Death

From Traxus

A "soft" death is any death where the corpse is left intact, whereas a "hard" death is when the body is destroyed. Explosions and anything involving fire (including the alien weapon) will cause hard deaths; nearly anything else will cause soft deaths (including bullets and melee attacks). These general principles have exceptions, however. Killing a Hunter or VacBob with a fusion pistol will result in a hard death that includes an explosion.^{[citation needed]}

When a hard death occurs, the creature's item or weapon is considered destoryed, and will be not dropped. Unless ammunition is plentiful, it is not recommended to kill creatures that drop spare ammunition (BoBs, Enforcers) with weapons that cause hard deaths (rocket launchers, grenades, flamethrowers).