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While Minecraft’s claim to fame is its signature crafting system and also its expansive creative mode, with players constructing unique designs, but right now, it’s the combative side– and the Riptide Enchantment, that’s garnering the most attention.
Minecraft players, of course, have always enjoyed Survival Mode for its challenges, from hostile mobs to onerous bosses. But if there’s anything I know about the Minecraft community, it’s that we’re all quite creative and love to find our unique way of doing things– even when that means fighting a mob boss.
It all started with one Minecraft player, Reddit user shootingstar 557, summoned Wither into the ocean. The rain-drenched boss fight actually was in the player’s favor– but it wasn’t an easy fight.
Ready with both an elytra and a trident enchanted with Riptide, what ensued next was what has been called a Minecraft dog fight.
The battle in the ocean was not an ordinary fight: Wither is known as one of the most odious mobs in Minecraft, and though there are more feared bosses, not many would take up the fight in this way.
So is this player technique innovative? Or does it perhaps also point to the Riptide Enchantment being more useful than many players might assume?
Consider this your guide to the Riptide Enchantment, how to use it, and the ins and outs of its complement, tridents, for your Minecraft gameplay.
What is the Riptide Enchantment?
Enchantments in Minecraft essentially work like enhancements for items, for everything from helmets to shovels, and they help extend the use and power of those items you find or craft.
While not all items can be enchanted, all items that you wish to enchant require an enchanting table, and each enchantment has a specific, unique purpose, with three levels (each level having a stronger effect than the last).
What does the Riptide Enchantment Do?
The Riptide Enchantment is actually not directly related, which is why the player’s move may have been seen as unique. The Riptide Enchantment is meant for transportation, allowing you to move more quickly– transforming a trident into a new mode of fast transportation.
However, you can also use a Riptide Enchanted trident for combat, with the ability to hit multiple targets at once.
Levels and Impact
The Riptide Enchantment has three possible levels. You can reach the highest level– Riptide 3– by gaining experience orbs from fighting mobs. Once enchanted, the trident essentially throws you forward. But how far it’ll take you is a little tricky.
In fact, how far the trident propels you follows this formula. As you can see, the Riptide Enchantment is most useful when used in snow, rain, or still water.
For Transportation
| Biome/ Conditions | Distance Traveled (Blocks) |
| Rain, Snow, Still Water | (6 x Experience Level) + 3 |
| Underwater | (4 x Experience Level) + 3 |
However, there are other factors that do play a small role in combat. Throwing a trident with this enchantment can inflict damage and even hit multiple targets.
For Combat
- Cost of 1 Durability for every throw
- Able to hit multiple targets at the same time
- When used with a dispenser, it acts like a trident typically does, with a bonus of 10 x the speed.
What are some limiting factors of the Riptide Enchantment?
A downside to the Riptide Enchantment is that, in a few ways, it’s rather limited in its use, both in terms of what items can be enchanted with it and what biomes it can be actively used in.
Items you can Enchant
You can only use the Riptide Enchantment on tridents. No other items can be equipped with this enchantment, so it’s of no use until you acquire a trident.
Where it can be used
An easy way to remember where you can use the Riptide Enchantment is that it’s complimentary with wet weather and biomes. That includes bodies of water, but also snow and rain. The Riptide Enchantment may not be used in any dry locations.
Exclusions/ Incompatibilities
In addition to these limitations, the Riptide Enchantment isn’t compatible with all other enchantments. Many players ask if Riptide can go with Loyalty, and the answer, unfortunately, is no. You can’t put Channeling or Loyalty on a trident already enchanted with Riptide. Interestingly enough, combining both the Loyalty and Channeling enchantments on a trident will have the same impact as the Riptide Enchantment.
How do you get the Riptide Enchantment?
Like any enchantment in Minecraft, you’ll need an enchanting table, which can be crafted with a book (found in strongholds and villages), obsidian, and diamonds.
Acquiring a Trident
Once you’ve acquired an enchanting table, the only other thing you’ll need is a trident. Tridents, which are useful for a number of things in Minecraft, can only be found. As one of the rare items that have no Minecraft recipe, you’ll need to acquire a trident either from it being thrown or dropped from a Drowned mob.
Defeating the Drowned
Drowned mobs are zombies that live in water and the sole source of tridents. You’ll find them in ocean biomes, but not deep ocean– they naturally generate at levels 7 and shallower. In fact, you’re even more likely to find them in rivers than oceans. Occasionally, it is possible to find them in Oceanic Ruins as well.
To defeat them so they’ll drop a trident, I recommend a shield to block and a sword or ax to attack. They are by no means the most difficult mob to defeat– just be aware of your surroundings and how many Drowned are near you.
Upon defeat, they may also drop rotten flesh, copper nuggets, gold nuggets, and occasionally, helmets, leather, and boots.
Enchanting the Trident
Enchanting the trident from there is simple: simply place the trident in the first slot on your enchantment table. The more experience you gain, the more powerful, as you can see in the chart above, that the Riptide Enchantment will be. Now you’re ready to put the Riptide Enchantment to full use!
How do you use the Riptide Enchantment?
Obviously, the Riptide Enchantment can be used in Minecraft in two main ways– as a mode of transportation or in combat–or, as the Reddit player showed, as a powerful combination.
While it’s up to you to decide how to use it, I want to include some more creative ways to use the Riptide Enchantment and give you some helpful hints and tips.
Using the Riptide Enchantment for Transportation
I never recommend using the Riptide Enchantment as a primary form of transportation, of course, since its use is limited. That said, if you want a quick boost, it can be handy– and simply a fun and new way to travel.
One way that the trident has become popular as a mode of transportation? Combining the Riptide Enchantment to allow you to fly momentarily.
How do you fly with Trident?
Keep in mind that flying in Survival Mode is not the same as flying in Creative Mode. It’s far more limited, acts more like gliding, and has fewer controls and freedom,
That said, flying is a temporary way of seeing more of Minecraft worlds in ways you haven’t before and can be a fairly unique experience. In order to fly with a trident, you just have to apply the Riptide Enchantment and throw it. But using it from a high point can help you launch in the sky further.
Instead of using it in a body of water, turn rain in your game and find a high place to launch off. A running start doesn’t hurt, either.
While limited in its practical use, so-called flying with a trident can be a fun way to travel a little bit and potentially even scout out something that you might not otherwise have noticed.
Boots of Feather
However, if you do decide to fly, you should acquire the Boots of Feather, as this allows you to mitigate the damage you’d have from falling (as well as from blasts, fire). The Boots of Feather are simply boots that have been enchanted with the Feather Falling.
To get boots, you can either craft them with four pieces of gold, iron, or leather or find them in chests or from zombies, skeletons, husks, piglins, and other mobs.
Feather Falling can only be gained through further trading chests and is difficult– but very precious to obtain. To acquire a Level 4 Feather Falling, you’ll either need to haggle with villagers or combine two Feather Falling 3 enchantments.
Other Tips
When using the Riptide Enchantment for getting around, keep in mind that you’ll get the most out of it in the rain, snow, and still water. That said, if you’re exploring underwater, it’s one of the few ways to get a boost in speed and swim faster, which can be helpful, especially if you’re struggling to surface on time and trying to avoid drowning.
Using the Riptide Enchantment for Combat
The Riptide Enchantment is perhaps the most unexpected way to get an advantage in combat under wet conditions. Throwing the trident will inflict even more damage.
You’ll have to select what you value most, however. During regular combat, a trident enchanted with Riptide allows you to hit many mobs at once, which has its own obvious advantages. That said. Some players also opt to place it in a dispenser.
Using a Dispenser
A dispenser is a block that enables you to throw items more quickly and is popularly used when throwing tridents for combat. The downside is that while the trident will travel more swiftly, you’ll also now only be able to hit one target at a time.
Finding or Crafting Dispensers
You can find dispensers in jungle biomes, often covered by vegetation such as vines. However, you can also craft a dispenser with a bow, redstone dust, and seven cobblestone, placing The bow in the center row of the central column, and the dust in the bottom row of the middle column, with cobblestone filling the rest of the three by three grid.
Other Enchantments: Prioritizing
There are several other enchantments for tridents that can also be useful in combat, including both Loyalty and Channeling. Still, these are not compatible with Riptide, so you’ll need to pick and choose carefully. Saying one enchantment is better than another is too simplistic.
While I won’t go into too much detail here, it’s important to note these alternatives. Do keep in mind, though, that Riptide has the advantage of being able to be helpful for combat and moving more quickly– which, of course, can complement each other quite well.
Loyalty Enchantment
The Loyalty Enchantment allows tridents (or other items you can throw) to return back to you after throwing. Not only is this useful in combat, but it will save you trouble from having to replace items so frequently (though, of course, they still will wear or become broken with time).
Channeling Enchantment
The Channeling Enchantment allows you to make an electric trident. Essentially, with this enchantment, you can channel lightning. When thrown into a mob during rainy weather, lightning bolts will strike, but, unfortunately, there is only a single enchantment level available.
Are there any helpful mods for the Riptide Enchantment?
While there aren’t prominent mods directly tied to the Riptide Enchantment, some great Minecraft mods from the ever-innovative Minecraft community may be of use because they enhance the experience of using a trident while in bodies of water.
These mods are not must-haves, but they can just add a bit of interest, both on a gameplay level and for visual aspects. These mods include both graphics tweaks and more features for tridents.
To download mods, I recommend checking you have antivirus software and downloading from secure sites. Place any downloaded files into your mods folder under your Minecraft folder.
Transcending Trident
The transcending trident mod is actually part of the Vanilla Experience, which is actually a collection of many mods. With this part, you’ll be able to use the Riptide Enchantment on a trident without rain if you have a bucket of water.
In addition, the trident will inflict more damage (with an option to opt-out of this enhancement, should you prefer). Download Here.
Trident Tweaks
Trident tweaks is a helpful mod, which allows you to use any enchantment on a trident that you can for swords in Minecraft. Of course, you’ll still need to keep in mind any enchantment incompatibilities. Download Here.
Realistic Water Textures
Obviously, this mod has a less immediate practical use, but it’s a way to enjoy using an enchanted trident in the water in an immersive way. The mod enables more realistic water textures for a fresh look and a more engaging way to explore the world. Download Here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Why can’t I put Riptide on my trident?
Answer: Not being able to use the Riptide Enchantment is unlikely to have anything to do with requiring a Minecraft error fix.
Rather, the most common reason is that you’ve already enchanted the trident (or it’s been enchanted) with Channelling or Loyalty, both of which are incompatible with Riptide. Make sure that the enchantments are not tied to the item in question.
Question: How do you farm tridents in Minecraft?
Answer: Also known as Drowned farming, this method is used to harvest experience orbs and loot– including tridents– dropped by Drowned mobs. There are a few ways to do so: through flooded dungeons, aerial farms, and underwater farms.
Of these, a dungeon farm is the most common. However, it’s a rather intricate process, and you may find yourself just as well off gathering tridents individually.
For instance, even the arguably easiest way to farm tridents, with an aerial farm, you’ll require a good deal of setup. An aerial farm helps spawn Drowned mobs on an aerial platform of 24 blocks above ground level.
The spawning rate is increased, but you need both a general understanding of Minecraft gameplay and an adequate place to do so.
Conditions also need to be specific for farming, some using bodies of water contained with a glass bottom.
Construction takes a while, and it’s especially tricky, as the Drowned cannot spawn directly on glass. If you decide to opt for farming, just know that it takes a good deal of dedication and time commitment.
Final Thoughts
The Riptide Enchantment in Minecraft certainly has its limitations, but by no means is it useless. Combining the combat abilities and transportation shows how this enchantment can be useful, whether in bodies of water or the snow or rain.
It’s ultimately up to you to decide how much use you’ll get out of this enchantment and how to use it in your own gameplay.
Of course, getting around by a trident enchanted with a Riptide Enchantment is by no means the only way or quickest way to get around in Minecraft. Read on for the game-changing trick of how to teleport in Minecraft.