Dyes



Dyes are items that can be placed in the "Dye Slots" of a player's inventory to alter the colors and/or textures of equipped armor, vanity items, and accessories. The Dye Trader NPC sells two dyes (Silver Dye and Brown Dye) as well as the Dye Vat. The other dyes must be crafted using the Dye Vat or obtained through trading in Strange Plants to the Dye Trader. Primary crafted dyes can be further combined to craft shade, gradient, and patterned dyes. There are currently 119 /  116 /  68 different dyes in the game (118 / 115 / 67 on single-player worlds, as Team Dye is not available in single-player worlds). Some dyes will make sprites visible in complete darkness, most of which are Strange Dyes.

Dyes are not available on the, due to the unavailability of pixel shaders.

Basic Dyes
All basic dyes are crafted at the Dye Vat. Their crafting ingredients (not including Silver Dye and Brown Dye) can be found growing as background objects in the natural world or are guaranteed drops from special enemies. All dye plants show on the map. None of the Basic Dyes are visible in complete darkness.

Bright Dye
All colored basic dyes (except for black) can be combined with Silver Dye to craft Bright Dyes at the Dye Vat. None of the Bright Dyes are visible in complete darkness.

Gradient Dyes
These dyes produce fade effects between multiple colors. They are crafted at the Dye Vat. None of the Gradient Dyes are visible in complete darkness.

Compound Dye
These dyes form patterns with multiple colors, applied as separate blocks depending on the shape of the item. All colored basic dyes, and some "flame" gradient dyes, can be combined with Black or Silver Dye to craft "&lt;Color&gt; and Black Dye" or "&lt;Color&gt; and Silver Dye", respectively. They are crafted at the Dye Vat. None of the Compound Dyes are visible in complete darkness.

Strange Dyes
These dye are given as quest rewards by the Dye Trader in exchange for Strange Plants. Dyes with a rarity level of Orange or Cyan can only be awarded in a Hardmode world. Strange Dyes have varying degrees of visibility in complete darkness.

Lunar Dyes
These animated dyes are crafted using Lunar Fragments at the Dye Vat. Solar Dye is the only Lunar Dye with any visibility in complete darkness.

Tips

 * All dyes and items used to create them sell for, so a beginning character should pick them up whenever encountered to sell them even if they are not interested in the dye itself.
 * To craft thirteen / three  of each dye (one for each dye slot, including combined and compound dyes), it takes:
 * 104 / 24  each of Red Husks, Green Mushrooms, Teal Mushrooms, Blue Berries, Purple Mucuses, Violet Husks and Pink Prickly Pears;
 * 156 / 36  each of Orange Bloodroots, Lime Kelps, Cyan Husks and Sky Blue Flowers;
 * 208 / 48  Yellow Marigolds;
 * 247 / 48  Black Inks;
 * 403 / 75  Silver Dyes (costing   /  );
 * 13 / 3  Team Dyes (costing   / , multiplayer-exclusive);
 * 52 Brown Dyes (costing );
 * 130 Pink Gel;
 * 260 Crystal Shards.
 * It takes at least 170 Strange Plants to obtain 15 of each dye (3 dye per plant) reward for 13 dye slots (likely much more, since obtaining many repeat rewards from the Dye Trader is common).
 * To craft only one of each dye, if the player does not want to repeat any, it takes:
 * 8 each of Red Husks, Green Mushrooms, Teal Mushrooms, Blue Berries, Purple Mucuses, Violet Husks and Pink Prickly Pears;
 * 15 each of Orange Bloodroots, Lime Kelps, Cyan Husks and Sky Blue Flowers;
 * 16 Yellow Marigolds;
 * 19 / 16  Black Inks;
 * 31 / 25  Silver Dyes (costing   /  );
 * 1 Team Dye (costing, multiplayer-exclusive);
 * 4 Brown Dyes (costing );
 * 10 Pink Gel;
 * 20 Crystal Shards.

Trivia

 * It was going to be possible to apply dyes to weapons. The feature was later scrapped because the particle and dye systems did not work very well with it.
 * If not hunting for either specifically, and a mechanical boss has already been defeated, it is more likely that one will acquire the Living Rainbow Dye before the Rainbow Dye due to Rainbow Dye's complex crafting tree.
 * The effect of the Hades dyes are a reference to the character Hades in Disney's 1997 animated musical fantasy film Hercules.
 * On the, many dyes cause the accessories, armor, etc. they're equipped on to appear invisible due to a bug. However, some dyes (such as the Reflective Obsidian Dye) do not cause any issues and work as expected.