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This post was last updated on April 1, 2026
The Impaling enchantment causes tridents to inflict more damage on aquatic mobs, making you a master of the seas. The caveat is, this enchantment can only be applied to tridents, which are pretty rare to come across.
This guide explains everything you need to know about the Impaling enchantment. We’ll explain how to find it, how to apply it to items, and where you can find those precious tridents.
How Does Impaling Work In Minecraft?
An enchanted trident with Impaling will cause extra damage to aquatic enemies. This enchantment only works on tridents, which are found by killing drowned mobs (we’ll explain this in more detail later).
The points of extra damage increase by 2.5 per level of Impaling enchantment. So at level 1, it adds 2.5 damage, at the maximum level of 5 it adds 12.5 extra damage.
In Bedrock edition Impaling also dishes out extra damage to any type of mob if they are in the water. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Minecraft Java Edition, where the enchantment affects only aquatic mobs.
What are the Aquatic Mobs affected by Impaling?
Here is a list of mobs that are classified as aquatic mobs. These sea creatures all take extra damage from an Impaling enchanted trident.
Underwater Mobs Affected by Impaling:
- Axolotl
- Baby turtles
- Cod
- Dolphin
- Elder Guardians
- Glow Squids
- Pufferfish
- Salmon
- Squid
- Tadpole
- Tropical fish
- Turtles
You might expect drowned mobs to count as aquatic. While you will find a drowned zombie mob that lives underwater, these actually count as undead mobs or zombie mobs rather than aquatic.
How To Get The Impaling Minecraft Enchantment
The easiest way to enchant a trident with Impaling is via an enchanting table.
Simply:
- Build an enchanting table.
- Load it up with your trident and some lapis lazuli
- Click one of the enchantment options that provide impaling.
You will need one piece of lapis for each of the enchantment levels you wish to use.
Besides using enchanting tables, you can also find an enchanted book imbued with impaling. These can be found in raids, strongholds, dungeon chests, or trading with librarian villagers.
If you find a book you’ll need to apply the Impaling enchantment through an anvil instead. You can craft an anvil using four iron ingots and three iron blocks.
Other Enchantments for tridents
You can also enchant tridents with Loyalty or Riptide.
Loyalty makes the trident return to the player automatically after being thrown.
Riptide will launch the player a certain distance in the direction they throw the trident. This only works underwater or when it is raining. Loyalty and Riptide are mutually exclusive.
How to get Tridents in Minecraft
Tridents are a powerful weapon that is only dropped by a type of undead mob called the drowned. Unfortunately, tridents can’t be crafted. These are super powerful, and enable both melee and ranged attacks from one weapon.
Where to find drowned mobs
You can find drowned mobs in any underwater area where the light level is below 0. They have a higher chance of spawning in rivers and dripstone caves.
Ocean Ruins and Ocean Monuments also have a higher chance of spawning drowned mobs.
Standard zombies can also be converted into drowned if they spend 30 seconds completely submerged in water. This only works for standard zombies, and not Piglins, zombie villagers, or baby zombies.
Getting the trident from a drowned enemy
You will see some drowned mobs carrying tridents. In the Bedrock Edition, the drowned have a 15% chance of spawning with a trident in their hand. Killing a drowned mob carrying a trident gives an 8.5% chance of dropping it.
You’ll want a water-breathing potion so you can spend enough time underground and kill a large number of drowned mob enemies before you have to return to the surface. Alternatively, a helmet enchanted with Respiration also provides longer underwater breathing time.
Conclusion
Now you know how Impaling works in Minecraft! Any trident with impaling attached will make light work of any aquatic mob.
FAQs
Is impaling a good enchantment?
Impaling is a pretty good enchantment for tridents! It’s one of the only options they have and will let you slay underwater mobs much faster.
What is Minecraft impaling?
The impaling enchantment in Minecraft is a buff for tridents that causes them to do extra damage to any aquatic mob. This is available in either survival or creative game modes. If you want to hit squids with more damage, impaling is the way to go.
Does impaling only work in water?
Yes, in most cases Impaling only works in water. However, in the bedrock edition of Minecraft, it applies extra damage to any mobs that are in the water. So you can activate the effect without needing to be underwater.
