Trident Enchant Order

The order in words

Get all 5 books ready before you start, and keep at least 9 levels on hand. Then follow these steps on an anvil:

• Step 1: Put the trident in the left slot and the Impaling V book in the right. Neither side has been on an anvil yet, so you only pay for the enchantments: 5 levels.
• Step 2: Merge the Channeling book with the Unbreaking III book, the first one on the left. Neither side has been on an anvil yet, so you only pay for the enchantments: 3 levels.
• Step 3: Put the trident (now with Impaling V) in the left slot and the Channeling + Unbreaking III book in the right. You pay 7 levels for the enchantments plus 2 for prior work, so 9 in total.
• Step 4: Merge the Loyalty III book with the Mending book, the first one on the left. Neither side has been on an anvil yet, so you only pay for the enchantments: 2 levels.
• Step 5: Put the trident (now with Channeling + Impaling V + Unbreaking III) in the left slot and the Loyalty III + Mending book in the right. You pay 5 levels for the enchantments plus 4 for prior work, so 9 in total. That finishes the trident.

Why this order is the cheapest

Each repair or enchantment combination increases prior work. Rename-only operations do not. So the order keeps the penalties low by merging books with each other in pairs. With 5 books, the trident needs at least 3 rounds on the anvil, and this order uses exactly that many.

The first step puts Impaling V straight on the trident for 5 levels. It is the dearest book in the build, so it goes on while the item has no penalty at all. The expensive books, Impaling V and Channeling, cost 5 and 4 levels on their own, so the order adds them while their penalty is still low. Cheap books like Mending can ride along later, when the penalty has grown.

Impaling V still goes on the bare trident first, but only just: at 5 levels it barely beats Channeling's 4. Channeling then pairs with Unbreaking, and Loyalty pairs with Mending for the last step.

Building a Riptide trident instead? Riptide replaces both Loyalty and Channeling, so that order has one book fewer.

Levels and experience

The full order costs 28 levels. If you do each step as soon as you have its levels, you spend about 368 experience points. Saving up to level 28 first would take 1186 points, because each level costs more XP the higher you climb. So enchant in small batches and keep your levels low. The XP calculator converts any level into points.

After the last step the trident has been on the anvil 3 times. Its prior work penalty is now 7, so a later repair or rename starts at that cost. Check a single step with the prior work penalty calculator.

If you skip a book

You don't need every book on day one. Leaving out Impaling V saves the most: the rest costs 19 levels instead of 28.

No Mending yet? Enchant the rest now for 23 levels, then add Mending later for 9 more. That is 32 levels in all, against 28 if you wait and do it in one go. The extra cost is small, so using the item early is usually worth it.

If your trident was on an anvil before

A used trident costs more, because the anvil adds its prior work penalty to every step it is in:

Many players start from a trident that already has Unbreaking III from the enchanting table. In that case the other 4 books cost 21 levels in 4 steps, because a table enchant adds no prior work penalty.

Enter your own item's enchantments and uses in the calculator.

Java and Bedrock costs

Bedrock charges only the levels an enchantment gains. So if your trident already has Loyalty II, adding a Loyalty III book costs 1 level here. Java charges the full resulting level, so the same step costs 3 there. Merging two Loyalty II books into one III costs 1 in Bedrock and 3 in Java.

For a fresh trident with one book per enchantment, no enchantment gains a level twice, so both rules give the same step costs. Bedrock charges 1 level per Impaling level from a book, half the Java price, which makes this trident cheaper than its Java twin. Bedrock also charges nothing for a clashing enchantment on a book, while Java adds 1 level for each.

The books in this order

Channeling, Impaling V, Loyalty III, Unbreaking III, Mending. Not sure which books to get? The best trident enchantments page explains each one and where to find it. If the anvil refuses a step, read Too Expensive! for the fixes. The anvil guide covers repairs and renaming.

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