Loyalty Enchantment: Trident Return Speed and the Void Trap

Loyalty makes a thrown trident fly back to you after it hits something. Higher levels bring it back faster: about 16.7 blocks per second at Loyalty I, 33.3 at II and 50 at III. It’s a trident-only enchantment with three levels, and it conflicts with Riptide.

Level	Return speed
I	~16.7 blocks/s
II	~33.3 blocks/s
III	~50 blocks/s

How the return works

The trident starts coming back the moment it hits a mob, or a quarter of a second after it sticks in a block. It flies straight to you through walls and mobs without hitting anything on the way.

• If your inventory is full, it circles you until you free a slot.
• If you change dimensions before it lands, it waits in the old dimension and resumes returning when you come back.
• If you die while it’s flying, it drops as a normal item.

The void trap (Java vs Bedrock)

On Java, throwing a Loyalty trident into the void loses it. It never touches a block or mob, so it never starts returning. Don’t fight the Ender Dragon over the edge of the island with your only trident.

On Bedrock, a trident that falls about 15 blocks into the void turns around and comes back.

Getting Loyalty

Loyalty rolls on the enchanting table for tridents, and books come from fishing, monster rooms, other chests and librarians in the default trades. The experimental Villager Trade Rebalance removes trident enchantments from librarians. On Java, since 1.21.2, drowned can spawn holding Loyalty tridents and use the enchantment themselves.

Getting the trident itself is the hard part; see how to get a trident.

Building a Loyalty trident

Loyalty makes the trident a real ranged weapon you never lose. Stack it with Impaling V, Channeling, Unbreaking III and Mending. Most players end up with two tridents: a Loyalty one for fighting and a Riptide one for travel. Our trident enchantment guide lays out both builds.