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 is a Spell that explodes a corpse, dealing secondary damage as fire in an area around it.

Skill functions and interactions

• Secondary damage: Detonate Dead's explosion deals secondary damage, hence it cannot be affected by stats affecting spell damage, including ones such as x% increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells. However the corpse explosion component of the spell will receive bonuses from elemental, area, and fire related stats.

• 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 the player was solo.

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

• Blocking: The damage from the Detonate Dead explosion cannot be blocked

Gem level progression

Level				Mana Cost	Fire Damage	Exp.	Total Exp.
1	4	0	0	5	15 to 22	0	0
2	6	0	0	6	21 to 32	841	841
3	9	17	0	6	32 to 42	3099	3940
4	12	21	14	7	36 to 53	7433	11373
5	16	26	18	8	48 to 72	22895	34268
6	20	31	22	9	63 to 94	49725	83993
7	24	37	25	10	80 to 121	95714	179707
8	28	42	29	11	102 to 153	169595	349302
9	32	47	33	11	128 to 192	283759	633061
10	36	52	36	12	159 to 238	453996	1087057
11	40	58	40	13	195 to 293	703128	1790185
12	44	63	44	14	239 to 359	1061223	2851408
13	48	68	48	15	291 to 436	2065870	4917278
14	52	74	51	16	352 to 529	2507110	7424388
15	55	78	54	16	406 to 609	2573731	9998119
16	58	82	57	17	466 to 699	7611351	17609470
17	61	86	60	18	535 to 802	13437908	31047378
18	64	90	62	18	612 to 918	25052147	56099525
19	67	94	65	19	700 to 1049	43869436	99968961
20	70	98	68	20	798 to 1197	242081178	342050139
21	72	100	70	20	871 to 1306	N/A	N/A
22	74	N/A	N/A	21	950 to 1424	N/A	N/A
23	76	N/A	N/A	21	1035 to 1552	N/A	N/A
24	78	N/A	N/A	21	1127 to 1691	N/A	N/A
25	80	N/A	N/A	22	1227 to 1841	N/A	N/A
26	82	N/A	N/A	22	1335 to 2003	N/A	N/A
27	84	N/A	N/A	23	1452 to 2178	N/A	N/A
28	86	N/A	N/A	23	1579 to 2368	N/A	N/A
29	88	N/A	N/A	24	1716 to 2573	N/A	N/A
30	90	N/A	N/A	24	1863 to 2795	N/A	N/A
31	91	N/A	N/A	24	1942 to 2913	N/A	N/A
32	92	N/A	N/A	25	2023 to 3035	N/A	N/A
33	93	N/A	N/A	25	2108 to 3162	N/A	N/A
34	94	N/A	N/A	25	2196 to 3294	N/A	N/A
35	95	N/A	N/A	25	2287 to 3431	N/A	N/A
36	96	N/A	N/A	25	2382 to 3573	N/A	N/A
37	97	N/A	N/A	26	2481 to 3722	N/A	N/A
38	98	N/A	N/A	26	2584 to 3875	N/A	N/A
39	99	N/A	N/A	26	2690 to 4035	N/A	N/A
40	100	N/A	N/A	26	2801 to 4202	N/A	N/A

Related helmet enchantments

The following helmet enchantments affect Detonate Dead.

Note that helmet enchantments are no longer obtainable since version 3.23.0 and can only be obtained in permanent leagues as already enchanted items from before this patch.

Name		Labyrinth	Stats	Spawn Weighting
Enchantment Detonate Dead Damage 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	25% increased Detonate Dead Damage	helmet 100
Enchantment Detonate Dead Damage 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	40% increased Detonate Dead Damage	helmet 100
Enchantment Detonate Dead Percent Chance To Detonate Additional Corpse 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	Detonate Dead has a 30% chance to detonate an additional corpse	helmet 100
Enchantment Detonate Dead Percent Chance To Detonate Additional Corpse 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	Detonate Dead has a 45% chance to detonate an additional corpse	helmet 100
Enchantment Detonate Dead Area Of Effect 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	16% increased Detonate Dead Area of Effect	helmet 100
Enchantment Detonate Dead Area Of Effect 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	24% increased Detonate Dead Area of Effect	helmet 100

Version history

Version	Changes
3.1.0	Detonate DeadDetonate DeadSpell, AoE, Fire Level: (1-20) Cost: (5-20) Mana Cast Time: 0.60 sec Critical Strike Chance: 6.00% Effectiveness of Added Damage: 160% AoE Radius: 22Requires Level 4Targets a corpse, and deals spell damage to enemies around the corpse, as well as causing the corpse to explode, dealing fire damage. The explosion is not affected by modifiers to spell damage and cannot be reflected.Deals (15-798) to (22-1197) Fire Damage Explosion deals base Fire Damage equal to (6-7.9)% of the corpse's Maximum Life Base radius is (2.2-2.6) metres Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality: (0.75-15)% chance to detonate an additional corpsePlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket. now deals spell damage based on the level of the skill gem, in addition to damage based on the corpse's maximum life. The base fire damage dealt by the spell part of the explosion has been significantly increased. The skill now gains additional area of effect radius as it levels, and its base critical chance has been increased from 5% to 6%. The cast time has been lowered to 0.6 seconds (from 0.8).
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.
0.7.1	Changed Detonate Dead to be 20% monster health in fire damage and then the rest is physical
0.6.13	Detonate Dead skill gem should now drop
0.6.11	Added skills: Raise Zombie, Detonate Dead, Cold Snap