Minecraft wiki entry for Things_not_to_do, associated text: When all else fails, the player could at least get the creeper to explode as far away from themselves as possible. Ironically, this is the easiest to do on the "Hard" difficulty setting, since creepers are less likely to cancel detonation from further distances in harder settings than easier ones. It is even possible in some situations to persuade a creeper to explode without causing any damage to the player at all. Their explosion causes damage to the environment unless the creeper is partially in water or lava. Thus, ideally, the player may want to move the creeper into the water before it explodes to decrease damage to the environment.