There’s an abundance of armor and clothing items that you’ll find as you play through Baldur’s Gate 3, with no shortage of unique styles and stats. All of it will come with a default color, but thankfully you can change this to your preference using various dyes that you can purchase from merchants or find as loot in the open world. On this page we’ll show you how to dye your armor, and give you tips on where you might find some of the rarer dyes in the game.
The gang with their newly-dyed armors, Baldur’s Gate 3.
How to Get Dyes for Armor and Clothes in BG3¶
The first thing you should know about dyes in Baldur’s Gate 3 is where to find them. You can actually obtain a decent number of dyes early on in the game, by speaking with merchants such as those that can be found at the Emerald Grove. Here you’ll find an assortment of basic dyes including Green, Orange, Blue, Light Blue, Ocean, Muddy Red, and more. These should suffice to give you enough customization for your first sets of armor and clothing, and they’re quite cheap to buy at no more than 20 gold or so for a stack of six.
Where to Find Rare Dyes in Baldur’s Gate 3¶
Aside from the basic dyes that can be acquired from merchants in BG3, you’ll also find rare dyes which can provide deeper hues, or just different colors that aren’t usually available from merchants. An example of this is the Brown Alabaster Dye that we found in a chest in the Owlbear cave to the northwest of Emerald Grove. This is a good example of the kind of place that you can expect to find rarer dyes: in chests and other containers which are usually located in dangerous places, so you’ll need to work a bit harder to find them!
Rare dyes can sometimes be found in chests in the open world.
How to Dye Your Armor and Clothes in BG3¶
Now that you know where to find dyes in Baldur’s Gate 3, we’ll cover how to use them from your inventory. It’s not a matter of dragging a dye to a piece of armor or clothing, but instead you’ll need to right click a specific dye, then select “Combine” from the drop-down list. A small window named Combine Items will then pop up, which contains three small boxes within. You’ll notice the dye that you clicked on in the top left box, with empty spaces in the box to the right and bottom. All you need to do is drag the item that you want to dye into the box on the right, then hit the Combine button. The dyed armor will then appear in the box below.
Can You Dye Weapons and Shields in Baldur’s Gate 3?¶
If you’re wondering about which types of items can be dyed in Baldur’s Gate 3, the answer is: most of them. Not only can you dye various pieces of armor, including footwear, gloves, breastplates, robes, helmets etc, but you can also dye the clothing that your character will be wearing while at camp. The dyes can be used not just on textiles, but also on some metals such as plates of armor. You can even dye some weapons and shields, although some are restricted due to their designs.
(1 of 3) Most merchants will have some basic dyes for sale.
There are plenty of options for dying items in Baldur’s Gate 3, but unfortunately you can’t currently dye different individual parts on the same item, such as one color for the overall textile of a robe, and another for the highlights. Instead, you’ll need to settle for whatever is dyed for you in terms of the overall appearance for an item. If you’re unsure about whether something can be dyed or not, just try to combine a dye with it to find out. The worst that can happen is you’ll get a message which says “Invalid Combination”, but since you can dye most items in the game, you shouldn’t encounter this too much.
More Baldur’s Gate 3 Guides¶
If you’re looking for more guides related to the basic mechanics of Baldur’s Gate 3, be sure to check the links below!
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Some armor that you try to dye is very hard to see the colors on the item dyed. This could be just the limit of the armor parts that can take a dye or not. Most armor has some cloth highlights which will show the color more than the metal parts. Also named weapons seem not to show off the dyes well, at least during my two or three playthroughs. I haven't been taking detailed notes. However I have seen some fairly significant colors changes in armor. You have a chance to forge a few really nice things in various places, so just try it.