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File:Redpoptarts dye guide v12 full.png

Dye Crafting Production Chain

Wool dyes are items used to change the color of wool. There are currently 16 dyes, including seven "primary" dyes (red, yellow, blue, green, white, black and brown), seven "secondary" dyes, and two "tertiary" dyes.

History

Wool dyes were added in the Beta 1.2 update.

Update 1.1 gave sheep the ability to regrow their wool by eating grass. Dyed sheep will regrow wool in their new color.

Snapshot 12w34a gave you the ability to dye leather Armor and Wolf Collars.

Uses

Dyes can be placed with wool on a crafting table (in any position) to dye a single block. It can also be used on sheep to paint them. After shearing, the wool dropped will be of the painted color as well, sometimes yielding more colored wool than from crafting (see Notes section). Not all the dyes are renewable, but the colored wool itself is; after shearing colored sheep, they will regenerate their wool by eating grass (11w49a). Additionally, there are naturally occurring gray, light gray, black, brown and pink sheep that drop corresponding color wool as well. Note, only white wool can be dyed via crafting – painting colored sheep is the only way to dye non-white wool. For example, you can get "bleached" wool by using white dye on a colored sheep. As of 12w32a, Leather Armor can be dyed. You dye it by placing dyes in the crafting bench with the piece of Leather Armor you wish to dye. There are 12326391 possible colors. Leather can be "washed" by right clicking a full caldron to remove all the dye. Also in 12w32a, you can dye Wolfs collars.

Primary Colors

These primary dyes are created from a single ingredient spawned naturally in a world.

Name Source Color Notes
Rose Red Rose Red Made by placing rose on a crafting grid. In Pocket Edition 0.4.0 it is made by cooking a Red Mushroom in a Furnace.
Dandelion Yellow Dandelion Yellow Made by placing dandelion on a crafting grid.
Lapis Lazuli Lapis Lazuli Ore Blue Mined (one ore yields 4-8 dye).
Cactus Green Cactus Green Made by cooking cactus in a furnace.
Ink Sac Squid Black Each squid drops 0-3 ink sacs upon dying. (Black wool can also be obtained from black sheep.)
Bone Meal Bone White Made by placing bone on a crafting grid. (White wool can also be obtained from white sheep.)
Cocoa Beans Cocoa plants, Dungeons. Brown Found in dungeons, or growing on jungle trees. (Brown wool can also be obtained from brown sheep.)

Secondary Colors

Secondary dyes are created by combining primary dyes together.

Name Source Color Notes
Orange Dye Rose Red + Dandelion Yellow Orange
Cyan Dye Cactus Green + Lapis Lazuli Cyan
Purple Dye Rose Red + Lapis Lazuli Purple
Gray Dye Ink Sac + Bone Meal Gray (Gray wool can also be obtained from gray sheep.)
Light Blue Dye Lapis Lazuli + Bone Meal Light Blue
Pink Dye Rose Red + Bone Meal Pink (Pink wool can also be obtained from rare pink sheep.)
Lime Dye Cactus Green + Bone Meal Lime Green

Tertiary Colors

Tertiary dyes are created by combining at least one secondary dye.

Name Source Color Notes
Magenta Dye Purple Dye + Pink Dye Magenta See Magenta Dye page for alternate recipes and comparison of recipes' efficiency.
Light Gray Dye Gray Dye + Bone Meal Light Gray See Light Gray Dye page for alternate recipe and comparison of recipes' efficiency. (Light gray wool can also be obtained from light gray sheep.)

Video

Wool Dyes/video


Notes

If you are looking to make Wool dyed a certain color, it is better to dye a sheep the desired color and shear the sheep. This method gives you a permanent supply of that wool color (1-3 blocks per shearing), for a single piece of dye, where crafting gives you only one dyed block per dye unit. Note that you can also bleach and re-dye non-white sheep. Sheep can also be bred, and the lambs inherit the color of one of their parents.

These colors of wool naturally occur on sheep; all others must be created by using dye on a sheep (right-click):

  1. White sheep (the most common)
  2. Light gray sheep
  3. Dark gray sheep
  4. Black sheep
  5. Brown sheep
  6. Pink sheep (rarest)

Data Values

The color of a dye item depends on a secondary data field (beyond the item ID of 254), which is also used to store the damage for tools and so is commonly referred to as a “damage value”.

Icon Dec Hex Description
0 0x0 Ink Sac
1 0x1 Rose Red
2 0x2 Cactus Green
3 0x3 Cocoa Beans
4 0x4 Lapis Lazuli
5 0x5 Purple Dye
6 0x6 Cyan Dye
7 0x7 Light Gray Dye
8 0x8 Gray Dye
9 0x9 Pink Dye
10 0xA Lime Dye
11 0xB Dandelion Yellow
12 0xC Light Blue Dye
13 0xD Magenta Dye
14 0xE Orange Dye
15 0xF Bone Meal

Trivia

  • The reversed color values closely resemble an ANSI or VGA palette with the biggest outlier being Orange.
  • The metadata values for the Wool and Wool Dyes are the inverse of each other, with White Wool having 0, Bone Meal 15; Orange Wool having 1, Orange Dye 14; etc.
  • Giving yourself a dye with damage value bigger than or equal to 16, will be in result of it looking like a random item, at first it looks like a wooden tool. Moving the mouse over it to get the tooltip will crash the game.
  • Dying sheep is more efficient than dying wool, as one dye can be used to get endless colored wool, as long as the player has shears.

See also

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