Detonate Dead

For the Vaal-themed counterpart, see Vaal Detonate Dead.

"To a skilled practitioner of the occult, the corpses of slain foes are a tool to bend to their dark purpose. While most seek to animate the very souls of fallen enemies, a crafty handful have discovered an even more potent use. Infusing the enzymes and acids of the target's body with magical energy, the caster creates a volatile mixture that detonates violently when a final word is spoken. The explosion blasts outwards in every direction, showering nearby enemies with flame and toxic liquid. At higher levels of skill, the detonation will damage and stun foes in a wide area."

— Description on the official Path of Exile website

Detonate Dead explodes a corpse, dealing fire damage in an area around it.

Skill Functions and Interactions

• Spell damage: Spell damage modifiers don't affect Detonate Dead. Due to its nature in which it does not share the Spell keyword, modifiers such as x% increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells do not affect the skill. The corpse explosion component of the spell will receive bonuses from elemental, area, and fire damage passives and item mods.

• Partying: While in a party, the explosion ignores the increased life added for each player beyond the first and treats the monster's life as if you were solo.

• Reflect damage: The damage from the Detonate Dead explosion cannot be reflected.

• Ascendancy Interaction: Despite Detonate Dead exploiting an unused corpse, this skill does NOT satisfy the condition of consuming a corpse for the purpose of the Necromancer's Soul Eater Notable or the Ascendant's Necromancer Notable. This is easily tested by taking the Necromancer's Soul Eater, and using Detonate Dead on a corpse. The players damage does NOT increase after using Detonate Dead. However, this Notable may still be useful for the additional corpses creates by desecrate but does not increase damage after Detonate Dead is used to destroy a corpse.

Gem level progression

Level				Mana Cost	Fire Damage	Exp.	Total Exp.
1	4	0	0	5	N/A	0	0
2	6	0	0	6	N/A	841	841
3	9	17	0	6	N/A	3099	3940
4	12	21	14	7	N/A	7433	11373
5	16	26	18	8	N/A	22895	34268
6	20	31	22	9	N/A	49725	83993
7	24	37	25	10	N/A	95714	179707
8	28	42	29	11	N/A	169595	349302
9	32	47	33	11	N/A	283759	633061
10	36	52	36	12	N/A	453996	1087057
11	40	58	40	13	N/A	703128	1790185
12	44	63	44	14	N/A	1061223	2851408
13	48	68	48	15	N/A	2065870	4917278
14	52	74	51	16	N/A	2507110	7424388
15	55	78	54	16	N/A	2573731	9998119
16	58	82	57	17	N/A	7611351	17609470
17	61	86	60	18	N/A	13437908	31047378
18	64	90	62	18	N/A	25052147	56099525
19	67	94	65	19	N/A	43869436	99968961
20	70	98	68	20	N/A	242081178	342050139
21	72	100	70	20	N/A	N/A	N/A
22	74	N/A	N/A	21	N/A	N/A	N/A
23	76	N/A	N/A	21	N/A	N/A	N/A
24	78	N/A	N/A	21	N/A	N/A	N/A
25	80	N/A	N/A	22	N/A	N/A	N/A
26	82	N/A	N/A	22	N/A	N/A	N/A
27	84	N/A	N/A	23	N/A	N/A	N/A
28	86	N/A	N/A	23	N/A	N/A	N/A
29	88	N/A	N/A	24	N/A	N/A	N/A
30	90	N/A	N/A	24	N/A	N/A	N/A
31	91	N/A	N/A	24	N/A	N/A	N/A
32	92	N/A	N/A	25	N/A	N/A	N/A
33	93	N/A	N/A	25	N/A	N/A	N/A
34	94	N/A	N/A	25	N/A	N/A	N/A
35	95	N/A	N/A	25	N/A	N/A	N/A
36	96	N/A	N/A	25	N/A	N/A	N/A
37	97	N/A	N/A	26	N/A	N/A	N/A
38	98	N/A	N/A	26	N/A	N/A	N/A
39	99	N/A	N/A	26	N/A	N/A	N/A
40	100	N/A	N/A	26	N/A	N/A	N/A

Version history

Version	Changes
2.1.0	Radius increased by 22%.
2.0.0	Radius of the explosion increased by 12.5% (from 16 to 18). Damage caused by the detonation of corpses can no longer be reflected.
1.2.1	We have corrected the cast time to 800ms, as originally stated in the 1.2.0 patch notes.
1.2.0	This now deals entirely fire damage. It deals 8% of corpse life as well as flat damage. The damage increase per level has been significantly increased. The base cast time has been decreased from 850ms to 800ms. Quality on this skill now offers substantially less cast speed, from 60% cast speed at 20 quality to 20% cast speed at 20 quality.
1.1.1b	Fixed a bug that caused the damage dealt by Detonate Dead to be delayed.
1.0.0	Mana cost reduced.
0.10.2	The mana cost of Detonate Dead has been reduced at early levels so that it's around 40% cheaper. It ramps up to the same mana cost as before for high levels.
0.9.7	Slightly increased the radius of Detonate Dead's explosion.
0.9.6b	Improved the effects for Detonate Dead.
0.9.5g	Reduced the critical strike chance on Detonate Dead.
0.9.3g	Changed Detonate Dead to not have the damage scaled by mods that affect Spell Damage.
0.9.1	Fixed a crash involving Detonate Dead.