Trident

"If you don't want to throw it away permanently, then you should invest in Loyalty. This common enchantment makes your trident come back to you. Riptide, which makes you lunge with your trident when you throw it (as long as you're in water, or it's raining) is also well worth seeking out!"

- Tom Stone

A trident is a spear-like weapon that can be used in melee or ranged combat.

Obtaining
Tridents are not craftable; they can only be obtained via the methods below.

Drowned
15% of drowned in Bedrock Edition, and 6.25% in Java Edition, will spawn with a trident of random durability as their natural weapon, and they have an 8.5% chance of dropping the trident (increasing by 1% with each level of Looting). Drowned can also drop a trident as one of its normal drops. The trident has a 3.7% chance, 4% chance with Looting I, 4.3% chance with Looting II, and 4.7% chance with Looting III of dropping itself.

In Bedrock Edition and Console, a zombie can be converted to a drowned with a trident that can be dropped. In the Java Editions, only naturally-spawned drowned can spawn with a trident or have a chance of dropping one.

Thrown tridents
Tridents thrown onto the ground by the player can be picked up, similarly to a fired arrow. However, as with arrows fired by skeletons and strays, tridents thrown by drowned cannot be picked up.

Drowned
15% of drowned in Bedrock Edition, and 6.25% in Java Edition, will spawn with a trident as its natural weapon and it will use it to attack its target. It will throw the trident at its opponent every 1.5 seconds, dealing damage. There is no limit to the number of times a drowned can throw its trident.

A villager can be turned into a zombie villager if it is killed by a trident thrown by a drowned: the chance of conversion is 0% on Easy difficulty, 50% on Normal and 100% on Hard and Hardcore.

In Bedrock Edition, a drowned can use the trident's melee attack if its target is within three blocks. The melee attack deals damage.

A trident dropped by a drowned will never be enchanted.

Melee attack
Pressing while holding a trident will damage both mobs and players. In Java Edition, tridents deal more base melee damage than an unenchanted diamond sword. In Bedrock Edition, tridents deal more base melee damage.

Ranged attack
Pressing and holding while holding a trident will charge the trident. When released at full charge, the trident will be thrown and deal damage to the entity that it hits, if any. It flies on a ballistic trajectory similar to that of an arrow, but at 80% strength. If the trident hits a block, it will stick to the block, and if it hits an entity, it will bounce and land nearby. It is also blocked by shields, and can be retrieved once it lands in the ground. Thrown tridents can press wooden buttons and pressure plates.

Tridents enchanted with Loyalty will return to the thrower within seconds, with shorter recovery intervals at higher levels of enchantment. However, throwing a Loyalty-enchanted trident into the Void will destroy it. Players should therefore exercise caution when using ranged trident attacks against the ender dragon and other mobs in the End.

Tridents enchanted with Riptide cannot be thrown.

Unlike other projectiles, the trident does not slow down when thrown through water.

The Impaling enchantment will affect players and all water mobs, except for drowned.

Damage
Thrown tridents deal damage, which is reduced to  damage for players wearing full diamond armor with projectile protection. The damage remains constant regardless of the trident's speed.

Java Edition
Tridents have an attack speed of 1.1 and take ~0.91 seconds to recover.

Legacy Console Edition and Bedrock Edition
In the Legacy Console and Bedrock editions, tridents have no attack cooldown and do the following damage:

Elytra
A trident with the Riptide enchantment can be used to propel the elytra, but only in rainy weather or while the player is in a body of water.

Enchantments
Tridents can receive the following enchantments:


 * Loyalty (Max III) &mdash; a thrown trident returns to the player after a few seconds
 * Channeling (Max I) &mdash; a thrown trident hitting a mob during a thunderstorm summons a lightning bolt
 * Riptide (Max III) &mdash; throwing a trident when in water or rain transports (throws) the player
 * Impaling (Max V) &mdash; deals extra melee or ranged damage to living aquatic mobs (not drowned)
 * Unbreaking(Max III) &mdash; increases durability (Max III)
 * Mending (Max I) &mdash; when trident is held, XP orbs collected will repair it rather than increase the player's XP.
 * Curse of Vanishing (Max I) &mdash; trident disappears upon player's death

Repairing
Tridents have the same durability as an iron sword. Upon damaging a mob or player, the trident's durability will decrease by 1.

Tridents can be repaired by combining a damaged trident with another on an anvil, by crafting, or the Mending enchantment. Combining damaged tridents with a crafting table or the 2×2 inventory grid will remove any enchantments.

Entity data
Tridents have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the entity.

Trivia

 * If Sharpness is applied to a trident using anvils in creative mode or commands, the trident's ranged damage will be increased as well as its melee damage.
 * If a player throws a Loyalty-enchanted trident and the player's inventory subsequently fills, the trident will hover around or through the player's skin until an inventory slot opens, which it will immediately fill. Multiple tridents can be 'queued' to re-enter the player's inventory in this manner.
 * In creative mode, sword enchantments can be applied to tridents. This includes Sharpness, Smite, Bane of Arthropods, Fire Aspect, and Looting. Sharpness, Smite, and Bane of Arthropods increases their damage against their specific mobs in ranged, as well.
 * Using Riptide on land propels a player longer distances than underwater.
 * Using Riptide in closely packed mobs will deal a splash damage. It is unknown if this is a bug.