Kyber crystals are one of the most powerful and mysterious objects in the Star Wars universe.
Part of that mystery comes from the many varieties of kyber crystals. There are common differences like color and rarer ones like power and lightsaber effects.
Lightsaber colors like blue, green, and red are the most common colors in Star Wars media. There are also less common ones like purple, yellow, and white.
Like the color, the most obscure of these is the black kyber crystal.
Black kyber crystals don’t make a notable appearance. So where can it be found, and why is it so rare?
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Are Kyber Crystals Rare in Star Wars?
Kyber crystals were historically used almost exclusively by the Jedi Order. Their devotion to these crystals made many harvesting sites sacred to them.
But the Jedi weren’t the only ones with access to kyber crystals. Even people who weren’t force-sensitive have owned and used them.
That begs the question: are kyber crystals rare or not?
Harvesting Kyber Crystals
Like any resource, the natural availability of kyber crystals is the primary limitation.
Within Star Wars Canon, there is no process to create kyber crystals synthetically.
Only natural kyber crystals exist, making them a limited resource.
Kyber crystals were harvested for use in lightsabers and superweapons like the Death Star. And through creating both, many kyber crystals were cracked or destroyed.
To harvest new kyber crystals, a person had to be force—sensitive or know the sites’ location.
These factors make harvesting new kyber crystals extremely difficult and directly impact their rarity.
As if that weren’t hard enough, the Jedi and Sith were major roadblocks to overcome before the harvesting could begin.
Jedi and Sith Controlling Kyber Crystal Supply
Kyber crystals’ power and scarcity made them an important tool in the battle between Jedi and Sith. To prevent each other from being stronger, both sides worked hard to restrict access to kyber crystals.
The best example of this is the Jedi’s protection of the planet Ilum.
Ilum had been a sacred planet even before the formation of the Jedi Order. It was where Jedi Padawan would go to collect their kyber crystal for their lightsaber.
Many Jedi believed that the Order’s history with Ilum made its kyber crystals their sole and rightful property.
This belief combined with the crystals’ power made the Jedi Order very protective of Ilum and kyber crystals in general.
Likewise, when the Sith claimed control over a kyber crystal source, they defended it and restricted access.
Despite the galaxy’s two superpowers having control over kyber crystals, a few occasionally fell from their reach.
These stray kyber crystals could be found in black markets all around the galaxy.
Black Market Kyber Crystals
The rarity, power, and mysticism surrounding kyber crystals made them perfect items for black markets.
Black-market kyber crystals were usually sourced from uncontrolled harvesting sites, abandoned battlefields, or stolen lightsabers.
Occasionally, a Sith would sell the lightsaber(s) they got from Jedi they defeated.
Due to the difficulty of obtaining a complete lightsaber, it was much more common to find the kyber crystals on their own. When they were available, lightsabers were valued much more than a lone crystal.
Besides the difficulty in obtaining kyber crystals, their distribution and sale were made illegal during the Empire’s rule.
Their rarity combined with the risk of selling them drove their prices high, making kyber crystals scarcer.
Kyber Crystals’ Rarity
It’s safe to say that kyber crystals, despite being relatively common, were an extremely rare item.
How rare they were also depended on the era. Once the Jedi and Sith became superpowers, the sources of kyber crystals became tightly regulated.
There isn’t evidence of it to trace back in Canon, but it can be assumed that they would’ve been more accessible before the formation of the Jedi Order.
How Rare Is the Black Kyber Crystal in Star Wars?
Lightsaber colors like blue, green, and red are commonly seen in Star Wars, but black rarely appears.
The most notable appearance of a black lightsaber is the Darksaber, historically owned by The Mand’alor.
There is still ambiguity, though. Colored kyber crystals have been referenced directly, but never a black kyber crystal.
The Darksaber’s color has never been officially explained.
Is it possible that the Darksaber has a black kyber crystal?
Black Kyber Crystals in Canon
There’s not much information in Canon about true black kyber crystals.
We can speculate from the information we have, though!
The best place to start is with the Darksaber, a lightsaber with a thin and uniquely black blade.
In Canon, kyber crystals are naturally colorless. They gain their color when a force user attunes themselves to the crystal.
The resulting color is a direct reflection of the person’s essence.
There are two exceptions to this rule: red and white kyber crystals.
Red crystals have been corrupted to the dark side in a process called “bleeding.”
Conversely, white is produced by purifying a bled crystal.
Tarre Vizsla, the Mandalorian Jedi Knight
A kyber crystal can be black if the force user’s soul aligns with it.
In this case, the rarity of black kyber crystals makes sense.
The Darksaber was created by Tarre Vizsla, the first—and only—Mandalorian to be allowed into the Jedi Order. The unique Mandalorian culture could have led to his kyber crystal becoming black.
The creation of the Darksaber isn’t detailed, so this is just one possibility.
Creating a Black Kyber Crystal
Kyber crystals can’t be created from scratch in Canon, but they can be processed. Red and white kyber crystals are the two known examples of this.
Since it’s possible to alter kyber crystals after their color has formed, there is a way to have a black kyber crystal.
Black is the opposite of white, so a black kyber crystal can also be formed by the transformation of a kyber crystal.
Tarre Vizsla lived during a time of great conflict between Jedi and Sith. That means that white kyber crystals could have existed at the time.
Vizsla could have transformed a white kyber crystal to turn black for the Darksaber.
It’s unlikely due to the Jedi’s lightsaber construction process, but there isn’t enough information to confirm or deny that.
Black Kyber Crystals in Legends
Star Wars Legends contains a handful of other dark kyber crystals. This includes an expansion of what’s possible for the Darksaber’s kyber crystal.
There are more possibilities because in Legends it’s possible to create synthetic kyber crystals.
The Darksaber in Legends
One of the biggest things that separate Star Wars Canon from Legends is how kyber crystals work.
In Canon, kyber crystals can’t be created and they’re naturally colorless. They only gain their color when attuned to a force user.
By contrast, Legends has many instances of synthetic kyber crystals and natural crystals are already colored.
This means that the Darksaber could have a naturally occurring black kyber crystal in it.
If this is the case, the black kyber crystal would be one of the rarest kyber crystals.
Why Is the Black Kyber Crystal So Rare?
It’s strange that out of all the possible kyber crystal colors, black is only seen in one case.
Given the association with black and darkness, it seems as if it should be a common color for Sith to have.
So why don’t they appear more often?
Tarre Vizsla and the Blackwing Virus
A Canon explanation for the rarity of black kyber crystals has to do with Tarre Vizsla.
Vizsla was the only Mandalorian to be a part of the Jedi Order. Although he shared enough qualities to be allowed in, his culture was still ingrained.
This means that when he attuned himself to the kyber crystal, his warrior-like nature could’ve caused the kyber crystal to turn black.
There is another example in Legends besides the Darksaber.
During the Galactic Civil War, the Empire experimented with many extreme bioweapons. One of them was the Blackwing virus.
This vicious virus corrupted the afflicted person into an undead being. Because kyber crystals were a form of a living entity, they could be affected too.
When this happened, it created a rare type of kyber crystal called a Blackwing crystal.
A lightsaber using a Blackwing crystal would produce a dark and sooty blade.
What Is the Rarest Color of Kyber Crystal?
Black is an extremely rare color for kyber crystals. But it’s not the only rare color!
In Canon and Legends, there are examples of kyber crystal colors that are just as rare as black.
Rare Colors in Canon
Besides black, there are a couple of rare kyber crystal colors: white and cyan.
Both colors have only been used in Canon by a single person so far.
White kyber crystals are exclusively used by Ahsoka Tano.
She uses the red kyber crystals from defeated Sith and purifies them. The purification process gives the crystals a white color.
A cyan lightsaber is only canonically used in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
In the game, the player can choose to use a cyan kyber crystal after collecting one.
Rare Colors in Legends
There are only two types of kyber crystals in Legends that could be rarer than a black one. They are brown kyber crystals and Blackwing crystals.
The only known case of a brown kyber crystal comes from Ood Bnar, a Jedi Master. His lightsaber produced a unique brown blade.
When Bnar was killed after sacrificing himself to protect others, his kyber crystal earned the name “Bnar’s Sacrifice.”
The other color is the aforementioned Blackwing crystal. Although the color is similar, it’s different from a black kyber crystal because of how it was made.
These crystals were tough to collect because any contact with the virus would swiftly kill someone.
When they were collected and used, the lightsaber’s blade would be an eerily dark and smoky color.
Conclusion
Throughout the Star Wars universe, black was one of the rarest kyber crystal colors. This fact is true in Canon and Legends.
Even regular kyber crystals were difficult to collect because of the restrictions in place.
Kyber Crystal Rarity
The Jedi Order viewed many kyber crystal sites as sacred to their religion. Due to their long history using kyber crystals, they also believed that they had the natural right to all of them. The belief led to strict control of the crystals.
Black Kyber Crystals
The only occurrence of a true black kyber crystal was the Darksaber.
The Darksaber was a lightsaber created by the only Mandalorian to be a Jedi, Tarre Vizsla.
There are no details in Canon or Legends that describe how Vizsla obtained a black kyber crystal for the Darksaber.
Some possibilities include the kyber crystal uniquely attuning to a Mandalorian or a process like the creation of white kyber crystals.
Other Rare Kyber Crystal Colors
Besides black kyber crystals, there are a few colors that are just as rare—if not rarer.
White and cyan kyber crystals are some of the rarest colors in Canon. These colors have only been used by two separate people so far: Ahsoka Tano and Cal Kestis respectively.
In Legends, the two rarest colors are from unique crystals, Bnar’s Sacrifice and Blackwing crystals.