Gate

In Kingdom Hearts, most of the worlds and their barriers were restored, leaving no way to travel between them. About a year later, Yen Sid tells Sora and his friends that the worlds have prepared new pathways which can be be utilized by unlocking special Gates (ゲート Gēto?). The Heartless and the Nobodies are still using their own paths: Corridors of Darkness, to travel from world to world. They are also able to link these dark pathways to the gates between the worlds, resulting in the appearance of Gummi Enemies on these paths. A good portion of the Gates are revealed in Kingdom Hearts II.

The Gates are opened when a specific item or object, different for each world, is surrounded in light and is accompanied by a gust of wind. The item in question reveals the Keyhole to a route and then Sora spins his Keyblade and unseals the Gate. Sora, Donald, and Goofy continue on their adventures thereafter with the new route opened. When Sora unlocks a world's gate, a symbol shaped like Sora's crown pendant appears beneath him.

It is likely that worlds within worlds do not have Gates, because the outer world's Gate also serves as their own. This appears to be true for Space Paranoids, 100 Acre Wood, and Timeless River.

In Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep the comatose Ventus opens a Gate to the Land of Departure.

List of Gates

Twilight Town: The blue orb from the Struggle Trophy. Hollow Bastion: The Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee honorary membership card given to Sora by Leon. The Land of Dragons: Shan-Yu's sword. Beast's Castle: Beast's Rose. Olympus Coliseum: The Olympus Stone. Disney Castle: The Cornerstone of Light after you return from the Timeless River. Atlantica: A bubble. Port Royal: Jack Sparrow's Compass. Agrabah: A ruby from the Cave of Wonders. Halloween Town: Jack Skellington's Santa Claus costume. Pride Lands: A star. Realm of Darkness: The Sea-salt ice cream given by Riku.