The sequel unlocks at 08:00 UTC with Minecraft’s first new dimension since the End.
Rifts tear the Overworld first. Then, on Tuesday, September 29, players walk through them. Minecraft Dungeons II launches worldwide at 08:00 UTC on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Steam, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2. Game Pass subscribers get it the same morning. Standard price is $29.99. Deluxe is $49.99.
The hook is not another dungeon crawl. It is The Sift, the first new Minecraft dimension in more than 14 years. Mojang confirmed at Minecraft LIVE on September 26 that the realm also arrives in Java and Bedrock Edition in 2027. No month. No price. No word on whether that drop is free.
The last time the franchise added a full dimension was the End, in 1.0.0 on November 18, 2011. The Nether is older still. Everything since then has been biomes, structures, and mobs. The Sift is a fourth world with its own rules.
What The Sift actually is
Strange events hit the Overworld first. New enemy types show up. Souls drift through the air. Then rifts open. Step through and the palette flips. Xbox Wire describes red and orange stone, green vegetation, hazardous blocks, and “shifting tides” that change how a hero and nearby allies behave.
Two biomes have names: Meadows (also called Singer’s Meadows) and Carapace, a bone-covered desert. Other areas stay unlisted on purpose. Wiki pages and trailers add Lullaby Hills and a soul-rich liquid that drains health. Official copy still treats those as Dungeons II details, not a locked vanilla roster.
Mobs split between companions and threats. Confirmed names include the Blub, a small rabbit-like squeaker; Sifters; Singers; Echo Golems; Nesters; Sprouts; and a Twisted Warden-style fight. Bosses listed for the spin-off include the Monarch, the Sculk Monstrosity, and the Harmonizer. Jens Bergensten has said the spaces were designed on purpose, not improvised the way early Minecraft worlds grew.
The vanilla version will differ. Mojang has not said which mobs, blocks, or physics carry over. Play the sequel if you want the first look.
Brave a new dimension in #DungeonsII: The Sift!
— Minecraft (@Minecraft) September 26, 2026
Hear what our team has to say about this beautiful new world. pic.twitter.com/EWfVrHL2JD
Jumping, four armor slots, and a larger loadout
The original Minecraft Dungeons kept heroes on the floor. The sequel adds a jump. Use it for gaps, hidden chests, parkour, and leap attacks. The dodge roll stays. Vertical fights matter more once flying threats and ledges show up inside The Sift.
Gear grew with it. Heroes now carry a melee weapon, a ranged weapon, three artifact slots, four separate armor slots, and three talisman slots. Armor pieces mix across sets. Talismans add passive bonuses. Inventory gets a cleaner loadout screen. That is a real rebuild, not a reskin of 2020’s six-slot kit.
Co-op still caps at four, local or online, with cross-play, matchmaking, and party codes. Xbox Play Anywhere covers one purchase across console and PC. Double Eleven shares development with Mojang. The engine is Unreal. Install sizes sit around 9 GB on Windows and Xbox, smaller on Switch.
Pre-order bonuses expire September 28: the Twisted cape, Twisted Chicken pet, and two hero skins. Own both Dungeons games on the same Microsoft account and a cape also appears in Dungeons II and in Java and Bedrock. Deluxe adds more skins, the Soul Cape, the Blub pet, and the first two DLC packs.
Where the clock hits on launch morning
There is no staggered regional drop. 08:00 UTC on September 29 is 1:00 a.m. Pacific, 4:00 a.m. Eastern, 9:00 a.m. in Britain, and 10:00 a.m. Central European Summer Time. Japan and Korea land at 5:00 p.m. Australia’s east coast hits 6:00 p.m. Preload has not been advertised as a wide feature, so expect a download at unlock.
The story continues from the first game and ties the new threat to the Deep Dark and Ancient Cities. Illagers push into The Sift for souls and resources. That is the pitch. How long the campaign runs, and how much of The Sift sits behind later missions, will only be clear after people play.
The bigger wait is vanilla Minecraft. A fourth dimension changes maps, farms, speedruns, and server plugins. 2027 is a year, not a date. Until Mojang names one, the only playable Sift sits inside the $30 sequel.
That puts Dungeons II next to a crowded autumn slate that already includes Sega’s Netflix slate, BlizzCon’s shooter tease, and the GTA 6 November window. Memory prices are also squeezing hardware, as Glowls covered in the AI boom console markup story. A $30 Game Pass drop is the cheap way in.
Servers go live in a few hours. The End had fourteen years to itself. After Tuesday, it shares the skybox.
AI Disclosure: This article was created with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools and was reviewed and edited by the Glowls News editorial team before publication.