Dye

From Guild Wars Wiki

Dye is an item type used to change the color of most armor and some items. The item is named 'Vial of Dye [color]' where color indicates the color of the dye. Dye comes in the following colors:

Black	Blue	Brown	Gray	Green	Orange	Purple	Red	Silver	White	Yellow

[edit] Value

Although merchants will always pay 1 for them (except gray, see below), there are dye traders, so make sure to check their prices before selling to other players. Traders will offer a minimum of 10 for dyes, but values may increase, especially during events that offer dyeable masks.

[edit] Usage

Dye can be applied to armor (except certain headgear, such as elementalist headgear and most special event headgear) and most weapons. It can also be applied to your backpack, belt pouch and bags.

To begin applying dye, double click the dye and then click on the item you wish to dye. This will bring up the dye preview window, which will show you a preview of how the item would look dyed. You can then drag additional dyes (up to four total) into the slots in the preview window to mix them and create more color variations. When mixing dyes, you must mix different colors, two purples and a blue will work, but the system will not allow you to use just two purples. When you are happy with your dye combination, click 'apply' to apply it. Hitting cancel at this point will close the dialog and return your dyes to their original locations.

Note that when dying your backpack, belt pouch or bags the dye will take effect immediately and you will not get a chance to preview or mix it.

Some items, such as chaos axes, dye in unexpected ways (generally the colors are inverted). The dye preview window is an excellent resource to make sure you will get the color you want.

[edit] Acquisition and trade

Vials of dye are random drops from most enemies. You can also acquire dyes from the dye traders in most major outposts, or from trading with other players.

When selling or trading dyes, be aware that all dyes have a merchant value of one gold, and this is not indicative of the actual selling price. A common scam in pre-searing Ascalon is to buy black and other more costly dyes off of new players who are unaware of the high value of these items. It is a good idea to check the price at the dye trader before selling dyes to other players, you can generally sell it for a price in between the trader's buy and sell prices, which is a good deal for both parties.

Gray dye is available from merchants for 50 gold. Be careful when trading as gray is easily mistaken for the more expensive silver dye.

A vial of random dye is given as a quest reward for To Dye For (Istan).

A vial of Red dye is given as a quest reward for the The Knights Who Say Nian quest. (Canthan New Year 2007and 2008)

[edit] Notes

• Gray dye is the default color of most newly crafted armor.
• Silver dye is similar to gray, but it will cause normally non-reflective materials, such as cloth, to become metallic-looking. This effect still works when mixed with other dyes.
• Different materials dye differently, purple on a metallic armor can look very different from purple on a cloth armor. Keep this in mind if you're trying to dye mixed armor sets.
• You do not need to dye an item back to its base color before changing it, dying an already dyed item will simply overwrite the previous dye.
• Gray dye is the replacement for a now retired item, dye remover, which was designed to reset the item back to its default color.
• When sold to a regular merchant, every dye is worth 1 gold (except gray dye which is worth 25 gold). Generally you can get a lot more gold by selling the dye to a player or dye trader.
• Black and white dyes are the least common and most sought after dyes, and thus the most expensive.
• Depending on the base skin, some dyes can be 'faked' by mixing other dyes (e.g. green = blue + yellow).
• Some items dye unusually, such as Chaos Axes. For example, applying blue dye will instead make the axe red.
• Dye from prior to the new dye system impletmented in the October 25, 2006 game update are worth 25 gold at the merchant, and do not stack with the current dye.

Bug.

Currently, using one dye will always correctly dye the item, but mixing two or more may add them to the item's base color, depending on armor. For example, adding yellow to an elementalist armor with a purple base color will make it look yellow. Adding yellow and silver will mix them with the base purple, and the result won't be 'gold-like', instead it will be yellow and silver and purple: khaki.

Bug.

Many inventory icons will not dye in the same way as the rendered model, so the equipped item will look different than the icon suggest. There are some items that even accept dyes while having no colorable areas, so they look the same regardless of the dyes used. To check the actual look of the item, players have to use a dye on the item, then remove all dye vials from the dye preview panel.

[edit] External links

• Dye Mixing on GuildWars Vault (Old, still contains dye remover)
• Dye Mixing on GuildWarsGuru Forums (Old, still contains dye remover)
• Fezz's collection of dye charts for every armor type on the OGaming forums (a work-in-progress) (old, still contains dye remover)
• The Naughty Necromancer: The female necromancer's guide to high end armor and dye (old, still contains dye remover)
• Female Elementalist Armor Dye Guide at Guild Wars Guru
• GWO Female Necromancer armor dyes
• GWO Female Mesmer armor dyes
• GWO Female Elementalist armor dyes