The player looking at the different armors they can dye while at a Dyer Merchant. Aloy is standing on the right and is wearing bright red armor.

Horizon Forbidden West: How to Dye Your Armor

May 10, 2022 - 2 min read

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Reyadh is a writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction who loves to play video games full of monsters and magic. When he's not scribing unique and unrelenting speculative fiction or slaying demons in virtual worlds, he is writing strategy guides to help others reach their gaming goals.

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Marshall Gunnell

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Key Takeaway

First, you’ll need to collect Blooms to get pigments to dye your armor. You’ll then need to head to a Dyer in specific settlements to apply new colors to your armor.

Which armor you decide to wear in Horizon Forbidden West will depend on your playstyle. However, most of them have pretty bland designs. Thankfully, you can change their colors by seeking out a Dyer in certain settlements.

What You Need to Dye Your Armor

Aloy climbing a cliff and finding an Azure Bloom, which looks like a purple flower.

Before you can dye your armor, you’ll need special pigments to do so. These pigments can be found in the wild as 6 different types of Blooms. Here are all types of Blooms in Horizon Forbidden West:

Azure Bloom (purple flowers)
Crimson Bloom (red flowers)
Golden Bloom (yellow flowers)
Midnight Bloom (dark blue flowers)
Pale Bloom (light blue flowers)
Verdant Bloom (green flowers)

Where to Find Blooms

There is no set place where you can repeatedly farm specific types of Blooms. Therefore, you’ll have to explore the world and keep your eyes peeled for them. Scanning your surroundings frequently will help you find them. When scanned, nearby Blooms will have a green icon over them.

Where to Find Pale Blooms Early

Out of all Blooms, Pale Blooms seem to be the rarest, although they still will have a green icon over them when scanned. After exploring most of the Daunt and Utaru territory in the early game, only 1 Pale Bloom was found.

This individual Pale Bloom was found on a cliff while ascending towards the upper part of The Facility during the Eye of the Earth interlude. Furthermore, this interlude occurs after you complete The Dying Lands main quest.

Where to Find Dyer Merchants

Aloy about to talk with Gana, the Dyer in Plainsong. Both are standing in an room made of woven plant fibers.

Dyers are one of the rarer types of merchants in the game. As such, the first one you’ll be able to meet is in Plainsong, which is the largest village in Utaru territory.

Within the northwest section of Plainsong, you can find a Dyer named Gana. The symbol that represents Dyers on your map and your HUD compass is a mortar and pestle (a bowl with a stick in it).

The Cost of Dying Your Armors

The player looking at the cost for dying the Oseram Explorer armor. The cost is shown on the right and needs 4 different types of Blooms and Metal Shards.

Depending on which armor you want to dye, you’ll need different kinds and amounts of Blooms. Although, in addition, you’ll also need some Metal Shards. Thankfully, the later requirement is usually minimal.

If you ever want to go back to your armor’s default colors, you can. To do so, you’ll only need to select the “No Dye” option in the Dyer menu, which only costs 1 Metal Shard.

Furthermore, you only need to unlock each Dye once. Afterward, you can switch between them as you like. With this in mind, you’re free to embolden Aloy in the brightest and most dazzling fashions!

Armor Dyes and Stealth

Despite some armor Dyes being striking in appearance, they won’t affect your stealth. You can walk around looking like a literal rainbow and it won’t compromise your position any more than usual. Neither human nor machine enemies care about high fashion, it seems.