While you may spend most of your time crafting tools and shelter for survival in Minecraft, the game isn’t so bad to not give you anything to have fun with either casually. Several miscellaneous items can help bring colour to the blocky Minecraft life.
In this article, we’re talking about how you can get black dye in Minecraft.
Also read: What does Luck of the Sea do in Minecraft?
Black dye in Minecraft
Dyes in Minecraft work the same way as in real-life. They’re used to colour items. To colour an item black, you’d usually use an ink sac. However, starting in the Village and Pillage update (v1.14), players will have to use black dye instead.
You can use black dyes to colour the following items:
- Shulker Boxes
- Sheep
- Tamed wolves (changes collar colour)
- Wool
- Beds
- Water in cauldrons
- Banners (in crafting tables and looms)
- Terracotta
- Leather armor
Apart from dyeing items, black dye is also used for creating black concrete powder, firework stars and ballons (only in Education and Bedrock versions).
Crafting black dye in Minecraft
To craft a black dye, you’re going to need either of the following two items.
- Ink Sac: Obtained by killing squids.
- Wither Rose: Spawns when the Wither kills a mob (depending upon the mob’s location)
Once you have any of the items mentioned above, You can either use your personal inventory or the crafting table to craft a black dye from said items. Just place the item in any of the slots in a crafting grid, and you’ll get a black dye.
From the personal inventory:

From the crafting table:

Alternatively, if you’re playing in creative mode or with cheats enabled, you can use the following command to get black dyes.
/give @p black_dye 1
Also read: What do Cows eat in Minecraft?