How to Get Black Dye in Minecraft: Ink & Wither Roses

You can get Black Dye in Minecraft by crafting it from an Ink Sac or a Wither Rose. There are no special patterns in the crafting process either, so you can drop one Ink Sac into any crafting slot and get a Black Dye.

While most colored Dye in Minecraft come from flowers and plants that regularly spawn, the Black Dye requires a bit of a grind. You’ll either need to dive to challenge Squids, or summon the Wither to get your hands on Wither Roses.

Quick Recipe: Black Dye

Ingredient	Amount Needed	Output
Ink Sac	1	1 Black Dye
Wither Rose	1	1 Black Dye

How Do You Craft Black Dye in Minecraft

You can craft a Black Dye in Minecraft with an Ink Sac or a Wither Rose. Both work the same way, so you’ll only need one of them to get a Black Dye.

Method	Ingredient	Difficulty	Best For
Ink Sac	1 ink sac	Easy	Early game, small projects
Wither Rose	1 wither rose	Hard	Late game, mass production

If you want to get Black Dye fast, we recommend using Ink Sacs because Squids are easier to find as they spawn in almost any ocean or river. Wither Roses take more time, and they are mostly considered when you need a large number of Black Dye.

Method 1: Ink Sacs (The Easiest & Fastest Way)

The quickest way to get Black Dye is to collect Ink Sacs from Squids, which spawn in ocean and river biomes, usually between Y-level 46 and 64. Each Squid drops one to three Ink Sacs.

Finding and Farming Squids

Squids are passive mobs in Minecraft, so finding and taking them down is quite easy. You’ll mostly find them while swimming through the open ocean or wide rivers.

If you’re looking to maximize your Ink Sac farming, we recommend taking on the Squids with a Looting III Enchanted Sword. You can get up to 6 Ink Sacs from each Squid with this method. During this process, you may also run into Glow Squids. They drop Glow Ink Sacs instead, which are used for glowing signs and item frames. They won’t craft into black dye.

Alternative Ways to Get Ink Sacs

Even with no oceans or bodies of water nearby, you can still find some Ink Sacs to craft a few Black Dyes.

• Fishing
  • A regular rod can pull up an ink sac as junk loot, but the odds are low.
• Stronghold storeroom chests
  • These chests have a chance to hold Ink Sacs.
• Wandering Traders
  • They sometimes sell 3 Black Dye for 1 Emerald in the Java edition.

Method 2: Wither Roses (The Advanced/Late-Game Way)

You can also use a Wither Rose to craft a Black Dye in Minecraft. However, getting a Wither Rose is much harder than finding an Ink Sac.

Wither Roses only appear when the Wither boss kills another mob. That means you need to summon and survive a Wither before you can collect any Wither Roses. They’re also risky to touch. Stepping on one applies the Wither effect, so handle them with care.

How to get a Wither Rose in Minecraft:

• Spawn the Wither
  • Place 4 Soul Sand or Soul Soil blocks in a T-shape, then stack 3 Wither Skeleton Skulls on top.
• Let the Wither take down a living mob
  • When the Wither eliminates a passive mob like a chicken, cow, pig, or sheep, a Wither Rose grows on the ground.
• Harvest the Wither Rose
  • You can use any tool to break a Wither Rose for crafting. Use a Shovel or a Silk Touch tool instead if you want to keep the flower whole.

Minecraft players looking to farm Black Dye or Wither Roses often place a few hundred Chickens into an enclosed pit and then summon the Wither inside. As it attacks, you’ll get a large stack of wither roses in seconds. Such farms can often be found on Anarchy servers, and there’s plenty of them on MineRank.

Comprehensive Uses for Black Dye

Black Dye in Minecraft is mostly used cosmetically to color Wool, Terracotta, Concrete Powder, and Glass. It also works across dozens of other items in the game:

• Beds, carpets, and candles
• Shulker boxes and bundles
• Signs and hanging signs, to change text color
• Sheep, dyeing their wool directly
• Tamed wolves and cats, to change collar color
• Leather armor and leather horse armor
• Banners, as a base color or pattern

Black Dye can also tint the water inside a cauldron in Minecraft Bedrock Edition.

Overall, Ink Sacs are all you need to get yourself some Black Dye in Minecraft. Squids are common, and a Looting Sword can allow you to farm a decent number of Ink Stacks in a short time.

We’d recommend saving the Wither Rose method for mega builds or large-scale projects. Which method do you use, squid hunting or a Wither Rose farm? And be honest, has a Wither ever gone off in your base before you were ready for it?

Black Dye FAQs in Minecraft

Can you get Black Dye from charcoal in Minecraft?

No. Charcoal can’t be crafted into Black Dye in Minecraft. The only Black Dye sources in the game are Ink Sacs and Wither Roses.

Are Squid Ink Sacs the only way to get Black Dye in Minecraft?

No, Ink Sacs from Squids aren’t the only way to get Black Dye. You can also use Wither Roses to craft Black Dye in Minecraft.

Which flower gives Black Dye in Minecraft?

The Wither Rose is the only flower that gives Black Dye in Minecraft.

Do any villagers give Black Dye in Minecraft?

Yes. Wandering Traders sometimes sell Black Dye in Java Edition.

What is the rarest Dye color in Minecraft?

The Black Dye is one of the harder Dye colors to come by in Minecraft because of how difficult it can be to obtain Wither Roses. While Squids offer an easy way out, most other Dyes can easily be sourced from commonly available plants on the map.