The Sift - The New Minecraft Dimension

Four dimensions

The Overworld, the Nether, the End … and the Sift

The trailer put all four side by side. You know three of them. The fourth took Mojang fifteen years to greenlight.

Blocky green Overworld landscape under a blue sky — The Overworld

Blocky red Nether cavern with lava glow — The Nether

Dark End dimension with obsidian pillars and pale end stone — The End

The Sift: teal sky fading into a coral-pink landscape — The Sift

Start here

What is The Sift?

The Sift is Minecraft's fourth dimension, sitting next to the Overworld, the Nether and the End. Mojang pulled the curtain at Minecraft LIVE on September 26, 2026, though sharp-eyed players had already spotted it in Gamescom footage a few weeks earlier.

It does not look like the dimensions you know. Flat teal sky, coral-pink blocks stacked into bushes and towers, a red-pink ground, pale rock wrapped in green. Souls float around, small blue creatures hop between the plants, and every few metres there is a pool of a warm, thick liquid called ichor. My first thought watching the trailer: it looks peaceful, which is exactly what makes the ichor unsettling.

In Dungeons II the Sift is where the trouble starts. Odd things happen in the Overworld, new enemies turn up, souls start drifting through the world. The Illagers went in to strip the dimension of its resources and its souls, and it is your job to push them back out.

One detail I like: the disease behind corrupted sculk started here, yet healthy sculk still grows in the Sift. Also worth knowing, Mojang's internal name for the dimension was Wellspring, and you could read it for a few days in the title of the first gameplay trailer before someone renamed it.

What you can actually count on for Minecraft itself is thin: one mob, the Blub, plus a batch of new healthy sculk blocks. Everything else on this page comes from Dungeons II. Some of it will make the jump in 2027. Some of it certainly will not.

The newest Minecraft dimension isn't just finding its home in Dungeons II, it'll also be coming to Minecraft Java & Bedrock Edition next year.
Mojang Studios, Minecraft Live recap, September 26, 2026

The short version

+Fourth dimension after Overworld, Nether and End.
+Playable in Dungeons II since September 29, 2026, out now.
+In Minecraft some time in 2027, no exact date yet.
+Two biomes named: the Meadows and the Carapace.
+One mob confirmed for vanilla: the Blub.
+Three Sift tides (Thrive, Endure, Flow) change soul gathering, cooldowns and mob strength.
+Access unknown for vanilla. The Deep Dark portal is the obvious candidate.

The landscapes

Biomes of the Sift

Mojang named two biomes: the Meadows and the Carapace. The rest of the dimension is still a secret. Dungeons II shows more regions than that, and for now it is the best preview we have of 2027.

Singer's Meadow: coral-pink coral growth, green patches and a white willow tree under a teal sky

Singer's Meadow · the Meadows

The first thing you see

Where you land, and the biome from the vanilla reveal. Red sculk under tall blue grass, green flowers, patches of yellow, pale-blue blossoms. Tree-like growths wrapped in pale-blue vines, and ichor pools cutting through the flatland.

Home of the Singer and its Echo Golems, and where you fight the Sculk Monstrosity. Also the busiest arena in the dimension: Pillagers, Vindicators, Enchanters and Royal Guards hold the ground, joined by Ravagers and Geomancers, and the sub-bosses Harmonizer and Dartback show up before the Monstrosity does. The "Sift tides" tutorial pops up the first time you step in; the quest here is "A Monstrosity in the Meadow".

The Carapace: pale sand, giant bone ribs and strange blue walls

The Carapace · Humbler Husklands

Bones and blue walls

Dry desert: dark-blue stone, sand, and a lot of holes. Chasms and ravines cut through it, ichor pools sit in the low spots, red and yellow grass grows in patches. The landmarks are the colossal fossils, and the biggest of them, the humbler husks, can be walked into. Bouncy slimes throw you up to the higher ledges. In game the region also goes by the name Humbler Husklands.

Named by Mojang, and home of the Sculkers: Scavenger and Stalker patrol here with the Monarch as their boss. Echo Golems are the friendly ones, and the Echo Den sits inside this biome. The Sifter mobs (Seedling, Nester, Sprout, Pollinator, Sentinel) spawn in the Echo Den itself. The quest "Wrath of the Sculkers" starts at the Ichor Ponds here and ends with the Monarch, which opens the passage to Lullaby Hills.

Lullaby Hills: layered pink ridges with a dark cave mouth

Lullaby Hills · Echo Den

Undocumented regions

Both exist in Dungeons II: the hills are on the dimension's map, the Echo Den is a sub-area inside the Carapace. Beyond that we know almost nothing, so treat them as unexplored.

Dungeons II only, not confirmed for Minecraft itself. The hills hold four quests ("Lonesome in Lullaby Hills", "The Redstone Monstrosity Revived", "A Friend Till the End", "The Final Souldown") and are full of Echo Golems. Under Lullaby Hilltop sits the Illager Stronghold, where that quest plays out.

Open questions

What we still don't know

?The exact 2027 release date and update number.
?How you enter the Sift in vanilla Minecraft.
?How many Dungeons II mobs and blocks will make the jump.
?Whether the dimension costs anything.
?How world generation and existing saves will handle a fourth dimension.

Mojang says more will come at future Minecraft LIVE shows. Until then this list stays short on purpose.

Loot

What drops where

The gear tables of the three areas. Melee, ranged, armor and artifacts, grouped the way the game groups them.

Singer's Meadow

Melee (16)Awesomeaxe, Battle Hammer, The Burning Blade, Clobberer, Cookiecutter, The Darkshard, Emerald Hammer, Frostbiter, Greataxe, Greatsword, Longsword, Lullaby Blade, Mob Mallet, Monster Masher, Redstone Wrecker, Sword

Ranged (6)Creaking's Reach, Longbow, Paragon, Powerbow, Phantom Wing, Trickbow

Armor sets (8)Mad Sifter, Nomad, Rover, Scamp, Scoundrel, Sifter, Treehugger, Woodsprite

Artifacts (9)Battle Banner, Blizzard Bangle, Cinder Scepter, Conductive Quiver, Pouch of Ember, Powershaker, Soul Harvester, Tempo Truffle, Totem of Casting

Talismans (2)Tendrils of the Sprout, Wobblestone

The Carapace

Melee (24)Greataxe, Awesomeaxe, Clobberer, Redstone Wrecker, Mob Mallet, Monster Masher, Pike, Stormcaller, Scythe, Soul Reaper, Meat Cleaver, Cacaphonous Cleaver, Axe, Hunter's Hatchet, Shovel, Diamond Shovel, Pickaxe, The Prospector's Pick, Cookiecutter, Lullaby Blade, Battle Hammer, Emerald Hammer, Longsword, Frostbiter

Ranged (8)Crossbow, The Shackler, Heavy Crossbow, The Close Ranger, Greatbow, Humbler Heartstring, Shortbow, Shooting Star

Armor (8)Phantom Armor, Dreamruler Armor, Steel Wool Armor, Rimefrost Armor, Sifter Armor, Mad Sifter Armor, Protector Armor, Humbler Armor

Artifacts (9)Blizzard Bangle, Pouch of Thunder, Powershaker, Battle Banner, Echo Ocarina, Lightning Rod, Fighting Fungus, Firework Arrow, Flaming Quiver

Talismans (2)Essence of Efficiency, The Eye of Experience

Lullaby Hills

Melee (18)Short Spear, Spectral Spear, Wolf Claws, Sculker Claws, Tidal Sickle, Lunar Sickle, Gauntlets, Prime Enchanter's Gauntlets, Claymore, Slaymore, War Hammer, Heartbreaker, Pike, Stormcaller, Scythe, Soul Reaper, Meat Cleaver, Cacaphonous Cleaver

Ranged (4)Scatter Crossbow, Harp Crossbow, Dual Crossbows, Double Crossers

Armor (8)Sculker Armor, Monarch Armor, Sculk Digger Armor, Twisted Warden Armor, Mushroom Armor, Fly Agaric Armor, Redstone Armor, Monstrosity Armor

Artifacts (9)Corrupted Beacon, Pouch of Frost, Honey Dipper, Creeper Candle, Electric Bangle, Grindstone, Redstone Mine Launcher, Warrior Drums, Freezing Quiver

Talismans (1)Prickle's Mark

Drop tables collected by wiki editors from the game files. They are not an official Mojang list, and the numbers in brackets count the entries the wiki currently has.

Blocks and rules

Blocks & mechanics

The Sift is not a reskin. It brings its own blocks and its own rules, and both change how you build, fight and travel.

Healthy sculk blocks

The reveal showed a whole family of new sculk variants: green healthy sculk, pink healthy sculk, pink sculk grass blocks, and short and tall sculk grass. They are the healthy counterpart to the corrupted sculk of the Deep Dark, and the disease behind that corruption is said to have started right here.

Sonorous deepslate & note blocks

In Dungeons II you open the dimension at the Note Block Machine in front of the Deep Dark portal. It sits there doing nothing until you bring back the two missing note blocks (one of the two waits in the Supreme Evoker's Tower). Then nearby Echo Golems ignite the portal for you. Singers use music to open portals, and reportedly to calm Wardens down.

Souls in flight

Souls are everywhere. They drift through the sky, they are what the Illagers came for, and the dimension's own hazards drain them out of you. Trills fly around like living soul lights, and the Sculk Monstrosity can burst a cloud of them out in a fight.

Ichor, the hot liquid

Thick, glowing, and it pools everywhere. It behaves like a trap: step in and you catch fire and lose souls. Sift-native mobs walk straight through it.

Rifts & how you get there

Rifts tear open in the Overworld and drop you straight into the Sift. In Dungeons II the Grand Illusioner opens them at will with his staff. The Deep Dark portal in the Ancient City is the second route, and the permanent one.

Three Sift tides

The dimension runs on three tides that change how heroes get around and how souls are gathered and spent, so the same fight can go very differently depending on when you show up:

Thrive TideFaster soul regeneration and shorter artifact cooldowns.
Endure TideStronger mobs spawn and passive soul regeneration stops.
Flow TideNo effect. This is the neutral state.

Singer's Portal

The way back up. In the Singer's Meadow sits a large arch of red sculk blocks under tall blue grass, built in the same shape as the Deep Dark portal and joined onto it. Crates and tall blue walls stand around it. The game calls it the Singer's Portal because this is where the Singers open the way to the Overworld, and it has its own minecart station.

Minecart stations

Nine of them sit in the Sift, one per sub-area, and they do nothing until you walk up to them. After that they are all connected: interact and pick a station from the list. The Singer's Meadow has four (Singer's Portal, Choral Glen, Wild Meadows, Sifter Canyon), the Carapace three (Ichor Ponds, Lullaby Border, The Echo Den) and the Lullaby Hills two (Lullaby Hilltop, Illager Stronghold).

White willow trees

A brand-new tree: thick dark-grey trunks, white canopies, and stalactite-like foliage hanging underneath them. Think pale oak, but whiter.

Hazard · do not swim

Ichor will take your souls

Ichor is the thick, glowing liquid that pools through the Sift. It looks like a warm bath. It behaves like a trap.

!It burns. Stepping into ichor sets you alight with soul fire.
!It drains. Souls are pulled out of anything that touches it, players included.
+Sift natives are immune. The creatures of the dimension walk through it as if it were water.
+Blubs love it. The little rabbit-like mobs happily bathe in ichor.

Fun detail: the developer name for ichor was "ouch water" until very late in development. The Spectral Spear's item description claims the weapon was "forged in ichor", so it may double as a crafting material the way lava does in the Nether.

A blocky pool of glowing orange-yellow ichor between pink rock ledges

The creatures

Creatures of the Sift

For vanilla Minecraft exactly one mob is officially named: the Blub. Everything else here comes from Dungeons II, and since the game released on September 29 the in-game names are on the record: the stand-in names this page used before (Snout Sifter, Shroomer, Groobler Sentinel, Sculk Mage, Sculk Slasher, Sift Sheep, Antenna Sifter) are all wrong now. I have replaced them. For vanilla 2027, none of it is a promise.

Blub

Passive · ambient

A small blue creature that hops like a rabbit, squeaks and is soft and squishy. In the game files it answers to the codename Jelly Bunny, and it comes in three forms you can actually meet: the default blue soul engorged blub, which can glow, turns up all over the Sift and likes to swim in ichor; the meadows blub of the Singer's Meadow and the Lullaby Hills; and the carapace blub of the Humbler Husklands. A ravines and a fungal variant exist only as unused assets in the game files and never spawn. Blubberfly and the Grim Blub are older names the wiki redirects to this page. Worth knowing: the Blub in the world and the Blub Pet from the Deluxe Edition are two separate things.

Echo Golem

Passive

Golems animated by soul blocks created by the Singers. Instead of attacking you they help you move through the story. The friendly face of the dimension's oldest magic.

Trill

Passive · flying

Groups of small flying things drifting through the sky, which is what gives the Sift that strange living-souls feel you see in the trailer.

Nuzzle & Slabber

Passive

Nuzzle is the dimension's wool supply; the wiki listed it as "Sift Sheep" until the game shipped. The other half of the pair is the Slabber, a turtle-like ambient mob with the internal codename "Camo", which older guides still call "Licker".

Prickle, Tuner & Wobble

Passive · ambient

Three more passives turned up in the released game. Prickle and Tuner are just there, but the Wobble is the interesting one: it only appears in the side quest "Wobble Run", where you find wobbles hiding in bushes. Finish that quest and you get the Wobblestone talisman, which summons a Wobble companion that follows you around. Internally it was called "Pogo Frog".

Sifters

Hostile · melee & ranged

The family proper has five members: Nester, Pollinator, Seedling, Sentinel and Sprout. Bloombud, Fusefly, Hurler and Roamroot were listed here as Sifters until the released game sorted them into a separate "Others" group. Three of the current names replaced stand-in ones: Bloombud was Snout Sifter, Roamroot was Shroomer, Pollinator was Groobler Sentinel.

Nester

Hostile · melee

Bounds at heroes the moment it spots them, lunges in for a bite, then circles at close range while its attack cools down. Relentless rather than clever.

Seedling & Sprout

Hostile

Seedlings grow on the ground, Sprouts hover and attack from the air with tentacle-like limbs. Both make the Sift's vegetation feel like it is watching you.

Other threats

Hostile

The Sift sorts its enemies into two families. Sculkers are the clawed and hovering ones: Hunter, Scavenger (once listed as Sculk Mage), Stalker (once Sculk Slasher) and the pink Trapper, which only shows up when the Monarch summons it. The Sifters are the plant-like family above. A third group, simply called "Others", holds Bloombud, Blubber (an older name that now leads to the Hurler), Fusefly, Hurler, Roamroot and the Forager, a melee mob that explodes when it dies (the wiki still marks that name as a guess). Beyond that come two minibosses, Dartback and Harmonizer, and both return as Soul Corrupted boss versions. Then there are the Illagers, who invaded the dimension for its souls in the first place: Pillager, Vindicator, Enchanter, Royal Guard, plus the Ravager and the Geomancer. Dartback and Harmonizer are filed as sub-bosses rather than bosses, with the Sculk Monstrosity sitting above them.

Monarch

Boss · Dungeons II

One of the three bosses of the Sift. Its Monarchlings guard it, and it rules over the dimension's insect-like hierarchy.

Sculk Monstrosity

Boss · Dungeons II

A shoulder-charging monster that bursts out souls and summons rolling Sculk Cubes. Fought in the Singer's Meadow, and the closest thing to a sculk Warden the Sift has. Its sculk roar is the move that calls the cubes up around the arena.

Sculk Cube

Hostile · summoned

Not a wild mob but a boss attack. The Sculk Monstrosity spreads its arms, roars, and cubes of sculk appear around the arena and roll at you. A cube that dies from a direct hit bursts and hurts you back, so the finishing blow is the part that stings.

Harmonizer

Boss · Dungeons II

The third boss of the dimension, tied to the Sift's music-and-song theme. As with the Monarch, Mojang has kept the details of the encounter under wraps.

Singer

Character · lore

Pale green body, shaggy fur, tiny faces on an elongated neck and pale antlers. Singers communicate through song, awaken the sonorous deepslate to open portals, and are said to be able to pacify Wardens. Alongside Bubbles, the Singer is one of the two named characters of the dimension rather than a plain mob.

In game right now

Playing it now: quests & achievements

The Sift has been playable in Dungeons II since September 29, 2026. These are the goals the game hands you inside the dimension, and they are the fastest way to see everything in it.

Achievements to unlock

+Brave the Unknown (20G · Bronze): enter the Sift.
+Defender of Dimensions (60G · Gold): save the Overworld and the Sift.
+Friend of the Sift (20G · Bronze): receive the Singer's gift of song.
+Choir Conductor (20G · Bronze): wake up the echo golems in Lullaby Hills.
+Carapace Explorer (20G · Bronze): enter a humbler husk.
+Guardian of the Golems (20G · Bronze): drive off the Illagers camped near the Echo Den, the side quest of the Carapace.
+Monstrous Crescendo (40G · Silver): defeat the Monstrous Opus.

Quests & objectives

+"The Illagers from the Rift: Explore the new dimension": the story objective that walks you through the Singer's Meadow.
+"Wrath of the Sculkers": the Carapace quest, and not the Meadow one. It starts at the Ichor Ponds: free the captured tuners to pass the musical gate, pull ichor cores out of a sculker nest and beat the Monarch, which opens the way to Lullaby Hills.
+"A Monstrosity in the Meadow": the Meadow quest. Unlock the musical gate, tear down the Illager banners and kill the Sculk Monstrosity to get through to Humbler Huskland.
+"Lonesome in Lullaby Hills": the Echo Golems want their four stolen Soul Blocks back from the Illager Stronghold. Three of them come before the Redstone Monstrosity, the fourth only after that boss, and the reward is the Lullaby Blade.
+"The Redstone Monstrosity Revived": the second quest of the hills, named after the boss you beat for the last Soul Block. So far the wiki carries the name only.
+"A Friend Till the End": the third Lullaby Hills quest. Also just a name on the wiki at the moment, no description yet.
+"The Final Souldown": the last quest of the main story. It starts in the hills, drops you into the Deep Dark, and ends with the Supreme Evoker and the final boss, the Monstrous Opus. It only completes after the closing cutscene.
+"Sift tides": tutorial entry that unlocks the moment you enter the dimension.

Dates

Release timeline

The dates that matter: the reveal, the game that made the Sift playable, what Mojang shows next, and the window for Minecraft itself.

26 September 2026

Reveal at Minecraft LIVE

Mojang shows the Sift for the first time and confirms it is coming to Minecraft Java & Bedrock Edition.

Status: done
29 September 2026

First playable: Minecraft Dungeons II, released

The Sift becomes the centre of the new action RPG, three days after the reveal. Every biome, mob and mechanic described on this page can be seen in the game right now.

Status: released · Xbox Series X|S · Xbox on PC · Steam · PS5 · Switch · Switch 2 · Game Pass day one
27 October 2026

Related: Minecraft arrives on Nintendo Switch 2

The base game's Switch 2 release lands about a month after Dungeons II, which means the Sift can arrive on Nintendo's new console too.

Status: announced
15 November 2026

Dungeons II panel at TwitchCon San Diego

Mojang announced on 6 November that the Dungeons II team continues "the journey" at TwitchCon on 15 November, 10:35 PT (19:35 CET). Whether the panel shows Sift content, the first DLC or both has not been confirmed.

Status: announced · line-up not confirmed
2027

The Sift in Minecraft Java & Bedrock Edition

Confirmed window, no exact date, no update number, no price. Mojang says more will be shown at future Minecraft LIVE events.

Status: announced, release window only

FAQ

The Sift: frequently asked questions

Short answers. Only what is actually confirmed, and a label when something is still unknown.

What is The Sift in Minecraft?

The Sift is Minecraft's fourth dimension, alongside the Overworld, the Nether and the End. It was revealed at Minecraft LIVE in September 2026 and described as a soul-rich world of red and orange stone, green vegetation, sculk blocks and pools of ichor. Mojang's own wording: an uncharted dimension of threats, mysteries and breathtaking beauty.

When does The Sift release?

The Sift is playable now inside Minecraft Dungeons II, released on September 29, 2026. For Minecraft Java and Bedrock Edition Mojang has confirmed a 2027 release window. There is no exact day, no update number and no price yet.

Which platforms get The Sift?

In Dungeons II: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Steam, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, included with Game Pass on day one and supporting Xbox Play Anywhere.

For Minecraft itself the Sift arrives as part of the game in 2027, which covers Java and Bedrock Edition on Windows, macOS, Linux, consoles, mobile and cloud.

How do you enter The Sift?

In Dungeons II there are two routes: the Deep Dark portal and dimensional rifts that the Grand Illusioner can open with his staff. The Dungeons II portal itself carries a name in game: the Singer's Portal in the Singer's Meadow, a red sculk archway that leads back to the Overworld and has a minecart station next to it.

To open the portal you first collect the two missing note blocks (the wiki lists the Supreme Evoker's Tower as one of the two spots) and place them on the Note Block Machine in front of the portal. Echo Golems then wake the machine and ignite the portal for you.

How players will enter the Sift in vanilla Minecraft has not been revealed. The obvious candidate is the Deep Dark portal that has been sitting in the Ancient City since the Wild Update, but Mojang has not confirmed it.

Which mobs live in The Sift?

Officially confirmed for vanilla Minecraft so far: the Blub, a small passive rabbit-like creature that squeaks.

The Dungeons II version sorts its enemies into Sifters (Nester, Pollinator, Seedling, Sentinel, Sprout), Sculkers (Hunter, Scavenger, Stalker, Trapper) and an "Others" group (Bloombud, Blubber, Forager, Fusefly, Hurler, Roamroot), with Dartback and Harmonizer as minibosses and Monarch, the Sculk Monstrosity plus the Soul Corrupted versions as bosses. Passives: Blub, Echo Golem, Lootkin, Nuzzle, Prickle, Slabber, Trill, Tuner and Wobble. These names are official in-game names now, but not every mob is expected in the main game.

What is ichor in The Sift?

Ichor is the thick, multicoloured liquid that pools across the dimension. It sets you alight with soul fire and drains your souls, while Sift-native mobs are immune. Mojang's developers called it "ouch water" internally until very late in development, and the Spectral Spear is said to have been "forged in ichor".

Is The Sift paid DLC or a free update?

Unknown. Mojang has not announced a price, a DLC pack or a version requirement for the Sift in Minecraft. Every dimension Mojang has added so far (the Nether, then the End) shipped as part of a regular game update, which is why most of us expect the same here.

Will The Sift look the same in Minecraft as in Dungeons II?

Probably not identical. Dungeons II is an action RPG with its own combat systems, bosses and level design, and it already contains content that never appeared in vanilla Minecraft. Mojang has said it wants each dimension to have a functional reason to exist, and that it will show more of the Sift's vanilla form at future Minecraft LIVE events.

Coming up

What I am writing next

This page grows as the dimension does. I am working on three pieces and will publish each one when the facts hold up, not before.

Guide · entry

How to enter The Sift in Minecraft

Deep Dark portal, note block sequence, rifts: step by step, once Mojang confirms how it works in vanilla.

In progress

Explainer · survival

Ichor survival guide: souls, soul fire and what to do

What ichor does to you, how Sift mobs ignore it, and which blocks are safe to build on.

In progress

Overview · world

Every biome in The Sift (so far)

The Meadows, the Carapace, and the regions Mojang is still hiding, with what we actually know about each.

In progress

The Sift - the new Minecraft dimension, release news and guides

The Overworld, the Nether, the End … and the Sift

What is The Sift?

Biomes of the Sift

The first thing you see

Bones and blue walls

Undocumented regions

What we still don't know

What drops where

Blocks & mechanics

Healthy sculk blocks

Sonorous deepslate & note blocks

Souls in flight

Ichor, the hot liquid

Rifts & how you get there

Three Sift tides

Singer's Portal

Minecart stations

White willow trees

Ichor will take your souls

Creatures of the Sift

Blub

Echo Golem

Trill

Nuzzle & Slabber

Prickle, Tuner & Wobble

Sifters

Nester

Seedling & Sprout

Other threats

Monarch

Sculk Monstrosity

Sculk Cube

Harmonizer

Singer

Playing it now: quests & achievements

Release timeline

Reveal at Minecraft LIVE

First playable: Minecraft Dungeons II, released

Related: Minecraft arrives on Nintendo Switch 2

Dungeons II panel at TwitchCon San Diego

The Sift in Minecraft Java & Bedrock Edition

The Sift: frequently asked questions

What I am writing next

How to enter The Sift in Minecraft

Ichor survival guide: souls, soul fire and what to do

Every biome in The Sift (so far)