bedrock, more drowned spawn holding tridents, but the base drop rate per kill is lower.
