If you’re new to the wonderful world of Minecraft, there’s probably a lot about the game you don’t know yet. For example, did you know torches can bear an infinite amount of weight? You can use that to make some great-looking structures. How about the fact that swords break melons and cacti fast in survival mode, but axes are the best way to get into pumpkins? As you can tell, Minecraft is a game with plenty of hidden depth to it.
One thing that’s not quite as difficult to discern as all this is how to change your Minecraft skin. It’s possible, with a tiny bit of meddling, to transform Steve (that’s the main fella) into a medieval knight, a noir-era detective and everything in between with the magic of Minecraft skins. How, though, is this achieved? How do we transform Steve into something custom and unique?
First off, if you’re playing the desktop version of Minecraft, we’ve got good news: changing skins is dead simple, especially if you want to change to a featured or pre-selected skin within the game. All you need to do is click the hanger icon below your character in the main menu and you’re away. You can choose from a series of pre-selected skins here, most of which will be featured skins the game’s developers have chosen to present to you. Some are free, some aren’t, but this is how you reach the most accessible skin-changing facility.
Changing to a custom skin in the PC version takes a little more work, but it’s still easily doable. Anyone with basic computer literacy should be able to accomplish this, so even if you’re younger or don’t quite have advanced computer knowledge, this shouldn’t trouble you. First, you’ll need to download the skin you want. There are plenty of wonderful websites around the Internet that will allow you to do this; some of the better ones include MinecraftSkins, NameMC and PlanetMinecraft.
Once you’ve done this (doesn’t matter where you save them or what the file name is), you’ll need to head over to the official Minecraft website and log in. From your profile page, click “Browse”, then find the skin or skins you’ve just downloaded. When you’ve found it, click Upload, then wait for a message to appear confirming your upload. Congratulations! You’ve just uploaded a custom skin to Minecraft. Pretty simple, right? Head into the game and check out your new skin. If you’re already logged in, you will need to “relog” (log out and in again) to let the changes take effect.
If you’ve managed to find a more recent skin, you can customise some of the features in that skin by heading to the game’s Options menu, then to Skin Customisation. There, you’ll find a host of toggles; you can switch a skin’s cape, sleeves, pant legs, hat and jacket on or off, giving you a greater degree of control over what your Minecraft skin looks like. There’s a whole wealth of skins out there just waiting to be tried out, so what are you waiting for? Give it a shot today!
If you’re a console player, we’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the process is debatably even easier than it is on PC. The bad news is that you’re limited to Mojang’s skins and the skins they’ve featured on their store, so you won’t be able to access custom skins. Luckily, most decent mid-range PCs should be able to run Minecraft without too many technical hitches, so even if you are a console player you should consider grabbing the game on PC if you’re a custom skin fanatic.
Changing your skin in the console version is simple, and follows the exact same steps as doing so on the PC version. Just head into the game’s options menu and select the skin you want, or purchase it if it’s a paid one. You won’t need to reload the game or log out; the skin will simply automatically be applied to your character with no need for excessive messing around. You are limited to the Mojang range, but Mojang is a considerate developer, so the range and breadth of skins on offer is pretty significant; you’re bound to find something you love, even if you can’t apply your custom skins!
We hope you’ve found this tutorial on how to change your Minecraft skin useful. If you want to create your own skin, there are a host of tools online including MCSkinner and Minecraft SkinEdit that will make the process simple and quick. We don’t recommend using a standard PNG editor, as this is an excessive amount of work; if you really want to, then use an image manipulation program, but the two pieces of software we’ve mentioned will do the job more than well enough for most.
