Minecraft 1.19: What does the channeling enchantment do?

Lightning is an exciting feature in Minecraft. Able to start massive fires, transform mobs into other mobs, and even fill creepers with more explosive power than several blocks of TNT, it is undoubtedly one of the most potent forces in the game.

But is it possible to harness this power in any controllable way? The addition of lightning rods with copper has added a rough way to do so, but another way offers much finer control over the elements: the channeling enchantment.

All about the channeling enchantment in Minecraft 1.19

What channeling can be placed on

A trident drowned attacking a player through a wall (Image via Minecraft)

Channeling is one of Minecraft’s many trident-exclusive enchantments, joining the likes of riptide, loyalty, and impaling. Channeling is compatible with loyalty and impaling, allowing the trident to return faster, deal more damage to aquatic mobs, and call down lightning.

How to get trident

A trident drowned in the ocean (Image via Minecraft)

Tridents are, unfortunately, uncraftable. They can only be acquired from drowned. And only naturally spawned drowned at that. This means users cannot convert husks or zombies into drowned to get tridents.

Naturally spawning drowned have to be holding the trident to have a chance at dropping one, and there are double stacking low odds for players to get one.

The first percentage chance they experience is the odds of a drowned spawning with a trident at all. This is a 15% chance for Bedrock gamers and a 6.25% chance for Java Edition ones.

The next percentage chance is the chance for the drowned to actually drop their trident. This percentage chance is shared between both Minecraft versions and is 8.5%. However, it can rise by one percent per level of looting readers have, up to a maximum of 11.5% chance.

An interesting note is that drowned can have enchanted tridents, but the enchantment on the trident does not apply to them, and they will attack with the abilities and statistics of a normal trident.

What channeling does

Channeling allows players to channel electricity. This is implemented in-game by enabling them to call down bolts of lightning on the location their trident strikes the ground.

The only limiting factor of this ability is that it only functions when there is a thunderstorm. This means that there is electricity in the air already that users can pull down with the trident.

Thunderstorms are one of the game’s weather events and the rarest. They happen once every three hours on average, so gamers will need to act quickly to make the most of the events when they occur.

What channeling can be used for

A charged creeper, created with lightning (Image via Minecraft)

There are a few main draws of the channeling enchantment. The ability to create lightning at a precise location is handy for players wanting to get large amounts of mob heads.

Lightning can convert normal creepers into charged creepers, which will cause mobs to drop their heads when they are killed in a charged creeper explosion.

Lightning can also convert villagers into witches and pigs into zombified piglins.

Channeling incompatibilities

A user layer spinning through the air using riptide (Image via Minecraft)

There is one primary and vital enchantment that channeling is incompatible with, i.e., riptide.

The riptide enchantment allows gamers to fling themselves with the trident for long distances, so long as they begin in water. Riptide also enables them to fly infinitely so long as it is raining.

Because the riptide enchantment stops the trident from leaving the user’s hand, channeling is incompatible with it, as it would cause players to strike themselves with lightning in thunderstorms.