How to retrieve a trident using loyalty

Understanding the Loyalty Enchantment

The trident is a unique and powerful weapon in Minecraft, offering both melee and ranged combat capabilities. However, its true potential in ranged scenarios is unlocked through the application of the Loyalty enchantment. Loyalty is a specialized enchantment, exclusively available for tridents, designed to eliminate the common frustration of losing your thrown weapon. When a trident imbued with Loyalty is hurled, it functions much like a boomerang, automatically returning to the player who threw it after a short delay. This core mechanic ensures that your valuable trident is never truly lost after being deployed in combat or for utility.

The enchantment itself comes in three distinct levels: Loyalty I, Loyalty II, and Loyalty III. The primary difference between these levels lies in the speed at which the trident returns to the player. A higher enchantment level translates directly to a faster return speed. Loyalty I will see the trident return at a moderate pace, while Loyalty III offers the quickest retrieval, significantly enhancing the weapon’s efficiency and responsiveness in fast-paced combat situations or when exploring dangerous areas where quick recovery is paramount. This return mechanism is a game-changer for ranged combat, providing a consistent and reliable weapon without the need for manual retrieval after each throw.

Acquiring and Enchanting Your Trident

Obtaining a Trident

Before you can apply the powerful Loyalty enchantment, you must first acquire a trident. Tridents are not craftable items; they are obtained exclusively as rare drops from a specific hostile mob: the Drowned. Drowned are aquatic zombies found in oceans and rivers, often spawning in underwater ruins or natural water bodies. Defeating these creatures gives you a chance, albeit a rare one, to obtain a trident. This initial acquisition can be time-consuming, requiring patience and persistence in hunting Drowned until one finally drops this coveted weapon.

Applying the Loyalty Enchantment

Once you have a trident in hand, the next crucial step is to imbue it with the Loyalty enchantment. There are two primary methods to achieve this, each with its own advantages and requirements:

• Using an Enchanting Table:

  The traditional method of enchanting involves an enchanting table. To use this, place your trident in the enchanting table’s slot and combine it with Lapis Lazuli. The enchanting table will then present you with several enchantment options, which are randomly generated. You might be offered Loyalty I, II, or III, or other compatible enchantments. To increase your chances of obtaining higher-level enchantments, such as Loyalty III, it is highly recommended to surround your enchanting table with bookshelves. A maximum of 15 bookshelves, placed one block away from the table with an air block in between, will provide the highest possible enchantment levels, significantly boosting your odds of seeing Loyalty II or III as an option.

• Using an Anvil and Enchanted Book:

  Alternatively, you can apply Loyalty using an anvil and an enchanted book. This method offers more control over the specific enchantment you wish to apply. First, you need to acquire a Loyalty enchanted book. These books can be found in various ways:

  • Loot Chests: Loyalty enchanted books can occasionally be found in chests generated in structures like shipwrecks, strongholds, or villages.
  • Fishing: With a fishing rod, there’s a chance to fish up enchanted books, including those with Loyalty.
  • Librarian Villagers: Trading with Librarian villagers is often the most reliable way to obtain specific enchanted books. Librarian villagers can offer various enchanted books in exchange for emeralds, and with enough refreshing of their trades, you can find one selling a Loyalty book of any level.

  Once you have a Loyalty enchanted book, place your trident in the first slot of an anvil and the enchanted book in the second slot. The anvil will then combine the two items, applying the Loyalty enchantment from the book to your trident. This process costs experience levels, which are displayed on the anvil’s interface. This method is particularly useful if you want to guarantee a specific level of Loyalty, such as Loyalty III, without relying on the randomness of the enchanting table.

Strategic Advantages and Important Tips

Equipping your trident with Loyalty offers numerous strategic advantages and opens up new combat and utility possibilities:

• Maximizing Efficiency with Loyalty III:

  While any level of Loyalty is beneficial, Loyalty III provides the quickest return of the trident. This rapid retrieval is crucial in combat, allowing for faster follow-up throws and sustained ranged pressure on enemies. In situations where every second counts, such as fighting multiple mobs or dealing with fast-moving targets, Loyalty III ensures your weapon is back in your hand almost instantly, maximizing your damage output and overall efficiency.

• Combining with Channeling for Charged Creepers:

  One of the most exciting combinations for a Loyalty trident is pairing it with the Channeling enchantment. When a trident with both Loyalty and Channeling hits a target during a thunderstorm, it will summon a lightning strike on that target. This unique ability has several uses, most notably the creation of charged creepers. If a creeper is struck by lightning summoned by Channeling, it transforms into a charged creeper, which explodes with significantly greater power. This can be strategically used to collect mob heads from other creatures, as a charged creeper’s explosion will drop the heads of any mobs it kills.

• Enhanced Ranged Combat:

  Loyalty fundamentally enhances ranged combat with the trident. Without it, throwing a trident means you must manually walk over and pick it up, leaving you vulnerable and interrupting your combat flow. With Loyalty, you can continuously throw your trident, focusing on dodging and aiming without the concern of retrieval. This makes the trident a much more viable and powerful ranged weapon, especially against flying mobs or targets at a distance.

• Dedicated Tridents for Specific Roles:

  Given the different enchantments available for tridents, it’s often beneficial to have multiple tridents for different purposes. It is highly recommended to have a dedicated combat trident with Loyalty and Channeling. This allows you to engage in ranged combat, summon lightning, and never worry about losing your weapon. Separately, you might consider having a separate trident with Riptide for movement. Riptide allows you to launch yourself forward when thrown in water or during rain, making it an excellent tool for fast travel. However, Riptide is incompatible with Loyalty, necessitating separate tridents for these distinct functions.

Common Mistakes and Pitfalls to Avoid

While Loyalty is incredibly useful, there are several common mistakes and specific scenarios where its behavior might surprise you. Being aware of these can prevent frustration and potential loss of your valuable trident:

• Incompatibility with Riptide:

  A crucial rule to remember is that Loyalty cannot be combined with the Riptide enchantment on the same trident. These two enchantments are mutually exclusive due to their conflicting mechanics. Loyalty brings the trident back to you, while Riptide propels you with the trident. Attempting to combine them on an anvil will not work, and you will need to choose one or the other for a single trident.

• Full Inventory:

  If your inventory is completely full when a Loyalty trident attempts to return to you, it cannot enter your inventory. Instead of dropping on the ground, the trident will cleverly circle around you until a space becomes available in your inventory. This behavior is a safety net, preventing the trident from despawning or being lost due to a full inventory, but it does mean you won’t be able to retrieve it until you clear some space.

• Death While Returning:

  Should you unfortunately die while your Loyalty trident is in mid-air returning to you, its behavior changes. Instead of reaching your inventory, it will drop as an item at your death location. Like all dropped items, it will then be subject to the standard despawn timer. This means you must quickly return to your death spot to retrieve it before it disappears forever. This is a significant risk, especially in dangerous areas.

• Dimension Travel:

  The Loyalty enchantment has limitations when it comes to crossing dimension boundaries. If you travel to another dimension (such as the Nether or the End) while your trident is in mid-air returning to you, it will not follow you to the new dimension. Instead, it will remain in the dimension it was thrown in. To retrieve it, you must return to the original dimension. This is important to remember when using portals, as you could temporarily lose access to your trident until you switch back.

• Throwing into the Void (Java Edition Specific):

  Be extremely cautious when throwing a Loyalty trident near the void, particularly in Minecraft Java Edition. In this version of the game, throwing a Loyalty trident into the void will destroy it permanently. The game treats the void as an inescapable boundary for items, even those enchanted with Loyalty. However, in Bedrock Edition, the behavior is more forgiving; a Loyalty trident thrown into the void will typically return to the player after traveling approximately 15 blocks, preventing its loss.