Quick answer
The Sift is playable right now in Minecraft Dungeons II, which launched on September 29, 2026, and it is the only place you can visit the dimension today — Minecraft Java & Bedrock Edition doesn't get it until 2027. Mojang's own line is to "step through the rift": the dimension is entered through rifts, and it turns up early in Dungeons II rather than at the end of the game.
Dungeons II and the Sift at a glance
| Game | Minecraft Dungeons II |
|---|---|
| Released | September 29, 2026 |
| Platforms | Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Steam, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2 |
| Game Pass | Included; Xbox Play Anywhere covers console and PC at no extra cost |
| How you enter | Rifts (Mojang's own wording) |
| When it appears | The opening stages — the Sift is part of the main story |
| Officially named areas | Meadows and Carapace |
| Also confirmed | New mobs (companions and threats), shifting tides, hazardous new blocks |
| Still unannounced | Exact portal mechanics, mob stats, boss details, how the Minecraft version will differ |
How you reach the Sift
Mojang's description of getting there is deliberately simple, and it's the sentence they put on the game itself:
Step through the rift and fight where no hero has been before: the Sift, an uncharted dimension teeming with threats, mysteries, and breathtaking beauty.
So rifts are the official entry point — that wording comes from Mojang, not from players. What exactly a rift looks like in-game, where they spawn, and whether they behave the same way every time are things Mojang hasn't detailed.
Community-recorded (not officially confirmed): players documenting Dungeons II have recorded that the Sift is reached through the Deep Dark portal using a Note Block Machine, and that Grand Illusioner's staff can also create dimensional rifts. Those specifics come from community wiki documentation and an official tie-in novel rather than from Mojang's own announcements — treat them as player-recorded detail that may be revised.
When the Sift shows up
Not at the end. Mojang describes the Sift as something you stumble into early: in the opening stages of Dungeons II, players realise "something is amiss" — strange events begin to upend the natural order of the Overworld, new enemy types appear, and souls begin to fly through the world. That's your first contact with the dimension.
Community-recorded: the achievement tied to the finale is named COMPLETE_THE_CORE_QUEST ("Defender of Dimensions — Save the Overworld and the Sift"), which suggests the Sift is central to the game's closing act as well as its opening. That inference comes from achievement data, not from Mojang.
What's inside the Sift
What Mojang has confirmed:
- New mobs, both companions and threats — Mojang describes them as all unique, and notes that some of the Sift's inhabitants are friendly
- Shifting tides, which "can affect your character and those around you"
- Hazardous new blocks that will "alter how you approach exploration"
- New biomes, including Meadows and Carapace — the word "including" is Mojang's, and they've said other areas are being kept secret for players to discover
Mojang has also described the dimension's look: a colourful palette of red and orange stone with green vegetation and sculk, deliberately unlike the Nether's lava or the End's void.
Community-recorded (not officially confirmed): community documentation lists six named locations — Lullaby Hills, Lullaby Hilltop, Illager Stronghold, Singer's Meadow, The Carapace and Echo Den — plus three Sift tides (Flow, Endure and Thrive) that affect soul gathering and movement, a passive mob roster, a hostile roster split into Sifters and Sculkers, and three achievements. This documentation is still being compiled and revised.
We're deliberately not printing a boss list. Community sources disagree with each other on the Sift's bosses: the wiki's own introduction names Monarch, Sculk Monstrosity and Harmonizer, while its boss section lists Soul Corrupted Dartback and Soul Corrupted Harmonizer and files Dartback and Harmonizer as minibosses. Early gameplay coverage names yet another combination. Publishing a definitive boss list right now would mean guessing — so we're waiting until the in-game encounter can be verified.
What Dungeons II tells us about the 2027 Minecraft dimension
Dungeons II is a preview, and Mojang says so directly: if you want a taste of how the Sift will work, play Dungeons II. That's where its mobs, blocks and biomes show up first.
What it does not tell you is how the Sift will work in Minecraft itself. Mojang has confirmed the dimension arrives in Java & Bedrock Edition in 2027, but they've been explicit that they aren't talking much about how players will access it, or how the Minecraft version will differ from Dungeons II's expression of it. Anything you read about a Sift portal in vanilla Minecraft is speculation. For the main-game picture, see our What is the Sift? and release date pages.