Dye

Main / Skills / Alchemy / Natural substances / Dye

Dye, used to colour clothing and items with.

Dye is made from various items and water and is used to paint items and walls.

Colors

• Black - Tannin and iron lump or iron scrap (difficulty 40, hardest dye to make)
• Blue - Woad
• Green - Copper lump or copper scrap (minimum .8 kg)
• Red - Cave bug or scorpion cochineal
• White - Zinc lump or zinc scrap

Tools required

• Any container that can hold liquid, like pottery jar or small bucket

Items required

• Water
• Cochineal
• Copper lump or copper scrap
• Tannin and iron lump or iron scrap
• Woad
• Zinc lump

Method

1. Put appropriate item in inventory.
2. Put water in container.
3. Activate item.
4. Right-click on water in container and select Create > Miscellaneous > <color> dye.

Ratio

• Black - at least 1kg of water per acorn. Produces 1kg of tannin per acorn. 1kg of tannin per 1kg of iron. Larger amounts of tannin and iron produce larger amounts of dye (unconfirmed).
• Blue - at least 1kg of water per woad. Produces 1kg of dye per woad.
• Green - 1kg of water per 1kg of copper. Larger amounts of water and copper produce larger amounts of dye.
• Red - at least 1kg of water per cochineal. Produces 1kg of dye per cochineal.
• White - 1kg of water per 1kg of zinc. Larger amounts of water and zinc produce larger amounts of dye.

When using more water or tannin than metal the amount of metal determines the amount of dye produced. Sometimes a water to metal ratio that's not exactly 1:1 will only use the same amount of water as metal and leave some water in the container. You will get the message that Not all the dye would fit and the dye is lost. Therefore it is advised to use an exact 1:1 ratio.

Since combining dye results in small loss of quality it is advised to create dye from one larger piece of metal instead of many 1kg pieces.

Notes

• Resulting dye will have three color values: red, green, and blue.
• R=255 G=255 B=255 is pure white.
• Dye may be combined and the values will average out (although they will be about 2 points closer to grey across the board).
• The higher the quality is, the brighter and less grey the color will be.
• The amount of water used does not seem to affect creation chance or resulting QL or RGB value.
• Dye and water cannot be mixed to make a paler dye.
• The more difficult colors can not be made until after making some of the easier colors. Start with green, or maybe blue.
• When making dye with metal lumps, there is no need to heat them up first.
• The quality of the cochineal does not affect the success chance when creating red dye.
• If failing to make green dye:
  • A copper scrap of the same mass as the lump is created.
  • The scrap is destroyed.
• If you fail to make blue or red dye, you create pig food.
• To get rid of unwanted dye, just right-click and select Pour - don't worry, it won't leave a stain.

Usage

1. Activate dye.
2. Right-click on item and select 'Paint'.

Paintable items include: building walls, chests, barrels, buckets, signs, carts, catapults, pottery, lanterns, statues, and ships.

The amount of dye used depends on the item being painted:

Object	Amount, kg
Bed	5.76
Bucket	0.10
Chair	0.15
Cheese drill	0.09
Cog	819.84
House wall	1.00
Huge tub	18.00
Lamp	0.06
Lantern	0.015
Large barrel	2.00
Large cart	24.60
Large chest	2.40
Metal torch	0.02
Rowing boat	12.10
Shop sign	0.01
Small barrel	0.36
Small cart	6.05
Small chest	0.36
Small raft	6.05
Small sailing boat	12.10
Small sign	0.01
Spirit castle	2.00
Statues	0.16 to 3.33
Statuette	0.00

Removal

To remove dye from a painted object, use a metal brush on it.