Understand Channeling
Useful when…
- Striking entities with lightning during thunderstorms
- Transforming eligible mobs with lightning
- Summoning lightning at a sky-visible lightning rod during a thunderstorm
Activation conditions
Channeling is a level I enchantment for tridents. For an entity hit, the trident must hit while a thunderstorm is occurring and the struck entity must have sky visibility. For a lightning-rod hit, the rod must see the sky and a thunderstorm must be occurring. A valid lightning-rod strike can summon lightning that affects nearby mobs even when they could not themselves trigger a direct strike. [mc-5:record, mc-5:reading]
What the lightning enables
Lightning can transform creepers into charged creepers, pigs into zombified piglins, villagers into witches, and mooshrooms into brown mooshrooms. Turtles struck by lightning are killed and drop a bowl. Some conditions, including being in water or lava, powder snow, or a cobweb, can prevent a direct lightning summon on a mob. Lightning summoned by another valid hit nearby can still affect such a mob. [mc-5:reading]
Limits and equipment choice
Channeling applies to tridents and is incompatible with Riptide. Its lightning requires a thunderstorm and the appropriate sky visibility, making it situational. The reading reports an occasional bug in which lightning fails to deliver its expected additional damage tick. [mc-5:record, mc-5:reading]
Limitations and tradeoffs
- Lightning depends on thunderstorm conditions and sky visibility.
- It offers lightning effects and conditional damage rather than a constant bonus.
- It cannot be combined with Riptide in normal use.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Expecting Channeling to activate outside a thunderstorm.
- Assuming every entity hit must itself have open sky, including when a sky-visible lightning rod is struck nearby.
- Treating lightning damage's additional tick as guaranteed.
- Combining Channeling with Riptide.