Getting there

There are two ways into the Swift: the Deep Dark portal, which you light with a melody, and rifts, which open by themselves at night.

The Deep Dark portal

The frame. In the Swift mod, any upright opening that is mostly enclosed by reinforced deepslate works, up to 26 blocks across, including the great frame in every ancient city. Reinforced deepslate can’t be collected in Survival, so the ancient city’s frame is the one most players use.

The melody. Play five different notes on note blocks within about 12 blocks of the frame, all within 12 seconds. The notes must be played by players. Click a note block to raise its note and play it, or punch it to play it. The note blocks need to be within 24 blocks of each other, and any number of players can join in. Notes played by redstone don’t count.

Beams of light. Every note played near an unlit frame shoots a tall column of light from its note block, coloured by its pitch across the rainbow. The fifth different note fills the frame with portal.

The golem choir. Awake echo golems within 12 blocks of the frame sing along. When a note is played, each golem that hasn’t sung in the last 12 seconds chimes a different note of its own, with its own beam of light, and each chime counts toward the five. One note block and four awake golems are enough.

A Singer’s song. A Singer singing within 16 blocks lights the frame too.

Travelling

Stand in the portal for 4 seconds (instantly in Creative). You arrive at an arrival gate: a reinforced deepslate portal on a plaza of polished swiftstone, guarded by four dormant echo golems facing outward. The gate is linked to the portal you came through, so walking back in takes you home.

Rifts

At night in the Overworld, a rift sometimes tears open in the air 24 to 48 blocks from a player, rimmed with shifting rainbow light. You’ll see the message “A rift tears open nearby...”. This happens about one night in three.

• A rift stays open for 3 minutes.
• Sometimes an illager patrol steps out of it: a vindicator and one or two pillagers, looking for you.
• Walk into the rift to arrive in a meadow in the Swift. A return rift waits there, but it closes when the first one does.