Minecraft wiki entry for Combat, associated text: If the player does not plan to harvest the gunpowder or experience from a creeper, one way to deal with one is to just let it blow up. The safest way to blow up a creeper is with a flint and steel. Just simply use the flint and steel on the creeper, and run away before it explodes. Although the creeper drops nothing this way, it's still effectively dead, and can no longer harm the player. If the creeper is next to multiple other monsters, the player can kill all of them by simply lighting the creeper up.