That’s right! Next year, for the first time in 14 years, Minecraft is adding a new dimension called the Sift. According to the developers’ website, the Sift is a “vibrant” dimension, “teeming with souls.” This means a lot to a longtime player such as myself, and while I don’t engage with new features during every quarterly update Minecraft adds to the game, I will definitely be logging on for this one.
The Sift came to Minecraft Dungeons II this September, but a recent Minecraft Live revealed that it will come to Minecraft Java and Bedrock too by 2027. On that live, they didn’t show much of it (the only mob announced was the blub), but independent creators have given us more knowledge. Through playing Dungeons II, they have revealed a lot of the content that’ll be coming to the update, and some players have already made mods to play a representative version of the Sift in vanilla Minecraft.
From what I’ve seen, it’s a sort of blue, hazy dimension with lots of new passive, neutral, and hostile mobs and mechanics. It will be a bright, fantasy-like world but with souls, and is confirmed to have new biomes including Meadows and Carapace. The trailer also features a forest of trees with white leaves. The sky is a bright turquoise, and the ground a saturated pink. This will be in no way a deep dive into all the Sift has to offer, but more of an overview.
First off, you have to get there. The Sift must be entered from the Overworld, from the Ancient City in the Deep Dark biome, home of the fearsome Warden. This is an interesting addition to the gameplay, since usually there is no reason to go down there other than mining and collecting niche, rare items that are not really functional, like, say, elytra from End Cities.Â
As of right now, in mods made to mimic Dungeons, you must blow a goat horn to summon a mob called the Singer to activate the Ancient City portal. Then, place a note block on eight designated blocks and play them in the sequence the Singer leads you to. The portal should light up and let you through.
Again, blowing the goat horn is another use for what was previously a collector’s object! Mojang is theorized to have been working on this update for at least two years (but some players believe they have been since the Caves & Cliffs update), so it seems they’re also tying up loose ends from other updates.
In Dungeons, there are also little entrances called rifts that pop up here and there as portals. I’m not sure if these are going to be added to vanilla Minecraft, but in modded Minecraft they appear in the Sift to take you back to the Overworld.
Okay, so now we’ve entered the Sift. Since Dungeons is an action game, we only really know about the mobs coming to Minecraft, so that is what we will get into next.Â
Quick disclaimer: this is not all the content from Dungeons, nor will all of this content necessarily be in the update. I didn’t add the bosses from Dungeons, since it’s an RPG and I think it’s less likely that Minecraft adds every single boss to this dimension. There are also many new blocks, but I believe the depth of content that’s in Dungeons cannot be expected from this update, and it definitely won’t be one-to-one. That being said, the vast majority of the following is community speculation, and it’ll be fun to see what they actually add. Some of the physical descriptions are from PhoenixSC’s video, who brings the mobs from Dungeons II into vanilla Minecraft so we can view them.Â
Blub
The Blub is the only mob confirmed to come to vanilla Minecraft by Mojang so far, and it’s, in my opinion, the cutest. It’s passive, a little blue dude that looks like a rabbit, and it squeaks. This is all that’s confirmed so far, but in Dungeons you can unlock it as a pet, so it’s not unreasonable to think it might come to vanilla. However, it’s important to note that Dungeons often has extra mobs and mechanics to add to the story because it’s a completely different type of game; as an RPG, it’s more focused on the story than a sandbox game like Minecraft, and a lot of features from it may not be intended for vanilla.Â
For example, a common mod replicating the Sift right now has tamable Blubs that attack hostile Sift mobs for you, like wolves do. This is not confirmed. It’s all extrapolation from very few confirmed additions from the Minecraft Live, and bits from Dungeons.
Singer
The Singer is said to be found in the Meadow. Another passive blue mob, it looks suspiciously like the Warden. In many mods, it can be traded with. In the storyline, it’s the keeper of the Ancient City portal and a pacifist.
Slabber
Another passive mob, it’s large and friendly!
Echo Golem
We know a little bit about the Echo Golem, also known as the Caretaker Golem. Like other helpful golems in the game, it helps the player. It carries soul blocks (a new block), and this is likely to be in the game since it’s a major part of Dungeons. In mods, it either gives soul blocks to the Singer, or can give them to players who tame it with an Echo Shard.
Lootkin
A passive mob that sits on top of loot chests. That’s all we know. How useful is this? Will it come to vanilla? No idea.Â
Nuzzle
The nuzzle is a weird-looking hot pink thing that walks around. Personally, I’m okay if it isn’t added, but there’s not much other information on it.
Wobble
It looks like a blobfish.
Sprout
The Sprout is a flying hostile mob that has tentacles like a squid.
Bloombut, Fusefly, Hurler, and Roam Routt
These mobs all fire projectiles at the player in dungeons. The fusefly is special in that it explodes upon death.
Sculker mobs
These look similar to the class of sculk blocks in the Ancient City, and they’re hostile.
baby sifter
A hostile melee-range mob, probably low difficulty to defeat. It’s blue and has a small hitbox, and seems to approach in the same kind of mindless manner as a zombie.
pollinator
A hostile mob that looks like a bigger Baby Sifter. It opens its mouth frog-like and shoots out yellow projectiles in Dungeons, sort of like a skeleton.
sentinel
In Dungeons, this one behaves more like a Shulker, and it fires projectiles that follow you around like missiles.
nester
The Nester works similar to the Sentinel.
All this being said, there will be a lot more to explore about the Sift than just the mobs! It’ll definitely have an exploration element, lots of new colorful blocks for your building palettes, and, for those interested, possibly insights into the origins of the Ancient City in Minecraft.