Minecraft gives players a vast array of customization options, including different kinds of wood, stone and other building materials. To recolor more aesthetic items, players need a secondary ingredient: dye. Dyes are used in a vast quantity of recipes, usually to provide one of 16 different color options for the finished product. Examples of crafting recipes that use dye include wool, terracotta, stained glass, leather armor, fireworks and even concrete.

Almost every dye requires its own primary ingredient, all from their own far-flung corners of the Minecraft world, so finding all of them can be overwhelming for old and new players alike. Here's a breakdown of how to make each dye, where to find their primary ingredients and (if there are multiple options) which method of crafting is the most efficient.

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Brown Dye

The crafting recipe for brown dye

Brown Dye among the simplest dyes to craft, with only one option for its primary ingredient: cocoa beans. These can be mined from the cocoa pods that spawn on the sides of trees in the jungle biome. They can also be obtained from a wandering trader, who will offer three in exchange for a single emerald. While they were previously available in dungeon chests, they've since been removed. Finding a jungle biome might be a little tricky depending on the player's world, but they're easy to spot from far away with their towering trees and vibrant green color.

Green Dye

The crafting recipe for green dye.

Like Brown Dye, players only need to find one primary ingredient: cactus. Cacti are easy to find in any kind of desert biome, and can be grown anywhere without much difficulty, as they grow to a height of three blocks before stopping. Players simply need to check in on their cactus farm sporadically and chop off any growth above the single base block. After obtaining enough cactus, they'll need to smelt it in a furnace to convert it to green dye.

Black Dye

The crafting recipe for black ink in Minecraft.

Black Dye has two options for primary ingredients: an ink sac or a Wither Rose. Ink sacs are dropped from squids, which spawn in natural bodies of water. They can also be obtained as a junk item from fishing. This is by and far the easier way to obtain black dye, since the alternative is to traipse through the Nether and kill enough Wither Skeletons to drop three skulls. These skulls are then used with Soul Sand to spawn the Wither, an endgame boss. Mobs killed by the Wither will drop Wither Roses, but picking them up while dodging the boss's attacks is difficult to say the least.

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White Dye

The crafting recipe for white dye in Minecraft.

Like other dyes, White Dye can be made from one of Minecraft's flowers, the Lily of the Valley. They spawn into the world in all of the different forest biomes, but players might not enjoy going further and further out from wherever they are based to find more. They can be spawned using bonemeal in Flower Forest biomes, but there's a much more direct way to craft white dye: using the bonemeal itself. Bonemeal can be crafted from bones dropped by skeletons, and players with an insufficient supply of either can create a mob farm to automate bone production.

Blue Dye

The crafting recipe for blue dye in Minecraft

Blue Dye can be crafted using Lapis Lazuli, which players can find by mining or by trading with villagers. While the ore drops several pieces when broken, it's a valuable substance used for enchanting weapons, tools and armor. A better method for crafting Blue Dye is to use Cornflower, which is found in the Plains, Sunflower Plains and Flower Forest biomes. Flowers can be annoying to collect, but players can get around this by repeatedly spawning it using bonemeal. When generating flowers this way, use the bonemeal on an empty 15x15 square of grass blocks.

Yellow Dye

The crafting recipe for yellow dye in Minecraft

Yellow Dye can be made with two different kinds of flowers: Dandelion or Sunflower. Sunflower can only be generated in the aptly-named Sunflower Plains biome, and isn't affected by bonemeal spawning. The Dandelion is much more accessible, as it's available in all biomes except the Swamp, Badlands or Mushroom Fields. It'll spawn naturally everywhere else and can be grown using bonemeal in those places. This makes it one of the most accessible kinds of flowers for dye-making.

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Red Dye

The crafting recipe for red dye in Minecraft

Red Dye is fairly easy to come by, as it has the most primary ingredient options. It can be made using the Poppy, Rose Bush, Red Tulip or Beetroot. Poppies spawn in every biome except for the Swamp, Badlands or Mushroom Fields, and can be grown with bonemeal. Players can alse use the Red Tulip, which spawns in the Plains, Sunflower Plains and Flower Forest, or the Rose Bush, which spawns in all the kinds of Forest biomes but can't be grown with bonemeal. Last is the beetroot, which can be found growing in villages.

Light Blue Dye

The crafting recipe for light blue dye in Minecraft

Light Blue Dye can be made using the Blue Orchid flower as a primary ingredient. This is a rarer flower that can only be found in Swamps, though thankfully it can be spawned there with bonemeal as well. Players who don't want to trek all the way out to a swamp can combine white dye and regular blue dye, but this is marginally easier, since the Cornflower isn't that much more common. However, players with a large excess of lapis lazuli might want to make use of this method instead.

Light Gray Dye

The crafting recipe for light blue dye in Minecraft

There are three different primary ingredients for Light Gray Dye: the Azure Bleuet, the Oxeye Daisy and the White Tulip. Azure Bleuet can be found in the Plains, Sunflower Plains, Flower Forest and Meadow. White Tulip can be found in the Plains, Sunflower Plains and Flower Forest. Similarly, Oxeye Daisy can be found in the Plains, Sunflower Plains, Flower Forest and Meadow biomes. If players have an overabundance of Black or Gray Dye, they can craft Light Gray Dye using two White Dye and one Black Dye or one Gray Dye and one White Dye.

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Lime Dye

The crafting recipe for lime dye in Minecraft

Lime Dye can be made directly by smelting a Sea Pickle in a furnace, similar to the darker Green Dye. Sea Pickles can be found underwater in coral reefs, but searching the bottom of the ocean is a tall task. Fortunately, all players need to do is find one, after which they can use bonemeal to grow additional Sea Pickles by using it on an already-placed one. If that's too much fuss, Lime Dye can also be crafted by combining White Dye and Green Dye.

Magenta Dye

The crafting recipe for magenta dye in Minecraft

Magenta Dye can be crafted using one of two flowers as a primary ingredient: Lilac or Alium. Lilac can't be grown with bonemeal and can only be found when the world spawns in the Forest, Birch Forest, Dark Forest or Flower Forest. Alium can only be found in the Flower Forest and Meadow biomes, but it spawned using bonemeal. If players can't find either, they can also craft Magenta Dye by mixing Purple and Pink Dye.

Orange Dye

The crafting recipe for orange dye in Minecraft

Orange Dye only has one primary ingredient: the Orange Tulip. Orange Tulips can be found in the Plains, Sunflower Plains, Flower Forest and Meadow biomes or spawned with bonemeal in the same places. A much easier route is to combine Red and Yellow Dye, since those are composed of the two most common flowers in the game that can spawn in any biome.

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Pink Dye

The crafting recipe for pink dye in Minecraft

The primary ingredient options for Pink Dye are the Peony or the Pink Tulip. Pink Tulip can be found in the Plains, Sunflower Plains, Flower Forest and Meadow biomes, and they can be spawned with bonemeal in those biomes. Peonies are much rarer, only able to be found when the world is generated in the various kinds of Forest biome. The easiest method, though, is to combine Red Dye and White Dye, which requires only bonemeal and Poppies.

Secondary Dyes

The crafting recipe for gray dye in Minecraft

While most dyes have some sort of primary ingredient players can use to craft them with, there are three dyes that can only be crafted using other dyes. Cyan Dye requires a combination of green and blue dye. Gray Dye requires a combination of Black and White Dyes, although the prerequisite ingredients (ink sacs and bonemeal) can be used in their unprocessed form. Purple Dye can be made by crafting with Red and Blue Dye. All of the requirements make these dyes a little harder to obtain, as players need to find two special ingredients instead of just one.

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