Heads-up display

The heads-up display (HUD) appears on screen while the player is in the game. It is superimposed on their view of the game world.

Display[]

The HUD consists of the user's health, hunger and experience bars, the hotbar, as well as a crosshair that designates the block or entity to be focused on, if the player is not playing on a mobile device and has not enabled split controls. The armor condition bar appears above the health bar if the player is wearing armor, and the oxygen bar displays above the hunger bar if the player's air supply NBT tag is below 300. Note that the health and armor bars are on the top left and the hunger and oxygen bars are on the top right if the player is in Bedrock Edition and has chosen the Pocket Edition UI.

In Creative mode, the health, hunger, oxygen, experience and armor bars are hidden.

Chat is also part of the HUD, in the bottom left corner‌^{[Java Edition only]}/top left corner‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}, showing anything recently spoken or commands recently executed. This can be expanded with T.

The textures are handled by icons.png.

Hotbar[]

The hotbar is a selection bar that appears on the bottom of the screen. It is where the player stores and selects commonly used items. It consists of the bottom nine slots within the player's inventory. The selected item also displays on the right side of the screen, or an empty fist if the slot is empty. When the player switches an item in hand by mouse wheel or 1-9, its name is shown above the experience level for a short period of time. This name appears in italics.

Players can dual wield, allowing a second item to be shown on the left (or right if the player's main hand is set to "left"), along with an additional hotbar slot on the same side. Both the slot and the item are shown only if it contains an item, which can either be added using the GUI or by pressing "swap items". In Java Edition, it shows the off-hand slot with the items equipped on the left of the hotbar. In Bedrock Edition, this is not the case, although the item is still equipped in the off-hand slot.

In Bedrock Edition, the hotbar has an additional button for the inventory. However, this is present only on mobile devices such as Android, iOS, and Windows 10 (with touch screen). On the New Nintendo 3DS Edition, the hotbar is located on the Touch Screen and is slightly different.

Paper Doll[]

The paper doll is a side-view of the player displayed in the top-left corner of the screen. It shows the player's skin and any armor worn. If the player is walking, the paper doll shows the player's legs moving. If the player is sneaking, sprint-swimming, or flying with elytra, this can also be seen.

The paper doll can be turned on and off by pressing F8 on PC.

HUD in Bedrock[]

These buttons are present only in mobile versions^{(Android and iOS)} and they serve to direct the player. It allows players to sneak and fly/jump. By going to "Touch" in the options menu, you can change the sneak and fly options.

Crosshair[]

The crosshair is a small cross in the middle of the screen. It shows the aim point of the tool or item being held. The crosshair inverts the colors of the area it is upon, which can result in a nearly invisible crosshair if the area is a medium gray. The crosshair is not shown if the player is playing on a mobile device and has turned off Split Controls.

If the option for the attack indicator is set to "Crosshair" mode, weapon cooldown time is indicated by a sword icon near the crosshair that fills, representing the cooldown progress. This sword icon disappears once the weapon is fully cooled. In this mode, if a fully cooled weapon is being held, and a mob or player is in range, the sword icon and an additional plus-sign (+) indicator is shown below the crosshair, indicating that the weapon is in range to land a full-damage blow.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Effects[]

All effects (other than Darkness^[1]) the player currently has are shown on the top-right of the screen. Effects that run out sooner appear farther to the left, and effects that are about to run out start to flash. Additionally, positive effects are shown on the top, and other effects (neutral or negative) are shown on the bottom. Beacon effects have a blue (instead of gray) outline, and effects with particles hidden are not indicated in the HUD.

Riding mobs[]

Upon mounting a camel, horse, donkey, mule, llama, pig, or strider, the mob's health bar appears above the hunger bar. The former uses a different heart texture from the player's health bar. Upon mounting a horse or camel, the horse jump bar/camel dash bar also appears above the experience bar. When riding a skeleton horse underwater, the oxygen bar, if necessary, appears above the mob health bar.

Options[]

In the options menu, the GUI scale option changes the size of the HUD and GUI. The default setting, "auto", changes the size of the HUD and GUI depending on the size of the game window.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

There is an option to hide the HUD. If the player is using keyboard controls, this can also be done with F1. In Bedrock Edition, the "Hide HUD" option toggles the hotbar, crosshair, and if using touch controls, buttons. The hand, paper doll, and coordinates are separate options.

Players can toggle the HUD, the vignette effect on fancy graphics, the pumpkin "view" and the block hitbox by pressing the F1 key. The F1 key will also toggle the surrounding darkness when using the spyglass.

The HUD also contains the debug screen,‌^{[Java Edition only]} which can be shown or hidden using F3. Pressing ⇧ Shift + F3 adds the additional pie chart showing resource allocation. Pressing Alt + F3 shows the FPS and TPS chart.

The player can choose whether to use their right or left hand.‌^{[Java Edition only]} This option also moves the off-hand slot to the opposite side.

Minecraft China[]

In Minecraft China, a "2 button" can be seen at the top of the screen. There is also a button to allow the player to take a screenshot or switch the camera and change voice settings.

At the right of the screen, a button can be seen that is used to lock walking, sprinting or sneaking. It can be useful in some situations.

Video[]

History[]

Java Edition pre-Classic
rd-20090515					Added crosshair.
					Was thin.
					Preview of currently selected block can now be seen in the top right corner.
rd-161348					Made crosshair thicker.
					Block preview is now flipped.
Java Edition Classic
0.0.2a					Added a version number to the top-left corner.
					FPS and chunk updates display below the version number.
0.0.19a					Added hotbar.
					Removed block preview.
0.0.23a					FPS and chunk updates no longer display by default.
					Now toggled via Show FPS button in the options.
0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST					Added health bar and a hand, with its front facing toward the camera.
					Held blocks appear in the hand's place when selected.
					Added oxygen bar, which appears when underwater.
					The hand animation was seen while walking when view bobbing is set to on (this has preset by default.)
Java Edition Indev
0.31		20091231-1			The player's hand is no longer visible.
		20100122			Removed arrow counter.
		20100128			Non-block items are now rendered in 3D when held in hand.
20100212-2					The crosshair now turns the opposite color of what it is covering.
20100214					Changed hand position, with the front facing left.
20100218					Added armor bar. It appeared next to health bar when any armor is worn.
Java Edition Infdev
20100611					Due to a bug, the hand was not visible. However, that was fixed in 20100617-2.
20100617-2					Changed hand position, and the invisible hand glitch has been fixed.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.13					The hand no longer animates alongside the player model when the inventory is opened.
v1.0.17					The hand animation is now present when interacting with items like doors.
v1.2.0		preview			Added function of hiding the HUD from view by pressing F1.
Java Edition Beta
1.6.5					Version number in top-left corner is now displayed only in the debug screen.
1.8		Pre-release			Version number is displayed even if not in the debug screen.
					Added hunger bar.
					Armor bar is now positioned above the hunger bar.
					Added experience bar.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease			Added level number to experience bar.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4			Version number in top-left corner is displayed only in the debug screen again.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5			The version number is again always displayed.
		release			Version number in top-left corner is displayed only in the debug screen again.
1.4.6		12w50a			When switching items in the hotbar, its name is shown on the HUD.
1.6.1		13w16a			When the player rides a horse, its health is shown on the HUD. Instead of it, the hunger bar disappears while riding, and the experience bar is replaced with the jump bar.
		13w21a			Experience levels no longer appear in Creative. Previously, the experience bar would be hidden, but experience levels would show.
1.9		15w31a			When an item or block is held in the off hand, a slot appears on the left of the hotbar (on the right for left-handers)
					When an effect is active on the player, it appears on the top-right corner of the screen. It blinks when about to run out.
					The player can now change whether their main hand is the right or left.
					Crosshairs no longer show in 3rd person view.
1.11		16w32a			The hunger bar is now visible when riding a minecart or a boat.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.2.0					Added health and oxygen bars.
v0.5.0					HUD bars moved from above the hotbar to the top left of the screen
					Name of items appear over hotbar when selected.
v0.6.0					Armor bar added along with armor
v0.7.0					Added option to edit D-pad size
					Added option to hide GUI
					Added Chat Screen button on HUD
v0.8.0		build 1			The hotbar is now transparent.
v0.9.0		build 1			Added an interaction button that appears when placing finger/crosshair over certain entities for actions other than placing, mining and hitting.
v0.11.0		build 6			Positions of items in the hotbar can now be swapped.
v0.12.1		build 1			Added hunger and experience bars.
		build 3			The hotbar now has 9 slots instead of 7.
v0.14.0		?			Changed texture of inventory button.
Pocket Edition
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			The HUD can now be set to display the same way as it does in the Java and Legacy Console Editions, when "Classic UI" is toggled on.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0		beta 1.2.0.2			Added a Hide Hand option and replaced Hide GUI with Hide HUD.
					Added paper doll.
1.2.1					The crosshair no longer appears in 3rd person view.
Legacy Console Edition
TU6	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added option to disable HUD and appearance of player hand in graphics settings.
					Added animated character.
TU9					Added HUD size options for both splitscreen and full-screen modes. Individual splitscreen users can have their own settings for HUD.
TU53	CU43	1.49	Patch 23	1.0.3	When an item is held in the off hand, a slot appears on the left of the hotbar (on the right for left-handers).

Trivia[]

• The player's hand does not disappear in first person mode after death.^[2]
• The hearts on a mounted mob's health bar resemble saddles.
• The background of each hotbar slot uses a unique texture that resembles sand.

References[]