Player

The player is the character users control. The default player is known as "Steve?" (Notch puts the question mark because the name "Steve" is still not confirmed to be his real name, though the default skin is popularly known as Steve), however Notch says in a blog post that the player is genderless and refers the player as a "Human Being", not Steve. The player's skin can be changed. The player appears to be right-handed, holding all items and blocks in their right hand.

Appearance
The default player's skin has brown hair, tan skin, and blue eyes with the player wearing a cyan-blue shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and grayish-black shoes. In the Xbox 360 version the player's skin can vary from Steve to 7 other player skins (As stated below). These skins now have names with the Xbox 1.7.3 update and are listed below.

Pocket Edition
In the Pocket Edition, the player still makes the "Ooh" sound. In iOS versions of the Pocket Edition, "Steve" is named "Stevie". In Android versions of the game, he is named "Steve", as normal.

Xbox 360 Edition
In the Xbox 360 Edition, there are 8 defaulted versions of Steve for the player to use (as well as a 40-pack of new skins featuring non-Steve characters from various video games, such as 'Splosion Man from his titular indie game and Master Chief from Halo). The 8 defaults are Steve, Boxer Steve, Cyclist Steve, Tennis Steve, Scottish Steve, Prisoner Steve, Tuxedo Steve, and Athlete Steve.

Health
The player has 10 full hearts. When the player's hunger bar is at 9 points or higher, their health will slowly regenerate by half a heart every five seconds. The hunger bar depletes faster when the player does things like sprinting, jumping, attacking mobs, and mining, and it can be refilled by eating food. When the hunger bar is down to 0, the player will start starving and losing health. Prior to Beta 1.8 Adventure Update, there was no hunger.

Movement

 * Note: the numerical values used in this section are approximations based on experimentation. Slight variation from true values is possible, based on human error, and so each value also lists an error range.

The player walks at a rate of 4.31(±0.01) blocks per second. This means that they can walk a total of 5160 blocks in one Minecraft day.

As of Beta 1.8, the player is able to sprint, draining the food bar considerably (10×) faster than usual while doing so. The player is capable of sprinting approximately 5.55(±0.02) blocks per second, as opposed to the regular pace of 4.31. The player can jump four blocks horizontally when sprinting. The player cannot sprint if there are only 3 bars or fewer left in the hunger meter. Sprinting is activated by double-tapping then holding it.

Sneaking is a feature activated by holding the sneak key (default is )Sneaking prevents players from falling one or more blocks, making it highly useful for building horizontally outwards over empty space. However, if the sneak button is released while beyond the edge of a block, the player will fall down. Additionally, the player can still dismount blocks while sneaking by jumping over the block's edge.

In creative mode, the player flies at 10.88(±0.06) blocks per second.

Gameplay HUD
The onscreen heads-up display (HUD) consists of the player's health bar, hunger bar, experience bar, and hotbar. The armor rating bar appears above the health bar if the player is wearing armor and the oxygen bar appears if the player is submerged in water. The HUD also contains the reticule, held object (or fist), version and, if applicable, the unlicensed copy note. The HUD can also be removed by pressing (and pressing  again to bring it back).

Experience
Beta 1.8 introduced the ability to gain experience points via experience orbs when killing mobs. However, experience points and leveling was not yet utilized in the game until the fourth pre-release of version beta 1.9. The current level is indicated by a green number above the HUD, and the experience points can be used to enchant weapons, tools or armor with different useful attributes and skills (see enchanting table.)

The level increases by obtaining enough experience points, and all levels and experience are lost upon death.

Modes

 * In Survival Mode, the player is able to place and destroy blocks, and use all tools available. The player has limited health, hunger, and oxygen (10 hearts/drumsticks/bubbles) and it takes time to break blocks.
 * In Creative Mode, the player has the ability to fly by double tapping the key and to place infinite number of blocks, but with limited use of crafting and tools. The player cannot take damage (except from falling into the Void), has no hunger and has unlimited oxygen, and breaking blocks is instantaneous. Also, the arm length is increased from 4 to 8.
 * In Hardcore Mode, the player cannot respawn and the difficulty level is locked on hard mode. (In multiplayer, the player is automatically banned)
 * In 12w22a, a new Adventure Mode has been added, so far there are no changes aside from being unable to break or place blocks. The gamemode can only be played by having cheats enabled and typing the command "/gamemode 2"

Customization
Users can change their character's skins; this can be done on the Preferences page of Minecraft.net by uploading a PNG image file, which will then replace the default skin. For the website, see Minecraft Skins.

The Xbox 360 Edition has a separate default skin for each player. The ability to change that skin is currently now available using the Change Skin option in the game and Skin Pack 1 and Summer of Arcade skin packs are now released.

In the Pocket Edition, the player cannot change their skin and will use the default skin.

History


Before Alpha 1.0.14, the walking animation for the player was different; the player swung their arms wildly to their sides while walking as can be seen in the file archives, and in a video of Minecraft Classic from 2009 as well as in the video Zombie Town by Notch, which features the removed human mob. This animation is still used in Classic.

After the Beta update, the default texture for the player was replaced with a beardless version. The bearded version is still obtainable by downloading the reference skin at. The bearded version can often be mistaken for a smiley face.

Before the Adventure Update, the armor bar had appeared in the position that the hunger bar is currently at now.

The player can jump one block high, and two blocks long (in Classic, three blocks long). Since Beta 1.8 Pre-release 1, the player can jump 4 blocks horizontally if sprinting.

The player did not have an experience or hunger bar before 1.8 pre1.

Before Minecraft RC2, when the player was damaged, he would make a deep "Ooh!" sound which represented the player's response when hurt. However, this sound suggested that the player was male, which was not consistent/representative of female player skins, so Mojang changed the sound to make it more gender-neutral, and, as of RC2, any physical damage will play a flesh impact sound, and damage from falling would play sounds like bones breaking.

Trivia

 * The player's eye level (According to coordinates while pressing ) is 1.62 meters, if every block is assumed to be one meter tall. Using human head proportions and average sizes, this means that the player height is approximately 1.73 m (5'8"). This seems to be confirmed in an old video by Notch, as it is stated he is 1.7 meters tall.
 * The player can carry about 45 million kg. This is with a stack of Gold Blocks in every slot of the inventory, wearing gold armor and wielding a gold sword, assuming that one block is one cubic meter, and assuming that gold is the densest substance in the game (19,300 kg/m³ in real life). Fictional substances like End stone could be even denser.
 * Steve can hold his breath underwater for 10 seconds in real time. Converting real time to in-game time would mean that Steve can hold his breath for approximately 11 minutes and 40 seconds in-game time.
 * Zombies wear the same clothing as Steve. This has led to the discussion whether zombies are actually the dead bodies of past Steves.
 * The player is right handed as they hold weapons, like swords, in their right hand. But they are left eye dominant, meaning they shoot left handed by holding the stock of his bow in their right hand. An easy way of seeing this is by charging a bow and pressing.
 * Steve is featured as a Micro Mob along with a Creeper in the LEGO set 21102 LEGO Minecraft Micro World.
 * The player seems to have peripheral vision. Lights and lit objects are more visible near the edges of the display.
 * Steve is also an unlockable character in the Steam version of the game, Super Meat Boy under the name, "Mr. Minecraft". He has shorter jump height than other characters, and can mine squares from the level and place them as platforms.