How to build a drowned trident farm in Minecraft 26.3, and why most of them never drop a trident

The trident is the only weapon in Minecraft you cannot craft, find in a chest, or trade for. It comes from one place: drowned that happen to be holding one. That makes a drowned farm the only reliable way to get tridents, and it is also where a lot of farm tutorials quietly fail.

The one rule this whole guide is built on: in Java Edition, a zombie that turns into a drowned keeps the equipment it had as a zombie. It does not get a trident. Only drowned that spawn naturally can hold one. So the popular design that converts zombies from a spawner into drowned produces rotten flesh, copper and XP, but never a trident. If you want tridents, you have to farm natural spawns.

Checked for: Minecraft 26.3, Java Edition (checked against the 26.3 changelog: drowned behavior did not change from 26.2). Odds below are the documented game values; your farm's actual output depends on spawn rate, which depends on your build and surroundings.

The numbers that decide everything

Multiply the first two lines and you get the number that matters:

• Without Looting: 6.25% × 8.5% ≈ 0.53%, about 1 trident per 188 drowned.
• With Looting III: 6.25% × 11.5% ≈ 0.72%, about 1 trident per 139 drowned.

That is why a trident farm is a volume farm. Looting III cuts the kills you need by about a quarter, so put it on the sword you use here before anything else.

The drop needs a player kill

Like other equipment drops, the trident only drops when the drowned is killed by you (or a tamed wolf). A farm that kills drowned with lava, magma or a long fall alone gives you copper and flesh, never the trident. That is the second reason so many trident farms "do not work": they are automatic.

The fix is the same one XP farms use: bring the drowned down to almost no health with fall damage, then finish them yourself. The mob grinder guide has the fall-damage maths.

Where drowned spawn

Drowned only spawn in specific conditions, and the farm is designed around them:

• In water, specifically in a water space 2 or more blocks tall. Shallow water does not work.
• In darkness: the water block needs light level 0, with a sky light of 7 or less.
• In river and ocean biomes. In oceans they only spawn below Y 58. Rivers do not have that height limit, which is why most trident farms are built in a river biome: you can build the spawning floors at a comfortable height without digging down.

They also count as hostile mobs, so they share the hostile mob cap with everything else spawning around you. Every dark cave and every patch of deep, dark water near your farm competes with it. The two jobs that raise your rate are the same as for any mob farm: light up or remove competing spawn spaces, and AFK in the right place.

How the farm works

The design has four parts. Build them in this order.

1. Spawning floors in a river biome

Find a river biome (press F3 to check) and build several stacked floors of water 2 blocks deep, fully roofed so no light reaches them. Wider floors mean more spawnable water. Keep every floor completely dark: a single glowing block or open side ruins the light level.

2. Flowing water to the center

Drowned that spawn on a floor need to be carried to a drop point. Lay the floors so flowing water pushes everything toward a central hole. Drowned swim, but a steady current still moves them, and the shape is the same one used in dark-room mob farms: a gentle push from every side toward the middle.

Keep the water out of the drop shaft. If the current pours down the hole, drowned fall through water and take no fall damage. Line the edge of the hole with signs: they hold water back but have no collision, so mobs pass straight through them and fall.

3. A drop shaft to bring them to 1 health

From the central hole, drowned fall down a dry shaft into a small kill area. A drowned has 20 health, and fall damage is roughly one point per block fallen beyond the first three, so a drop of about 22 blocks leaves them on 1 health. Check the exact height against the mob grinder guide; too short and you are sword-fighting, too long and they die before you can claim the kill.

4. Kill area and collection

At the bottom, drowned land in a space where you can hit them but they cannot reach you, typically through a gap at foot level. Hoppers under the floor feed a chest. You strike every drowned yourself, with a Looting III sword, so every kill is a player kill and every trident-holder gets its 11.5% roll.

AFK placement

Hostile mobs spawn between 24 and 128 blocks from you, and those beyond 128 blocks despawn instantly. Stand so that your spawning floors are more than 24 blocks away but well inside 128, and so that as little other dark space as possible sits within that sphere. In practice that means AFKing near the kill area at the bottom, with the floors far enough above you.

Why conversion farms are still worth knowing

Turning zombies into drowned (a zombie whose head stays underwater for 30 seconds starts converting, and becomes a drowned 15 seconds later) is a legitimate farm. It just farms the wrong thing for this goal:

• Good for: rotten flesh, copper ingots (11% per kill, 17% with Looting III) and XP from a zombie spawner you already have.
• Useless for: tridents. The converted drowned keep the zombie's equipment, and zombies never carry tridents.

If you already run a zombie spawner XP farm, adding a conversion step is a cheap source of copper. Just do not build it expecting tridents.

Common mistakes

• Building a conversion farm for tridents. It will never drop one. Natural spawns only.
• Killing drowned automatically. No player kill, no trident drop.
• Water only 1 block deep. Drowned need 2 or more.
• Light leaking in. One gap in the roof or a light-emitting block, and that floor stops spawning.
• Building in an ocean above Y 58. Nothing spawns there. Use a river, or build lower.
• Skipping Looting. It is the single cheapest improvement to your trident rate.

Java vs Bedrock

Everything above is Java Edition. Drowned equipment and drop rules differ on Bedrock, so a Java trident farm design does not transfer directly. See Java farms on Bedrock for which farm mechanics carry over between editions.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my drowned farm not dropping tridents?

Usually one of two reasons: the drowned were converted from zombies, which never hold tridents in Java, or they were killed by the farm instead of by you. Tridents only drop from naturally spawned drowned killed by a player or tamed wolf.

What is the trident drop chance in Minecraft?

A naturally spawned drowned holds a trident 6.25% of the time, and drops it 8.5% of the time when killed by a player, plus 1% per Looting level. Overall that is about 1 trident per 188 drowned without Looting, and 1 per 139 with Looting III.

Do drowned from zombies drop tridents?

No, not in Java Edition. A zombie that converts into a drowned keeps whatever it was holding, and zombies do not carry tridents.

Where is the best place to build a drowned farm?

A river biome. Drowned in oceans only spawn below Y 58, while rivers have no such limit, so you can build the spawning floors at a convenient height.

Does Looting help with tridents?

Yes. Each level adds 1% to the trident drop chance, from 8.5% to 11.5% at Looting III, which reduces the kills needed by about a quarter.

Did 26.3 change drowned?

Not in the release. A 26.3 snapshot changed how trident-holding drowned attack at close range, but it was reverted before 26.3 shipped.

Related farms

This guide is part of our Minecraft farm guides collection. If you want XP alongside the tridents, the same fall-and-finish idea powers the XP farm and the dark-room mob farm. And once tridents are sorted, the next upgrade most players chase is Mending from villagers.