Corpses

Most slain enemies leave a corpse. Frozen enemies killed while Frozen Shatter and leave no usable corpse, and enemies removed by an on-death explosion also leave none. Unique monster corpses cannot be consumed or destroyed, and slain allies generally do not leave usable corpses. Plan both the corpse supply and the effect that spends it: some skills consume a corpse immediately, Profane Ritual marks one before consuming it on completion, and other effects destroy or explode corpses without using the word Consume.

Most slain enemies create a corpse

An ordinary enemy death leaves a corpse on the ground. Corpses are not inventory items and cannot be picked up. They remain world objects that compatible skills can select or affect.

Shatter and on-death explosions can remove the supply

A Frozen enemy killed while Frozen Shatters, destroying its corpse. An effect that makes an enemy explode on death also prevents a corpse from remaining. A corpse skill cannot use that enemy afterward because there is no corpse target.

Slain allies normally do not provide corpses

The Corpses keyword states that slain allies generally do not leave usable corpses. A dead minion is therefore not automatically valid for every corpse skill.

Unique corpses cannot be consumed or destroyed

A Unique monster may leave a corpse, but that corpse cannot be consumed or destroyed. Skills whose target type requires a destructible corpse cannot spend it. Ritual Sacrifice separately requires a Rare monster corpse, not a Unique corpse.

Target, Consume, and Destroy are separate instructions

Target describes what a skill can select. Consume spends the corpse as part of an effect and normally destroys it. Destroy removes the corpse, but an effect that only says Destroy or Explode should not be assumed to satisfy bonuses that specifically require Consuming a corpse. Read the wording of the producer, spender, and conditional bonus separately.

Corpse maximum Life matters only when the effect says so

Detonate Dead adds Physical damage based on a gem-level percentage of the corpse's maximum Life. Decompose applies Poison as though dealing Chaos damage equal to 10% of corpse maximum Life. Warcaller's Bellow explodes corpses for Physical damage equal to 25% of their Life. Other corpse skills use a corpse without inheriting those formulas.

Rarity can change eligibility and preservation

Ritual Sacrifice can use a Rare monster corpse to grant its modifiers. Herald of Blood destroys the corpse only when the exploded enemy was Normal or Magic, so its Rare corpse remains available for Ritual Sacrifice. Unique corpses remain protected by the general restriction.

Bosses without adds can leave corpse skills empty

During a boss phase with no slain enemies, a corpse-only skill has no natural target. Devour can instead target a Cullable enemy. Raise Zombie can spend a Power Charge instead of a corpse. Ritual Sacrifice can be used on yourself for a random modifier. Sacrifice can provide compatible reviving undead minions as substitutes.

Sacrifice supplies substitutes, not ground corpses

While Sacrifice is active, your undead Reviving Minions can be used in place of corpses by your skills, and those minions revive more slowly. The minion must be both undead and reviving. Sacrifice does not turn every ally into a corpse or create a corpse object on the ground.

Sacrifice works with Unearth and Profane Ritual

The early failures that stopped Unearth and Profane Ritual from using Sacrifice minions were fixed in 0.1.0e. The separate bug that let enemy Detonate Dead use a player's Sacrifice minions was fixed in 0.1.1. Those reports describe old behavior, not the current rules.