Minecraft Riptide: What It Does and How to Add It to Your Trident

The trident is a very powerful and interesting weapon to wield in Minecraft. Since you can both hold and throw it, it’s useful for both melee and ranged fights. What’s even better is that you can use it as a kind of ultra-fast broomstick while in water, but you will need the Minecraft Riptide enchantment for that. In this guide, we tell you everything you need to know about this enchantment; what it does, how to add it to your trusty trident, how to repair it, and much more.

Also read: Brave the Seas of Minecraft: Best Trident Enchantments to Use Now

What Does Riptide Do in Minecraft?

Minecraft Riptide is a trident enchantment that allows you to travel a lot faster. With this enchantment added, you can hurl yourself in whichever direction you throw the trident into. You’ll be able to travel greater distances if you throw it upward or downward from a high place (like a mountain).

Besides helping you get from one point to another faster, a trident that has the Minecraft Riptide enchantment can inflict throwing damage on mobs or other players that you collide with. If you collide with them from a height, you’ll be able to deal critical damage.

There is a catch, however. You’ll only be able to use the Minecraft Riptide enchantment when you’re wet. That means you either have to be standing in water, submerged in water, or standing in the rain.

How to Add Minecraft Riptide Enchantment

There are two different ways you can add a Minecraft Riptide enchantment to a trident — via an enchanting table or through a Minecraft anvil. Before you get to either of these workstations, though, you might want to first remove any existing enchantments from the trident. We show you all of these three methods below:

Removing Existing Enchantments from the Trident

Before you add Minecraft Riptide to a trident, you might want to disenchant it first, especially if it still has Loyalty or Channeling on it. That’s because you won’t be able to add Riptide to a trident that has either of these enchantments.

To remove an existing enchantment from a trident, you’ll need a Minecraft grindstone. Here’s how to use it:

1. If you haven’t yet, place the grindstone on any block.
2. Now, select the grindstone to launch its interface.
3. Place the trident in any of the two slots under Repair & Disenchant.
4. Wait for the trident to appear in the output slot on the right.
5. Drag the now-disenchanted trident to your inventory.

Your trident is now ready to be enchanted with Minecraft Riptide.

Adding Minecraft Riptide with an Enchanting Table

Let’s first tackle how to add Riptide to a trident using an enchanting table. With this method, you’ll need three lapis lazuli besides a trident and an enchanting table. You can break lapis lazuli from a lapis lazuli ore, which you can find close to a bedrock, and mine with a stone pickaxe.

Here’s how to add Minecraft Riptide to a trident using the enchanting table:

1. Position the enchanting table anywhere you want.
2. Launch the enchanting table interface by selecting it.
3. Put the trident on the left slot under Enchant.
4. Place at least three lapis lazuli on the slot beside the trident.
5. Wait for the interface to display three enchantment options.
6. If it appears in the options, choose the Minecraft Riptide enchantment to apply it.

It’s important to note that this method involves a bit of luck since the enchantment options that appear on an enchanting table interface are random. However, since there are only seven trident enchantments in Minecraft, it will most likely only take a couple of tries before you get Riptide.

Adding Minecraft Riptide Using an Anvil

If you already have a Riptide-enchanted book, that would be even better! That means you can just whip out an anvil and add the enchantment from that book to your trident right away. You’ll no longer need to wait for Riptide to appear as an option in the enchanting table interface. An anvil is also handy if you want to add Riptide to an already enchanted trident.

Here are the steps to follow if you want to use an anvil to enchant a trident with Riptide:

1. Set the anvil anywhere if you haven’t yet.
2. Select it to open its interface.
3. Place the trident in the menu’s left input slot.
4. Now, place the Riptide-enchanted book in the slot right next to the trident.
5. When you see the enchanted trident in the output slot on the right, drag it to your inventory.

Effects of Minecraft Riptide Enchantment

The Minecraft Riptide enchantment can go up to three levels. Of course, the distance you travel while throwing a Riptide trident increases with each level. Take note, though, that Riptide has a different effect depending on where you use it. Here’s a table for reference:

As you can see, you’ll be able to travel farther with a Riptide trident while standing in water or in the rain than if you were underwater.

Why Can’t Riptide Be Added to My Trident?

If you can’t add Riptide to a trident, it’s most likely because you already have either Loyalty or Channeling applied to it.

Keep in mind that Riptide can’t work alongside Loyalty and Channeling. That’s because Loyalty requires that the trident leave the player’s hand for it to achieve a sort of boomerang effect; a Riptide trident is always in the player’s hand. Channeling is incompatible with Riptide partly for the same reason as Loyalty. Plus, Channeling directs lightning to wherever your trident lands, so if it’s in your hand, you will get burnt.

As such, if you’re trying to add Riptide to a trident that already has either Loyalty or Channeling, follow the instructions we provided above to disenchant it first.

Can I Combine Riptide with Other Enchantments?

Yes, you can combine Riptide with other trident enchantments. Currently, Minecraft Riptide is only incompatible with Loyalty and Channeling, which means you can combine it with everything else: Mending, Unbreaking, Impaling, and Curse of Vanishing.

To add other enchantments to a Riptide trident, you can use an anvil.

What Are the Limitations of Riptide?

As we mentioned, Riptide can’t work with either Loyalty or Channeling. If you added any of these enchantments to a trident using a command, Riptide will take precedence, so the other two enchantments won’t be usable.

Besides those incompatibilities, you can’t use Riptide in biomes, dimensions, and altitudes where it doesn’t rain. That means you can’t use it in the desert, savannah, badlands, and the Nether.

Can a Riptide Trident Break?

Yes, a Riptide trident can break. In Java Edition, Riptide trident durability gets reduced by a point each instance the weapon is thrown. On top of that, in every Minecraft version, the enchanted weapon also loses 1 durability every time you collide with a mob or player.

To reduce the chances of your Riptide trident breaking, you can add the Mending enchantment to it. With Mending, your trident repairs itself every time you get an experience orb, such as when you kill a mob. However, that means you also won’t get as much XP for yourself since some of it will be going towards restoring your trident.

Can You Repair a Riptide Trident?

Like all other enchanted tridents, you can also repair a Riptide trident using an anvil. Doing so is fairly easy. All you need is your damaged Riptide trident and a regular trident. Once you have those ready, follow these steps:

1. Position your anvil anywhere you want, and open its interface.
2. Place the broken Riptide trident in the empty left slot.
3. Place the regular trident in the next empty slot.
4. Drag the new trident from the output slot on the right back to your inventory.

You’ve now repaired your Riptide trident!

Is Loyalty or Riptide Better?

Between Loyalty and Riptide, Loyalty is arguably the better enchantment of the two, mainly because you can use it anytime. With Riptide, you can only use it when it’s raining or you’re standing in or submerged in water. As for Loyalty, its use isn’t limited to certain weather or time, making it more reliable.

Loyalty and Riptide serve different purposes, though, so it’s tougher to judge which one is better based on that. Loyalty allows you to hit any mob or item with your enchanted trident. Then, once it comes into contact with that mob or item, it comes back to you right away. This saves you the time and effort of having to travel and retrieve the trident you threw. Plus, it allows you to strike from a safe distance and keeps you away from dangerous blocks or mobs.

However, Loyalty doesn’t allow you to travel great distances as Riptide does. Riptide is also better for those who prefer fighting off mobs and other players at close range. Therefore, if you find these use more important than those of Loyalty, Riptide is the better trident enchantment for you.

Is Channeling or Riptide Better?

As Channeling and Riptide are both situational enchantments, deciding on the better one is really up to what you need and what you think you’ll get the most use out of. As we’ve mentioned, Minecraft Riptide only works if there’s rain, if you’re standing in water, or if you’re submerged in water. Channeling, on the other hand, only works if there’s a thunderstorm. Now, if you’re really raring to use either of these enchantments and can’t wait for rain or thunderstorm or find a body of water, there are always ways around that. For one, you can use cheats in the game to change the weather. Plus, you can make your own water puddle to stand in — although that would take a lot more effort, especially if you want to propel yourself forward multiple times.

In terms of use, Channeling has a couple. Its main use is for directing lightning bolts to mobs or players that it’s thrown to, dealing 5 hearts’ worth of fire damage. On top of that, a trident that has channeling can turn creepers into charged creepers, pigs into zombified piglins, villagers into witches, red mooshrooms into brown mooshrooms, and brown mooshrooms into red ones, thus allowing you to collect the heads of each of these.

A Riptide trident also serves two purposes. Players mostly use it for moving around the overworld quickly. However, you can also use it to deal damage to mobs and players that you collide with while holding it.

If you like sending lightning bolts to your enemies and collecting mob heads, you’ll like Channeling more. However, if you find more use in traveling from one point to another fast and in inflicting damage on enemies through collision, you’ll want to go for Riptide.

Final Thoughts

Having a Riptide trident is a great addition to your arsenal in Minecraft. It allows you to move faster underwater, lets you travel great distances on land (while raining), and deals additional damage to mobs and enemies that you collide with. However, while you can combine it with most other trident enchantments, keep in mind that it isn’t compatible with Channeling or Loyalty. Not to worry, though, since you’ll still get a lot of use out of your Riptide trident even without those enchantments.

If you found this guide helpful, feel free to share it with your friends who also want to learn more about Minecraft Riptide. And while you’re at it, you can also check out our list of the best bow enchantments in Minecraft.