How to Fly With a Trident

One of the most interesting weapons in Minecraft is the Trident. When it receives Enchantments, it can give lots of different effects, like summoning lightning, returning to players like a Boomerang, or even allowing them to fly.

Flying with the Riptide Enchantment

To fly with a Trident, you’ll need to unlock the Riptide Enchantment. You can place a Trident inside an Enchanting Table, and hope that you’ll receive Riptide. It’s one of the more rare enchantments, with only Channeling being less likely to obtain.

Riptide has a maximum level of 3. Each level will transport the player (6 x level) + 3 blocks when the player is wet. So having Riptide 1 will allow the player to travel 9 blocks, and Riptide 3 will allow traveling of 21 blocks.

Tridents that have Riptide will only allow players to fly when they’re wet. You will either need to stand in water or use it while raining. Even if it’s raining, being under cover such as a tree will prevent it from working. If players are in a biome where rain isn’t possible, such as a Desert, then the Riptide Enchantment won’t work.

Riptide Tridents also lose their ability to become throwable weapons. Instead, damage is dealt when players collide with a mob or entity. Each time a player is launched with Riptide, or an entity is struck, the durability will be decreased by 1.

A Trident will never leave the players hand with the Riptide Enchantment. Therefor, it’s incompatible with both Channeling and Loyalty, and they can’t be applied alongside it, whether through Enchanting or an Anvil.

Flying Tips

Using the Riptide Enchantment and flying with the Trident is a great and fast way to explore the world. While mid-air, you can repeatedly recharge your throw, allowing you to constantly fly without hitting the ground.

Though it’s a good idea to use a third person view to see the surroundings. And the time-window for recharging your throw is longer if you have a higher level of the Riptide Enchantment.

Likewise, Riptide can be used in place of Firework Rockets when using an Elytra. When in the air with an Elytra, the Trident can be charged to give a speed boost when flying. Or it can be used to take off from the ground before deploying the Elytra.

Hitting the ground from high up will cause you to take fall damage, which can be lethal. Some players set up ‘redeploy stations’, which are just small pools of water that can be landed in to prevent damage, and quickly take off again.