Dyes are vanilla Minecraft’s way of allowing players to build more creatively. They can be used in Bedrock Edition, Java Edition, Pocket Edition, and Education Edition to change the color of various blocks, leather armor, dog collars, and several decorative blocks.
Minecraft dye comes in sixteen shades, including the colors of the rainbow, shades of grey, and brown:
- Red Dye
- Orange Dye
- Yellow Dye
- Lime Dye
- Green Dye
- Cyan Dye
- Light Blue Dye
- Blue Dye
- Purple Dye
- Magenta Dye
- Pink Dye
- Brown Dye
- White Dye
- Light Gray Dye
- Gray Dye
- Black Dye
Here we’ll focus on the sleekest of colors, black.
Table of Contents
How to Get Black Dye in Minecraft
There are three ways to get black dye in Minecraft. The first is by crafting it with ink sacs, the second way involves crafting the dye using wither roses, and the last way is by trading with a Wandering Trader.
Crafting Black Dye from Ink Sacs
Ink sacs are dropped by the Squid mob, which only appears underwater in Ocean and River biomes.
Adult squids will drop between one and three ink sacs upon death. If a weapon enchanted with Looting III is used, a squid can drop up to six ink sacs.
One ink sac can be used to craft one black dye.
Crafting Black Dye with Wither Roses
Wither Roses can only be obtained when a mob is killed by the Wither. They will not drop every time, making this method more effort than it’s worth if you only want roses for black dye.
One Wither Rose can be crafted into one black dye by placing it anywhere in a crafting interface.
Trading with a Wandering Trader
Wandering Traders will trade three black dyes for one emerald.
This trade can be done up to twelve times at once, giving players a total of 36 black dye from one trading session.
How to Use Black Dye in Minecraft
There are a wide variety of ways that dye can be used in Minecraft. Here we’ll explain 17 different uses and how to do each in your world.
Making Black Sheep in Minecraft
Black sheep can be found naturally in the Overworld and serve as a sustainable source of black wool. However, black sheep can also be created by interacting with a sheep while holding a piece of black dye.
The sheep will continue to grow black wool unless dyed a different color.
Making Black Wool in Minecraft
If you only want to dye a few pieces of wool rather than a whole sheep, wool can easily be dyed by combining one wool block of any color with one black dye.
Making Black Carpets in Minecraft
There are two ways to craft black carpets in Minecraft. The first involves placing two black wool blocks side-by-side in a crafting area to create three black carpets.
The second method involves combining leftover carpets of any color with an equal amount of black dye.
Making a Black Bed in Minecraft
If you have a bed already and want to dye it black, all you need to do is place it into a crafting table with one black dye.
If you don’t have a bed yet, a black bed can easily be crafted using three wooden planks and three blocks of black wool. Fill the bottom row of a crafting table with the three wooden planks, then fill the center row with the three black wool blocks. This crafting recipe will produce one black bed.
Making Black Concrete and Concrete Powder in Minecraft
The crafting recipe for black concrete powder requires four gravel blocks, four sand blocks, and one piece of black dye. They can be placed into the crafting table in any order so long as every box is filled and each component is present.
Black concrete powder turns into black concrete blocks when it comes into contact with water. Black concrete blocks are the darkest, most true-to-black blocks in the game.
Making Black Stained Glass Blocks in Minecraft
Crafting black stained glass requires eight glass blocks and one piece of black dye. On a crafting table, place the black dye in the center box and fill the rest of the boxes with glass blocks. This recipe will create eight blocks of black stained glass.
Making Black Stained Glass Panes in Minecraft
The first way to make black stained glass panes is identical to the process of making black stained glass. On a crafting table, place one piece of black dye in the center box before filling all of the other boxes with one glass pane to create eight black stained glass panes.
The other method requires six black stained glass blocks. On a crafting table, place one black stained glass block in each box of the center and bottom rows. This will create sixteen black stained glass panes.
Making Black Terracotta in Minecraft
Like with black stained glass and stained glass panes, creating black terracotta requires a crafting table. Place one piece of dye in the center and fill in the rest of the boxes with regular, uncolored terracotta blocks to create eight black terracotta blocks.
Making Black Glazed Terracotta in Minecraft
To make black glazed terracotta, you’ll need a furnace and black terracotta blocks. Smelting the black terracotta blocks in the furnace will produce black glazed terracotta blocks.
Making a Black Shulker Box in Minecraft
To dye a Shulker Box black, simply place it in a crafting interface alongside one black dye.
Making a Black Banner in Minecraft
Banners cannot change color after they are created. Instead, a black banner can be created on a crafting table by filling the top two rows with blocks of black wool and placing one stick in the center box of the bottom row.
Black banner patterns can be added to any color banner using a Loom. Simply place the banner you want to dye and black dye in the loom, then choose what patterns to put on the banner.
Changing the Color of Words on a Sign or Hanging Sign in Minecraft
As seen below, this cherry sign has red writing on it.
By interacting with the sign while holding a piece of black dye, the dye will be used to make the writing black.
Making Black Candles in Minecraft
Combining a regular candle and black dye in a crafting grid will create one black candle.
Dyeing Leather Armor Black in Minecraft
Any piece of leather armor can be combined with a piece of black dye to create black leather armor.
Dyeing Horse Armor Black in Minecraft
Similarly to a player’s leather armor, black dye can be added to leather horse armor to create black horse armor.
Making a Dog’s Collar Black in Minecraft
After taming wolves with bones, the color of their collar can be changed by interacting with them while holding a black dye. Here, I dyed my dog’s collar black using this method.
Crafting Black Fireworks in Minecraft
To craft a basic black firework, you’ll first need to make a black firework star. Craft one by placing one piece of gunpowder in the center box of a crafting table, then place a piece of black dye beneath it.
To turn the firework star into a firework, place it in the center of the crafting table’s 3×3 crafting grid. Place a piece of gunpowder into the center box of the top row and a piece of paper into the center box of the bottom row.
Now you can shoot them off into the sky and see the black sparkles!
