You’re swimming through a murky ocean ravine, the bubbles from your magma block are the only thing keeping you alive, and suddenly you hear that rhythmic gurgle. You know the one. Then, out of the darkness, a riptide-fast projectile whistles past your head. It’s a Drowned, and he’s holding the one weapon every player craves but almost nobody knows how to farm efficiently.
Learning how to get tridents in Minecraft Bedrock is a rite of passage. It's frustrating. It's tedious. It's also completely different from how the Java Edition players do it, which is where most people get tripped up. If you've been watching YouTube tutorials meant for PC players and wondering why your drop rates are abysmal, you're likely fighting a losing battle against the game's code.
The Brutal Reality of Drowned Spawns
In Bedrock Edition, the math is weird. Honestly, it’s a bit of a headache. In Java, only Drowned that naturally spawn with a trident can drop one. But in Bedrock? Any Drowned that spawns holding a trident has a chance to drop it. This sounds like a win, right? Well, it’s a double-edged sword because the spawn rates are governed by global mob caps that can get filled up by a stray zombie in a cave a hundred blocks away.
You need to find an ocean monument or a deep ocean cold biome. That’s the sweet spot. If you’re just hanging out in a river, you’ll see Drowned, sure, but the trident-wielding variants are rarer there. Basically, the game checks for a "Drowned" spawn, and then it rolls a metaphorical die to see if that Drowned gets a tool. In Bedrock, about 6.25% of Drowned spawn with a trident. That’s low. If you're unlucky, you could kill a hundred of them and come home with nothing but rotten flesh and a copper ingot you didn't even want.
Why Converting Zombies Doesn't Work Anymore
Back in the day, there was this legendary "glitch" or feature—depending on who you ask—where you could take a regular Zombie, drown it until it transformed, and it would magically drop a trident. That is dead. Mojang patched that out years ago. If you convert a Zombie into a Drowned now, it will never, under any circumstances, drop a trident unless it was already holding one as a Zombie (which is basically impossible for tridents). Don't waste your time building a standard zombie-spawner-to-drowned converter if the trident is your only goal. You have to hunt the natural-born killers.
The Looting III Factor
If you aren't using the Looting III enchantment, you are basically playing on hard mode for no reason. Without Looting, your chance of a trident dropping from a Drowned that is actually holding one is roughly 8.5%. That's tiny. With Looting III, that percentage jumps up to 11.5%.
Does 3% sound small? In the world of RNG (random number generation), that’s a massive leap.
It’s about the "grind efficiency." You've gotta understand that how to get tridents in Minecraft Bedrock isn't just about finding the mob; it's about maximizing the kill. If you're using a standard diamond sword with no enchantments, you're going to be swimming in circles for hours. Get your enchantment table out. Grind the lapis. It matters.
Dealing with Durability
Here’s the kicker: when you finally get that drop, it’s probably going to be broken. Like, "one-hit-away-from-shattering" broken. Tridents in Bedrock drop with random durability. This is why you should never hunt for one until you have a Mending book or at least another trident to combine it with in an anvil.
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- Mending: The gold standard.
- Anvil combining: Risky, because it gets expensive in levels.
- Grindstone: Good for XP, but it won't fix your tool.
Building a Bedrock-Specific Trident Farm
If you’re serious, stop swimming and start building. You need a platform over a deep ocean. Because Bedrock handles mob spawning based on "surface" and "cave" caps, you want to build your kill chamber in a way that forces the game to spawn Drowned on a specific floor.
Most players use a "funnel" system. You create a large dark room over the ocean with water streams pushing mobs toward a central hole. At the bottom? A trident killer. Ironically, you need a trident to make a trident killer. It’s a bit of a "chicken and the egg" problem. If you don't have one yet, use a fall-damage pit or a soul sand elevator to bring them up to a killing platform where you can whack them manually with your Looting III sword.
The Leaf Block Trick
Did you know Drowned won't spawn on leaves? If you're building a farm and want to maximize the "surface" spawns, cover the surrounding areas with leaves or glass. Bedrock spawning logic is finicky. It looks for the highest solid block. If you manipulate the environment so the only "valid" spot is inside your trap, the game has no choice but to hand over the goods.
Understanding the Riptide and Loyalty Conflict
Once you actually get the thing, don't just slap every enchantment on it. This is a common mistake. You have to choose a path.
- The Lightning God: Channeling and Loyalty. This is for the players who want to summon lightning during thunderstorms and have the trident fly back to their hand.
- The Human Cannonball: Riptide. This enchantment lets you launch yourself through the air when it's raining or when you're standing in water.
You cannot have both. If you put Riptide on a trident, Loyalty and Channeling become incompatible. I’ve seen so many players waste a rare Riptide III book on a trident they wanted to throw, only to realize they now have to go fetch it from the bottom of a ravine every time they toss it.
The Stealth Buffs of the Trident
Let’s talk about why you’re doing this anyway. It’s not just for the flex. In Bedrock, the trident is a powerhouse for underwater combat, obviously, but it’s also a top-tier ranged weapon. A trident with Impaling V deals massive extra damage to any mob that is "in water."
Wait, here is the secret: In Bedrock Edition, "in water" includes mobs that are just standing in the rain.
That is a huge distinction from Java Edition. If it’s raining outside, your Impaling V trident is basically a railgun against Endermen, Creepers, or whatever else is bothering you. It makes the grind of how to get tridents in Minecraft Bedrock actually worth the headache.
Practical Steps to Take Right Now
Stop aimlessly swimming. If you want that trident before the sun sets on your next gaming session, follow this workflow. It works. I've used it on countless realms.
First, go find a Ruined Portal or a Shipwreck. You need gold and iron to get your gear up to snuff. Don't go trident hunting with stone tools. You’ll die. The Drowned have incredible aim and they don't have to worry about oxygen.
Second, craft some Doors. It sounds stupid, but in Bedrock, placing a door underwater creates a 2-block high air pocket. This is your "reloading station." When you're being swarmed by four Drowned and your bubbles are low, hide in the door. They can't pathfind through it easily, and you can recover your health.
Third, look for the "glow." Drowned that hold tridents actually emit a tiny bit of light or at least are more visible because of the item's texture. If you see a group, target the one with the fork first. Use a shield. Seriously. A shield blocks 100% of the incoming trident damage. Without one, two hits will send you back to your bed.
Finally, once you get that drop, do not throw it until you have Loyalty. Just don't. You will lose it in a tree or a deep lake, and you’ll be right back at square one, cursing the RNG gods. Secure the trident, get to an anvil, and make it permanent. The ocean is yours once you have the fork, but until then, you're just fish food.