What Does Channeling Do in Minecraft and How to Use It?

Channeling is one of those Minecraft enchantments that just makes your playthrough so much more fun as it puts the power of lightning in your hands.

But what does Channeling do in Minecraft, and how to use it? Essentially, it strikes your enemies with lightning once you hit them with a trident.

Keep reading as we tell you how to get it and use it effectively!

What Is the Channeling Enchantment in Minecraft?

Channeling is a trident-exclusive weapon enchantment that summons a lightning bolt under specific game conditions. However, while it transforms your trident into a formidable and effective weapon against a group of enemies, it still has certain limitations. 

Also, in addition to its primary effect and increased weapon damage, Channeling has the same effect on mobs as lightning: it changes the form of certain enemies.

Where Can You Get the Channeling Enchantment?

To get the Channeling enchantment in Minecraft, you first have to obtain a trident, which cannot be crafted and is a rare drop in itself.

Currently, only Drowned mobs drop tridents, and they can be found in the game’s caves, rivers, and oceans. Moreover, they only have a 15% chance of spawning with it, and they will drop their trident only in 15% of all cases where they die.

Once you find a trident, you can apply the Channeling enchantment via an Enchantment Table. If you don’t get the desired results, you can also apply Channeling by combining the corresponding Enchanted Book with the trident via an anvil.

Note: You can get a Channeling Enchanted Book by fishing, trading with librarian villagers, looting it from chests, or picking it up in raid drops in the Bedrock Edition.

How Does the Channeling Enchantment Work?

Basically, a Channeling-enchanted trident produces a lightning bolt when you throw it and hit an enemy or a lightning rod with it.

However, you can use a Channeling trident in Minecraft only during a thunderstorm and while standing outside under the rain. The lighting also creates a fire in a small area around the struck mob, potentially damaging other nearby enemies.

Note: Channeling tridents can be used to get two Minecrafty advancements: ‘Surge Protector’ by throwing the trident at a lightning rod with a nearby village, and ‘Very Very Frightening’ by directing a lightning bolt to strike a villager.

Limitations of the Channeling Enchantment

Before wasting time getting a trident and imbuing it with Channeling just to find out you can’t use it everywhere, let’s review the limitations that apply to this enchantment:

• You can only use it in the open and during a thunderstorm;
• Mobs will not be affected if they are standing on water, lava, powder snow, cobweb, sound sand, honey block, minecart, or a boat (only in the Java Edition);
• Riptide and Channeling cannot be applied on the same trident;
• If you apply both via a command, Riptide will always take priority.
• Channeling cannot be upgraded as it maxes out at Level 1.

Note: Even if you cannot summon lightning on certain tiles in the Java Edition, you can still affect an enemy mob by producing it through a nearby tile, such as an armor stand.

Mobs Affected by the Channeling Enchantment

Since lightning transforms certain mobs into a different mob type, you can use a Channeling trident to apply the same effect on the following enemies:

Note: Once you throw the trident, you’ll have to pick it up again unless you also add the Loyalty enchantment, which returns your trident to you!

Bottom Line

Channeling is a powerful and fun-to-use enchantment as it strikes your enemies with a lightning bolt when you throw your trident at them. However, you can only use it while outside and during a thunderstorm. Like lightning, Channeling also affects mobs, such as charging creepers, turning villagers into witches, and changing the color of mooshrooms.