Hi I just started playing this game last week, and have been enjoying it immensely. I followed one of the guides on the wiki and created an archer. I craft and hunt with metal arrows now, and it seems wrong that enemies and prey completely explode from my arrows. I have a very high archery skill, but even so, it doesn’t seem very archery like for things to explode from an arrow. I can’t even hunt squirrels or rabbits anymore, because nothing is left behind. 
In my build there’s an arrow called the “game arrow” that is designed not to cause whatever you’re shooting at to explode.
To be fair, enemies shouldn’t get exploded unless you are using an actual explosive. Blowing up anything with a hammer or .22 is just plain ridiculous.
Let’s just imagine that when your skills are high enough , everything beacomes like .50 cal bullet and can blow off pieces from most human sized creatures and compleately tear apart smaller ones.
A metal arrow shot from a reflex recurve bow at 12 strength probably deals an average of 150 damage, and can go up to 260 that I’ve seen.
Archery is ludicrously broken, but so is everything else; converting the game’s infinite 9mm into 9mm +P+ and keeping a 100-round Calico is just as broken, driving a car is just as broken, swinging a sword or martial arts are just as broken.
If you want a hunting weapon, use game arrows like the other guy said.
Or keep a repeating crossbow and craft wood bolts, a convenient combination that does solidly mediocre damage.
I don’t see how any amount of skill can turn a .22 bullet into .50 BMG. No amount of skill can create energy or matter out of nothing.
The problem was that the game used final damage, including crit multipliers, to determine overkill for gibbing. I adjusted it to directly use the unadjusted weapon damage for this, so the issue should be cleared up. Now in order to get a zombie to completely disentegrate, you have to use an exceptionally powerful weapon, like a shotgun or an assault or sniper rifle. It’s easier to do with very small targets, so there’s still a use for the small game arrow, particularly with small game, like squirrels and rabbits.
As always, high-speed impacts with vehicles gib like crazy.
Explosions probably don’t gib as much as we’d like, have to double-check that.
Some of the melee weapons actually put out a lot of damage, and may still pass the threshold, for example the sledgehammer. Need to take a look at this too.
I don’t see how any amount of skill can turn a .22 bullet into .50 BMG. No amount of skill can create energy or matter out of nothing.[/quote]
skills give bigger chance of crits and headshots. headshots deal as much damage as something very powerful.