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). The player's skin can be changed.

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. 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 minecraft.net/profile, and is still used in offline mode.

Before the Beta 1.8 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 "Oof!" sound. As of RC2, any physical damage will play a gory flesh impact sound, and fall damage would play sounds like bones breaking.

Health
The player has 10 full hearts (even if he/she is in creative mode). The same goes for survival. When the player's hunger bar is at 9 points or higher, his health will slowly regenerate by half a heart every five seconds. The hunger bar depletes slowly when the player does things like running, 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 he 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 three 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 the forward button (default is "w" key) then holding it.

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 user's health bar, hunger bar, experience bar, and hotbar. The armor condition bar appears above the health bar (as of 1.8) if the player is wearing any armor. The HUD also contains the reticule, version and if applicable, the unlicensed copy note. You can also remove the HUD by pressing F1 on your keyboard (and pressing F1 again to show it again).

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. Your level is indicated by a green number above your HUD, and your experience points can be used to enchant weapons and tools with different useful attributes and skills (see enchanting table.)

Your level increases by obtaining enough experience points, and you lose all levels and experience 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/lambchops/bubbles) and it takes time to break blocks.
 * In creative mode, the player has the ability to fly by double tapping the space bar and to place infinite number of blocks, but with no use of crafting or tools. The player has unlimited health and oxygen, and breaking blocks is instantaneous.
 * In hardcore mode, you're playing survival, but you can't respawn and the difficulty level is locked on Hard.

Customizing
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.

While you can use a female custom skin, there is only one player model. This is due to the fact that when creating a skin, you are only editing the textures of the player model, and not the properties themselves. There are currently no known official plans to implement female character models or sounds.

Trivia

 * The player's eye level (According to coordinates while pressing the F3 button) is 1.62 meters, if every block is assumed to be one meter tall. Using some math, this means that the player height is approximately 1.89m (=6.2 feet). However, on a very old video by Notch, it is stated he is 1.7 metres tall.
 * In the Pocket Edition, The Player's default name is Steve.
 * In the game Super Meat Boy, the player is named Mr. Minecraft.
 * If the player is in Creative Mode they can still take damage and die in The Void.