Armor Dye

Armor Dyes allow players to dye certain components of gear.

There are 20 known colors of armor dye, plus two special types: dye remover and transparent dye (which makes the item not display at all). Players purchase dyes in the game, then use them to recolor their equipment. Dyeing (not dying) will modify the color of an item; not the whole thing, though. Just some portion, often a border or sash, or else the background of an item while the metal remains a silvery hue.

Function and Form

Dye List

Dye Info	Image	Dye	Image Info
Abyssal Dye Cost: 5040 The inky blackness seems to grow even darker when exposed to the sun, as though it were drinking in the very light that touches it.		Aquatic Dye Cost: 360 Sailors from Lut Gholein distill the waters of the Twin Seas and apply the mixture to their sails in order to blend in and avoid detection by pirates.
Autumn Dye Cost: 1020 The monks from the Order of Yir crush the first leaves of autumn into tea, and apply it to their robes during the Ceremony of the Harvest Moon.		Cardinal Dye Cost: 1020 Once reserved only for nobility, this bright red pigment is now donned by both the influential and the courageous.
Desert Dye Cost: 1020 Carried by the merchant caravans of the Dry Steppes to reflect the sun and hide dust.		Elegant Dye Cost: 2160 The bright colors of the Hezna flower are always a favorite amongst the fashionable elite of Caldeum.
Forrester's Dye Cost: 5040 The Wardens of Duncraig wear coats of this color while patrolling the woods for poachers and wolves.		Golden Dye Cost: 5040 Flecks of gold are melted into boiling oil to create a rare pigment used strictly by nobility.
Infernal Dye Cost: 5040 The bottle is warm to the touch, seeming to flicker with liquid fire.		Lovely Dye Cost: 2160 Named for the beauty of Queen Asylla, who once had a thousand gowns created in this color as a gift from King Leoric.
Mariner's Dye Cost: 2160 Officers of vessels navigating the Skovos Isles wear deep blue garments to indicate seniority.		Purity Dye Cost: 5040 This mysterious mixture seems to make any material it is applied to impossible to soil, swirling and coalescing like a cloud.
Ranger's Dye Cost: 1020 Hunters and bandits alike use the bark of the Gorsenna plant to blend in with the shadows of the forest.		Royal Dye Cost: 1020 For many years this color was forbidden to all citizens of Kingsport outside the Royal Family.

| |- | | Spring Dye | | 360 | Traditionally worn during the Hearth Festival in Bramwell to celebrate the first thaw of springtime. |- | | Summer Dye | | 2160 | This brightly colored dye is extracted from spices shipped from Kurast at great expense. |- | | Tanner's Dye | | 360 | Leatherworkers use a variety of oils to seal their skins with a rich, natural brown pigment. |- | | Vanishing Dye | Invisible | 360 | Causes materials to vanish before your very eyes! Be sure not to apply this to your undergarments. |- | | Winter Dye | | 360 | Jars of crushed Veilwood petals are buried in the snow throughout the winter to create this popular hue. |- | | Bottled Cloud
(Exclusive collector edition dye) | Cloudy White | CE | The gentle wind of the heavens cools the air, infusing the area with a soft glow. This dye has unlimited use. |- | | Bottled Smoke
(Exclusive collector edition dye) | Smoky Black | CE | An eerie howl emanates from within as creeping shadows spill forth. This dye has unlimited use. |}

|
All-Soap's Miraculous Dye Remover
160 | The miraculous, mystical tonic that removes stains, cures rotfoot and tastes great! It's got what plants crave! Warning: Do Not Drink. | Original Color

Removed Dyes

	Dye Name	Color	Cost	Description
	Pale Dye (Removed from game)	Beige	Removed	Many commoners use sunlight and minerals to bleach their garments an off-white color. Possibly removed from the game. Same as "Bottled Cloud."
	Rogue's Dye (Removed from game)	Dark Gray	Removed	The preferred shade of those who do not wish to be seen, especially at night. Possibly removed from the game. Same as "Bottled Smoke."

Special Dyes

In addition to the normal dyes listed in the table below, there are two additional "dyes" which are not pigments themselves, but have special functions:

All-Soap's Miraculous Dye Remover: Returns a single piece of armor to its original color.
- Lore: The miraculous, mystical tonic that removes stains, cures rotfoot and tastes great! It's got what plants crave!

Warning: Do Not Drink. (Note: "It's got what plants crave!" is an Easter Egg reference to the film Idiocracy.)

Vanishing Dye: Renders a single piece of armor invisible.
- Lore: Causes materials to vanish before your very eyes! Be sure not to apply this to your undergarments.

The vanishing dye will remove the graphics for the piece of equipment in question, leaving the character in their native or "naked" state. The "naked" state is the basic look of the character before they put on any items. So it will appear that, for whichever item slot, that the character is not wearing an item, even though the stats and benefits of the item are still in effect. The dye remover, then, is able to remove the vanishing dye, making the vanished piece of gear "reappear", and also is able to remove any pigment-based dye as well.

The short video below shows the process of vanishing and then removing the vanishing dye:

Purchasing Dyes

Dyes are purchased from vendors. All dyes are available at each dye vendor but not at the same time. Their inventory refreshes every 15 minutes.

Note that Bottled Cloud and Bottled Smoke are only available in the Collector's Edition and cannot be purchased in-game.

Dye Costs

The cost will vary for dyes depending on the dye

Normal Mode: Dyes cost 360 gold.
Nightmare Mode: Dyes cost 1020 gold.
Hell Mode: Dyes cost 2160 gold.
Inferno Mode: Dyes cost 5040 gold.

Some special vendors, such as Rodger the Alchemist or Javad the Merchant, will offer special discounts on items after a vendor-based event. For Rodger, once the player begins The Sacrificial Hermit event, he will sell the player dyes at half cost.

Dye Vendors

The following vendors are able to sell dyes to the player:

The Wandering Tinker in the Fields of Misery, Tinker's Hovel.
Rodger the Alchemist, after The Sacrificial Hermit event outside Wortham in Act I.
Arghus the Collector in New Tristram (beginning in Nightmare).
Tilnan the Collector in Caldeum in Act II. (Or in the Hidden Camp after accepting The Scouring of Caldeum quest)
Javad the Merchant in the Rotting Cellar
Vidar the Collector in Bastion's Keep Stronghold in Act III, additionally in the Bridge Stores on Rakkis Crossing on occassion.
Vidar the Collector in Bastion's Keep Stronghold in Act IV.
Delilah the Collector in The Surviviors' Enclave in Westmarch in Act V.

Official Comments

A Barbarian who, quite frankly, doesn't care what you think.

More information about how dyes will be obtained and how they will function in the game came from the Diablo 3 community manager, Bashiok, who answered some fan questions about armor dyes after they were revealed at Gamescom in August 2010.

'''Bashiok:'''I wouldn't take the mechanics of how dyes will be accessed as gospel just yet, there have been many ideas on integrating them with other systems, but for the sake of implementation they're drops. They could stay that way, we'll just have to see.

''Will the dyes be used solely on individual armor pieces or will there be patterns that change the entire scheme of the character's attire as well?''
'''Bashiok: '''There are specific slots that are able to be dyed, and it's generally the slots where dying them would actually matter (ie they have some surface area to be dyed).

The dye system is also not a tinting system. And by that I mean we don't apply a color shift to the entire piece of armor. Each piece of dyable armor is specifically designed and built with certain areas that can have their color changed. It could be as simple as a strip of cloth running down a chainmail chest piece, or as complex as an entire robe. We hand craft and designate these areas, and in combination with specific colors we've chosen, we can allow players to have a lot of additional visual variety, while maintaining a controlled look and style to the game.

''Are these dyes single colors only?''
'''Bashiok:''' They're technically a two color gradient, which allows us to achieve a more natural looking coloration, but for the sake of simplicity, yes they're presented as a single color.

I think the idea of having dyes apply effects in different ways is awesome, but don't forget there are plenty of other things going on gear that could be the basis for those types of effects as well.

In a fansite Q&A[1], Blizzard confirmed that there were no special effects on dyes outside of changing an item's color:

Q. Will the Collector’s Edition dyes have any sort of “particle effect” on the items, or are they simply dying them with a unique color?
A. No they don’t have particle effects. For now they can technically only be single color gradients.

Dye Similarities and Details

Strike a pose.

While it is possible to tell the difference between a separate dye color, it isn't always easy to tell the difference between them. Sometimes the only difference can be gleaned in lighting. An example of this is seen to the left, where the Demon Hunter's shoulder armor is the summer dye, while the gloves are golden dye. Another thing to note from this image is that certain armor pieces, sometimes entire sets, have native colors that cannot be changed. In the case of this Demon Hunter, who is wearing mostly plate gear, the green fabric she is wearing is part of the armor tier's theme, and the color cannot be dyed. It is permanent.

Any "groupings" of colors are going to be similar, sometimes hard to discern depending upon the lighting of the area the player is residing in at that particular time.

However, Blizzard has shown that they've stayed true to their time-honored tradition of attention to detail. In the colorful image to the right, one may notice that even the hairs on the tassels of this Monk's helmet have been dyed, tassels which, from inside of the game, are incredibly small and difficult to see. The same is true for most items. The Monk's Astral boots, for example, are natively blue with silver metal adorning the middle and sides. When the boot is dyed, the blue is dyed the color the player has chosen, but the metal is also given a slight tint towards the color of the dye to compliment the rest of the set the player is wearing, which isn't done with most items, but is needed with such a thematically strong armor piece.

Mixing and Matching

There is nothing stopping a player from choosing a different color dye for each piece of armor, besides maybe some fear of karmic retribution for all of the retinas that are sure to be burned out. There are even achievements aimed at having the player dye their gear certain colors.

Blizzard has provided a very fair range of colors, perhaps some that players wouldn't deem "fitting" for the Diablo franchise, but options are never a bad thing for most players.

One key observation when it comes to the similarity between the dyes, is that perhaps Blizzard was aiming to not have any single dye dominant amongst the playerbase. There will surely be those fringe players who enjoy entering the arena with their fully-decked Barbarian wielding a two-handed axe and a full set of pink plate armor, but the majority of players tend to gravitate towards the more popular colors in games which allow such things, which are almost always red and black.

Blizzard has covered red with two dyes, Infernal and Cardinal, but the Abyssal dye is not black. There is no real black dye. This may be intentional on Blizzard's part to keep players from all using the same dye and ending up looking identical in the end game, but only release will tell.

Until then, players may feel free to taste the rainbow.

It's my party, and I'll dye if I want to.

Multi-dyed Items?

Players have often wondered if an item could be dyed in two or more colors. No, or at least the developers weren't planning to enable this, as of December 2011.[2]

Unfortunately, placing say, red with black and gold on a single item is not possible. You will only be able to use one single dye on an item at a time.