Player

The player is the character that can be controlled in Minecraft. The two default player skins are known as Steve (a name suggested by Notch as a joke and confirmed on the 'Profile' page near the section that allows you to change your skins) and Alex, with all unchanged skins being split between the two default skins. In the End Poem, after beating Minecraft you are called a player. Steve is a male skin and Alex is a female skin.

Appearance
There are two default player skins, typically known as Steve and Alex, assigned to each player based on their account ID if they do not use a custom skin.

Steve has dark brown hair, dark skin, nose and mouth, and blue eyes, with a light blue shirt (un-tucked on the left hand side and in the back), a pair of blue jeans, gray shoes, and 4px arms.

Alex has long bright orange hair hanging to the left side, pale white skin, and dark green eyes, with a light-green shirt (un-tucked on both sides, and a dark green belt wrapped around it), a pair of brown pants, grayish boots, pinkish lips, and 3px arms.

Both player skins are intended to be generic representations of a human being, although the player's skin can be changed.

In the Console Edition, the player's default skin can vary from Steve or Alex to seven other player skins, as listed here. Multiple skin packs are also available for purchase on the Xbox Live Marketplace, the PlayStation Network, and the Nintendo Network.

The player is 1.8 blocks tall, 1.65 blocks tall when sneaking, 0.6 blocks tall when gliding and 0.6 blocks wide.

Pocket Edition
In the Pocket Edition, you can choose between Alex and Steve like in the PC version, which will set both the skin and the model for custom skins. However, the Pocket Edition also allows the usage of skin packs, each of which has a selection of free skins. Some skins can be purchased as DLC.

Console Edition
In the Console Edition, there are 8 defaulted versions of both Steve and Alex for the player to use, with each of the two having a default, boxer, cyclist, tennis outfit, country, prisoner, tuxedo, and athletic suit. The various skins change not only the outfit, but also tend to change the skin, eye, and hair color. The Console Edition also contains additional skins using skin packs, which can be purchased as DLC. They feature many characters other than Steve and Alex, who are often from other video games.

Health and hunger meters
The player has 10 full hearts or 20 health points. One full heart represents two health. When the player's hunger bar is at or higher, their health will slowly regenerate by  every four seconds, but when it is at, their health will regenerate by  every half second. 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. If the hunger bar is at or lower, the player will not regenerate health unless in Peaceful difficulty (or under the effect of certain potions). If the hunger bar is down to, the player will start starving and losing health. On Hard difficulty, starvation will kill you. On normal difficulty, it will bring you down to. On easy difficulty, it will bring you down to. On peaceful difficulty, the health bar will recover regardless of hunger but will still take starvation damage, and the hunger bar will not lose any points, even when under the effect of hunger. Notably, if the player is killed, right after the death, the death screen is shown. If you exit, and re-enter, the same screen will show up.

Movement
The player walks at a rate of about 4.317 meters (blocks) per second. This means that the player can walk a total of 5181 blocks (5.2 km) in one Minecraft day.

The player is able to sprint, draining the food bar considerably (10×) faster than usual while doing so. The player sprints approximately 5.612 blocks per second, as opposed to the regular pace of 4.317. The player can jump four blocks horizontally when sprinting. The player cannot sprint if the hunger bar is at or less. Sprinting is activated by double-tapping the forward key (default ) then holding it, or by holding the sprint key ( by default) while pressing the forward key. Holding the sprint key in creative mode causes the player to fly faster.

Sneaking is a feature activated by holding the sneak key (default is ). Sneaking prevents players from falling more than half a block, making it highly useful for building horizontally outwards over empty space. If you are past the edge of a block and you stop sneaking, you will not fall off of that block. Additionally, the player can still dismount blocks while sneaking by jumping over the block's edge.

The maximum height a player can jump without the "jump boost" effect is about 1.252 blocks.

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 crosshair, and held object (or fist). The HUD can also be toggled by.

Experience
Experience points (XP) can be gained via experience orbs when killing mobs or mining certain minerals. 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.) Anvils require experience to use.

The level increases by obtaining enough experience points. All levels and experience are lost upon death, but can be partially restored by picking up the experience orbs at the place of death.

Experience is also obtained through activities such as fishing, animal breeding, trading or smelting.

Modes

 * In Survival mode, the player is able to place and destroy blocks, and use all tools available. The player has limited health (heart icons), hunger (drumstick icons), and oxygen (bubble icons) and it takes time to break blocks.
 * In Creative mode, the player has the ability to fly by double tapping the jump key (default ) and to place infinite number of blocks, but with limited use of crafting and tools. All mobs won't attack the player. The player cannot take damage (except from falling into the Void, or, with cheats enabled, typing the command ), has no hunger and has unlimited oxygen, and breaking blocks is instantaneous.
 * In Hardcore mode, the player cannot respawn (but may choose to spectate) and the difficulty level is locked on hard mode. (If playing on a hardcore multiplayer server, the player is automatically banned from that server when they die.)
 * In Adventure mode, there are no changes from Survival mode aside from being unable to break or place blocks unless they possess a tool with the CanDestroy NBT data tag for that block, or have a block with the CanPlaceOn tag. This game mode can only be played by having cheats enabled and typing the command, , or , or by just opening a multiplayer (including LAN) world.
 * In Spectator mode, you can see inside an entity, ride them as if you were in a minecart, fly through blocks, and open inventories, but you cannot break blocks or change inventories. Along with Adventure Mode, it can only be accessed by typing in, , or . However, with the Debug Mode world type, the gamemode is locked as Spectator Mode.

Name
Players in game are referred to by a username, which was chosen by the player upon purchase of Minecraft. This username is used to target the player with commands and differentiate other players. The username must be 3-16 characters (although there are some exceptions of players with under 3 characters). Players can also change their username, but only once every 30 days. The console versions use gamer tags or PSN names. Pocket Edition users can choose their username and change it unlimited times, or sign in with an Xbox LIVE account.

The name appears above the player's head, in a nameplate that is visible even through blocks, allowing a player to be identified even through obstructions. A player can sneak, however, which will dim the nameplate's visibility when the player is in sight, and will hide the nameplate completely when the player is out of sight.

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. Players will also have the option to have three or four pixel wide arms on their character model.

The Console Edition has a separate default skin for each player. The ability to change that skin is available using the Change Skin option in the game. People who already have the removed skin packs can still use them and even re-download them (so they're still being hosted). If the removed skin packs are redownloaded on someone else's console they will become available to any profile on that console (provided the skin pack doesn't have a demo version to default back to).

In the Pocket Edition, the player can change the skin by opening the settings from the main menu and going to the skin settings. The two default skins are Alex and Steve but you can get your own skin by the "Custom" button.

Trivia

 * The player's eye level (According to coordinates while pressing ) is 1.62 meters. Since their eyes are 28 pixels above their feet, leaving 4 pixels above their eyes (.23m), this makes them 1.85 meters tall and 0.925 meters wide. However, the player's hitbox is 1.8m tall and 0.6m wide, the hitbox of a crouching player is 1.65m tall, and the hitbox of a player gliding with elytra is 0.6m tall.
 * The Player's total cubic volume is 1664 cubic pixels, and since each player pixel is 193.67 cubic centimeters, the player's total volume is 322,273 cubic centimeters. The average human body weighs 1.062 grams/cubic centimeter. This means that the player's weight is approximately 342 kg (754 lbs). With these figures, the player would have a BMI of approximately 105.5, where a person with a BMI of ≥30 would be considered obese.
 * The player seems to have peripheral vision. Lights and lit objects are more visible near the edges of the display (only with graphics set to "fast").
 * The sides of your field of view are stretched out (for example wait until sunset and look at the sun out of the corner of the screen. It will be twice as wide as tall). This may be referring to real life because humans focus on certain objects in our field of vision, and everything else is blurry until we focus on it. It also may be due to the change from the original 4:3 aspect ratio to 16:9. Simply stretching the sides accomplishes this without actually changing anything.
 * The player can also have its arm width switched from the normal 4x12x4 pixel arms, to the new 3x12x4 arms. This causes the arms to become slightly thinner than the original and creates more varieties of custom skins for the player.
 * Mojang has said that Alex "looks kinda like Jens from some angles".
 * Steve originally had what was intended to look like a goatee on his face. It was eventually removed, likely because too many people saw it as a big smile.
 * In the July–August 2016 issue of Lego Club Magazine, it is mentioned that Steve is Alex's boyfriend. It is also mentioned that Steve is a miner, builder, and alchemist, while Alex is a builder, explorer, and hunter.

Publicity

 * Steve is featured as a Micro Mob along with a creeper in the LEGO set 21102 LEGO Minecraft Micro World.
 * Steve is an unlockable character named "Mr. Minecraft" in the Steam version of Super Meat Boy. The character has a shorter jump height than other characters, but can mine squares from the level and place them as platforms.
 * Steve's head is an unlockable helmet in the Xbox Arcade game, Hybrid.
 * Steve's head is a wearable item in Borderlands 2.
 * Steve's head is a wearable hat in DinoRun SE.
 * Steve is a playable character in Retro City Rampage.
 * Steve is a uniform named "Craft Miner" in Saints Row 4.
 * Steve is an unlockable character with a projectile that looks like a stone pickaxe in the game Alone in the Park.
 * Steve is an outfit named "Pitman", wielding an iron pickaxe and able to break barriers, in the flash game Strikeforce Kitty 2.
 * "Mr. Pixel" in Createrria: craft your games has a face similar to Steve's.