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] Usage

Dye can be applied to armor (except certain headgear, such as most elementalist or paragon headgear and some common armor) and most weapons. It can also be applied to your backpack, belt pouch and bags. (festival hats can sometimes be dyed).

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 satisfied 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.

[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, from your guild hall (if dye trader was hired), or from trading with other players.

When selling or trading dyes, be aware that all dyes have a merchant value of 1, and this is not indicative of the actual selling price. Traders will offer to buy dyes for a minimum of 10, and will sell any dye they have in stock for a minimum price of 100, but these values may increase, especially during events that offer dyeable masks.
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. 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 2007 , 2008 and 2009).

[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.
• Each item dyes differently, purple on Warrior Platemail armor can look very different from purple on a Ranger Tyrian armor. Also 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. (Warning! See bug note below!)
• Dye from prior to the new dye system implemented in the October 25, 2006 game update are worth 25 at the merchant, and do not stack with the current dye.
• 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. The dye preview window is an excellent resource to make sure you will get the color you want.

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 a female Elementalist Krytan armor, which has a purple base and orange chrome, 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.

Some inventory icons will not dye in the same way as their respective rendered models, so the equipped item will look different than the icon suggest. The icon may be dyed, but not the actual item, and vice versa.

Bug.

There are some items that accept dyes but have no colorable areas, so any dye used on them will go to waste. Some bonus items behave like this.

[edit] Trivia

• There was a big dye update on Friday October 27, 2006.
  • Dye Remover, which was designed to reset the item back to its default color, was replaced for gray dye.
  • Prior this update, dye were applied immediately and color mixes were done without the Dye Preview, hence only possible by directly applying the accordant vials to another to create Mixed Dye before using them on armor or weapons.
  • White and brown dye colors have been added to the game.
  • The inventory icon appearance of these items changed.
• With another update, all vials got renamed from "<Color> Dye" to "Vial of Dye [<Color>]".
  • Other languages used this naming system already before, e.g. German.

[edit] External links

• Dye Mixing on GuildWars Vault (Old, still contains dye remover)
• Dye Mixing on GuildWarsGuru Forums (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