# Loyalty Enchantment in Minecraft: What It Does and How to Use It

_Published October 16, 2026_

Loyalty brings a thrown trident back to your hand — but it's a hard conflict with Riptide, which never lets the trident leave at all.

Loyalty brings a thrown trident back to your hand instead of leaving it wherever it lands.

## What Loyalty actually does

After a thrown trident hits an entity, or 5 ticks (a quarter-second) after it hits a block, it starts flying back to whoever threw it. Higher levels make the return faster:

- **Loyalty I:** ~0.83 blocks/tick (~16.7 blocks/second)
- **Loyalty II:** ~1.67 blocks/tick (~33.3 blocks/second)
- **Loyalty III:** ~2.5 blocks/tick (~50 blocks/second)

## How to use it

Loyalty is the whole point of a trident you actually throw and expect back — without it, a thrown trident is gone for good unless you walk over and pick it up. It's a hard conflict with Riptide, which launches *you* forward with the trident the whole time instead of ever separating it from your hand — Loyalty's return mechanic would have nothing to do in that scenario, which is exactly why the game excludes the two together.

## Well-known builds that use it

Loyalty is the "throwing trident" half of [The Ideal Trident Enchantments](/guides/ideal-trident) — commonly paired with Channeling (which Loyalty does NOT conflict with) for a thunderstorm lightning effect, plus Impaling, Unbreaking, and Mending.

**Trident:** Loyalty III, Impaling V, Unbreaking III, Mending I

[Build the Loyalty Trident →](https://anvilcalc.com/#eyJpIjoidHJpZGVudCIsImUiOltdLCJwIjowLCJuIjoiIiwidCI6W1sibG95YWx0eSIsM10sWyJpbXBhbGluZyIsNV0sWyJ1bmJyZWFraW5nIiwzXSxbIm1lbmRpbmciLDFdXX0)

## Frequently asked questions

**Can Loyalty and Riptide go on the same trident?**

No — this is a hard, direct conflict in the game's enchantment data. Riptide launches you forward with the trident still in hand, so it's never actually thrown away from you, which makes Loyalty's fly-back effect meaningless.

**Can Loyalty and Channeling go on the same trident?**

Yes. Riptide is the only enchantment either of them conflicts with — Loyalty and Channeling don't exclude each other, so a throwing-trident build commonly runs both.

**How fast does a Loyalty III trident return?**

About 2.5 blocks per tick, roughly 50 blocks per second — more than 3× faster than Loyalty I's return speed.