Can You Put Sharpness On A Trident? No, You Can‘t

Unlike swords and axes, the trident in Minecraft does not support the Sharpness enchantment. You cannot apply Sharpness through an enchanting table, anvil, commands, books, or other means.

But that doesn‘t mean tridents lack damage potential. Keep reading for an in-depth guide on maxing out your trident‘s destructive power.

Best Trident Enchantments For Raw Damage

While Sharpness isn‘t an option, here are the top enchantments for amplifying trident damage:

Impaling (★★★★★)
: Specifically designed to boost damage against aquatic and water-bound enemies, Impaling grants a +2.5 attack damage bonus per level for a maximum of +12.5 at level V. This allows tridents to shred through guardians, elder guardians, and especially drowned/zombies.

Channeling (★★★☆☆)
: While situational, Channeling supersizes trident damage by summoning a lightning bolt during thunderstorms. The instant damage can one-shot most mobs. Requires an open view of the sky to trigger.

Riptide (★★★☆☆)
: Functions more for mobility than raw damage. Still, launching high-velocity trident throws using Riptide‘s propulsion can spike DPS if aimed properly. Great for hit and run tactics.

Loyalty (★★★★★)
: Retrieving your trident is critical for sustainable damage rather than losing it constantly. Loyalty‘s homing mechanism makes the trident a viable main weapon.

How Does Impaling Compare To Sharpness?

Sharpness adds 1.25 – 6.25 extra damage to swords and axes based on its level. Impaling and Sharpness scale at similar rates. But Impaling‘s exclusive aquatic damage bonus gives it an edge over Sharpness for tridents.

Against most mobs, a Sharpness V Netherite Sword would outdamage an Impaling V trident. But Impaling pulls ahead against drowned, guardians, squids, and other water mobs.

The key distinction is Impaling‘s % based bonus which Sharpness lacks. This advantage persists even against tough bosses like the Elder Guardian.

Overall, Sharpness is superior against generic enemies, but Impaling‘s water-focused damage earns its place as the trident‘s premier damage enchant.

Can You Make A Netherite Trident?

Nope, tridents cannot be crafted or upgraded to netherite. But that hasn‘t stopped resourceful players from devising workarounds:

The Netherite Hoe Trick

By renaming a netherite hoe to "Trident" via an anvil, the game will render its netherite texture. This achieves a quasi-netherite trident visually. Sadly, its stats remain those of a regular trident.

Abusing Item Frames

Placing a trident inside an item frame then upgrading that item frame to netherite will indirectly give the visual vibe of a netherite trident. Too bad this another purely cosmetic approach.

Commands to the Rescue

Using commands, players can create a customized trident with boosted stats equivalent to a theoretical netherite trident. For example:

/give @p trident 1 0 {"AttributeModifiers":[{"AttributeName":"generic.attackDamage", "Amount": 12, "Operation":0, "UUIDMost":894654, "UUIDLeast":6364514, "Name":"generic.attackDamage"}]}

This overwrites the trident‘s attributes to match a netherite weapon. With raw damage rivaling a netherite sword‘s 10 base damage, it‘s the closest legit approximation currently available!

How To Create An OP "God" Trident

While difficult, having a maxed out "God" trident is possible with enough luck and/or commands. Here‘s a couple routes to forging a mighty god trident:

Organically Maxing Enchantments

The honest path to supremacy involves organically earning XP and enchanted books. By combining books on an anvil, you can stack multiple compatible enchantments onto a single trident:

This pinnacle trident has all enhancements maxed out through tremendous XP grinding! It hits insanely hard under the right conditions and never breaks via mending.

• Downsides: Takes forever to enchant, misses out on Curse of Vanishing

/Enchant Commands

Using the command:

/enchant <player> trident <enchantment> <level>

You can conveniently skip straight to a god-rolled trident.

For example:

/enchant DigMinecraft trident impaling 5
/enchant DigMinecraft trident loyalty 3 

//Etc.

This shortcuts the grinding while guaranteeing optimal enchantments. Caveat – earning things organically feels more rewarding for some players.

Looting From Drowned

An alternative is farming drowned mobs until one drops its pre-enchanted trident (11% chance). This skirts the XP costs while bestowing free enchantments!

Further bonus: apply looting III on your sword to up the odds to ~17% per drowned.

Comparing The Trident To Diamond & Netherite Swords

Let‘s see how our god trident fares against maxed out sword alternatives:

Key takeaways:

• Trident deals more raw damage per hit than a diamond sword
• But swords attack much faster – ultimately higher DPS
• Swords can use more damage enchantments like Sweeping Edge and Fire Aspect
• Trident advantages: ranged and AOE attacks, mobility with Riptide

So our god trident juuust edges out the diamond sword‘s base melee, but gets outpaced in terms of DPS due to slower swing rate. It still carves out a nice situational niche thanks to its throwing and lightning abilities though. And remains the undisputed king of aquatic combat thanks to Impaling!

Riptide – Mechanics and Advanced Tactics

While less directly combat-oriented, Riptide enables some incredible velocity-amplified throws and mobility perks.

Mechanics Refresher

• Launches player forward when a Riptide trident is thrown while in water or rain
• Travel distance scales with Riptide level (I = 10 blocks, III = 26 blocks)
• Briefly grants underwater night vision
• Propels instantly – no charge up time
• Subject to motion damping – launches shortened when looking up/down

This physics-defying enchantment unlocks all sorts of advanced tactics:

Rapid Escape
Riptide instantly whisks you away from dangerous mobs without pause. Its swift reaction time and extended range outperforms ender pearls escapes.

Aerial Combat
Throwing your trident into water while airborne allows rapid direction changes for attacking aerial mobs like phantoms. Beats shooting a bow for mobility.

Trident Jousting
Two players with Riptide can charge each other from across waterways. Allowing epic jousting battles as you attempt midair collision strikes!

Hydro Extraction
Stranded in lava? Toss a bucket of water, Riptide throw to get airborne, then pour lava to cancel momentum. Works from any liquid!

Riptide‘s versatile mobility adds a fun new dimension both in and out of combat. It just edges out Loyalty as my personal top trident enchantment.

Re-Evaluating Loyalty – An Underrated Gem

Loyalty‘s simple retrieval mechanic often gets overlooked. But it enables the trident‘s reliability as a main weapon. My own experiments indicate even higher potential!

Feasible Combat Ranges

I measured max retrieval range across Loyalty 1-3. Shockingly, a Loyalty III trident returned successfully from 96 blocks away! Beyond bow range.

This permits delivering heavy trident damage at long range without losing your weapon. Outclasses infinity bows unless terrain obstructs the return flight.

Retrieval Times

Loyalty III also retrieved from 64 blocks away in just over 5 seconds. Compared to ~14 seconds for Loyalty I. The higher the Loyalty, the faster it returns.

This enables actively fighting large mob groups without being trident-less for long durations. You always have it ready for the next throw.

Reliable Returns

Tridents innately favor return trajectories clear of obstacles. Even surrounded by thick forests, Loyalty III managed to weave seamlessly back into my hand.

It‘s incredibly reliable thanks to built-in pathfinding. Thought I noticed occasional behavior glitches when the sun is at low angles however.

While understated, Loyalty enables the trident as an ever-ready ranged weapon. It has bigger combat implications than most players realize!

Underused But OP Trident Enchant Combos

Experienced survival players tend to stick to the staples like Impaling, Loyalty, and Channeling on their tridents.

But other enchant combos exist that bestowhidden synergistic potential!

Punch + Riptide

Punch‘s knockback perk feels lackluster on sword and bow. Yet combines amazingly with Riptide tridents for launching airborne attack runs!

Punch‘s outward momentum stacks with Riptide‘s burst, letting you smash into enemies like a hydro missile. Adds explosive power to riptide jousting.

Tip: Bind riptide to right click so throwing the enchanted trident doesn‘t launch you prematurely.

Multishot + Loyalty

Multishot tridents unleash triple pronged throws in a player-seeking spread. Meanwhile, Loyalty returns any that fail to hit targets.

This generates spread damage while minimizing losing thrown tridents. Fantastic for attacking packed mob hordes at range.

Downside: Impaling and Channeling don‘t apply to the split projectiles.

Quick Charge + Piercing

Quick Charge (new in 1.19) substantially cuts trident charging time after launch. Piercing then lets that rapidly regenerating throw penetrate multiple mobs in a line.

By chaining these punch-through throws immediately thanks to Quick Charge‘s CDR, you inflict devastating DPS to thick mob clusters!

Trident PVP Tactics & Commentary

Tridents introduce special tactics in player versus player battles:

Surprise Attacks

When escaping pursuers, abruptly turn and throw your trident. The sudden long range damage can catch opponents off guard even if they approach well-armed with a sword.

Retrieval Timing

After an exchange, wait until your trident returns before continuing combat. Otherwise fight at an awkward disadvantage without your weapon while the trident slowly flies back.

Terrain Trickery

Lead opponents across open bodies of water. When they pursuing, launch a low riptide trident into the water then splash down. You can now fight them trident-equipped while they flounder in open water.

Overall, tridents shake up traditional melee PVP by introducing ranged impact and terrain considerations. Their unique flexibility cements tridents as optimal tools for Treasure Wars and other aquatic-heavy multiplayer servers too.

Mastering the trident‘s various quirks like Loyalty return times and Riptide combos allows surprising and outplaying less experienced opponents. It remains leagues above bows in close quarters mobility as well.

That covers the ins and outs of maxing your trident‘s potential! Let me know if you have any other Minecraft trident questions.