White dye is one of the most used dyes in Minecraft. You need it for white concrete, white stained glass, white terracotta and banners, and it is mixed with other dyes to make light gray, gray, pink, light blue and lime. Luckily it is easy to get once you know the two sources. This guide explains how to make white dye in Minecraft, where to get bone meal and lilies of the valley, how to farm white dye in bulk, and everything white dye is used for.
Quick answer: how to make white dye
- From bone meal: put 1 bone meal in any crafting grid to make 1 white dye.
- From lily of the valley: put 1 lily of the valley in any crafting grid to make 1 white dye.
Both recipes fit in your 2 by 2 inventory grid, so you do not need a crafting table. They work on Java, Bedrock and consoles.
Method 1: Bone meal
Get bones
- Skeletons, strays and bogged drop 0 to 2 bones when killed. Skeletons spawn in the dark at night and in caves.
- Fishing can pull up bones as junk.
- Chests in dungeons, desert temples, mineshafts and strongholds often contain bones.
- Fossils underground in deserts and swamps are made of bone blocks. One bone block crafts into 9 bone meal.
Turn bones into bone meal
Put 1 bone in a crafting grid to get 3 bone meal. So each bone becomes 3 white dye. A stack of bones becomes almost three stacks of dye.
Use a composter
A composter turns seeds, leaves, crops and other plant material into bone meal. Fill it with spare seeds and saplings from your farms and it gives you bone meal without killing anything.
Method 2: Lily of the valley
The lily of the valley is a small white flower with bell-shaped blooms. It grows in forests, flower forests and birch forests, among other flowers. Pick it by breaking it. Each flower crafts into 1 white dye.
To farm it, use bone meal on a grass block in a biome where lilies of the valley grow. Bone meal on grass spawns random flowers from that biome, including lilies. Be careful: a lily of the valley is poisonous in suspicious stew.
Which method is better?
| Method | Speed early | Speed late | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bone meal from skeletons | Medium | Very fast with a farm | Huge amounts for concrete builds |
| Bone meal from a composter | Slow | Steady | Using up spare crops |
| Lily of the valley | Fast if you find a flower forest | Medium | Early game, peaceful play |
How to farm white dye
Skeleton spawner farm
Find a dungeon with a skeleton spawner. Light the room around it, build a dark box with water channels pushing skeletons to a single drop, and collect bones and arrows in hoppers. It gives bones, arrows and experience at the same time.
General mob farm
A dark-room mob farm high above the ocean spawns skeletons along with other mobs, so you get bones, string, gunpowder and rotten flesh together.
Flower farm
In a flower forest, flatten a patch of grass, bone meal it repeatedly and collect the flowers. Lily of the valley, oxeye daisy, cornflowers and tulips all drop, giving you white, light gray, blue and other dyes from one place.
What white dye is used for
- White wool, carpet and beds: dye wool or a sheep white. White sheep already exist, so this is mostly for re-coloring.
- White concrete: 4 sand, 4 gravel and 1 white dye make 8 white concrete powder. See how to make concrete.
- White stained glass: 8 glass around 1 white dye. See how to make glass.
- White terracotta: 8 terracotta around 1 white dye. See how to make terracotta.
- Banners, candles, shulker boxes, firework stars and leather armor.
- Sign text: use white dye on a sign to make the text white.
Colors you can mix with white dye
| Mix | Result |
|---|---|
| White and black | 2 gray dye |
| White and gray | 2 light gray dye |
| 2 white and 1 black | 3 light gray dye |
| White and red | 2 pink dye |
| White and blue | 2 light blue dye |
| White and green | 2 lime dye |
For every other color, see the full Minecraft dye guide, plus black dye and green dye.
White dye in Java vs Bedrock
On Java Edition, bone meal and white dye are separate items, so you must craft bone meal into white dye before using it in dye recipes. On Bedrock Edition, bone meal can be used directly in many dye recipes, such as dyeing wool or sheep, without converting it first. Lily of the valley works the same in both editions.
Tips
- Do not use all your bone meal on crops. Keep some for white dye and some for growing trees.
- Kill skeletons with a Looting sword for more bones.
- Fossils are a great surprise source: one fossil can hold dozens of bone blocks.
- Keep a chest of white dye ready before starting a large white concrete or quartz-style build.
Common mistakes
- Using bones instead of bone meal: a bone does not turn into white dye directly. Craft the bone into 3 bone meal first, then craft each bone meal into a white dye.
- Wasting bone meal you need for crops: bone meal is also the fastest way to grow crops and trees, so keep a stack aside for farming and use a composter or skeleton farm for the extra.
- Confusing lily of the valley with other flowers: it has small white bell-shaped flowers. Oxeye daisies and azure bluets make light gray dye instead, not white.
- Forgetting the wandering trader: wandering traders sometimes sell white dye for an emerald, which is a handy shortcut early in a world.
Once you have a skeleton farm or a composter line feeding bone meal into a crafting area, white dye becomes one of the cheapest items in the game.
FAQ
How do you get white dye in Minecraft?
Craft 1 bone meal or 1 lily of the valley into 1 white dye.
How many white dye does one bone make?
One bone makes 3 bone meal, which make 3 white dye.
Where do lilies of the valley grow?
In forests, flower forests and birch forests.
Can you use bone meal as white dye?
On Java you must craft it into white dye first. On Bedrock, bone meal works directly in many dye recipes.
How do you make light gray dye?
Combine white dye with gray dye, or 2 white dye with 1 black dye.
Checked by the Game Respawned editorial team against the current Java and Bedrock versions. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.