Frangible Rounds are excellent for security personnel trying to avoid damaging the building they work in. For runners, however, they have an underpowered round that is useless for breaching, can't penetrate armour, and are noticeably more expensive than standard rounds.

So, unless you're either defending a complex with damages coming out of your pay or attacking somewhere where you A) don't want damaged and B) have some compelling reasons not to use gel rounds then I can't see any reason why you'd use them.

What fantastic application have I overlooked?

For one thing, you've made the all too common mistake of assuming the exceptions you've acknowledged don't count. It's akin to saying "except for shooting people, bullets are useless".

Runs more often than not come with odd and awkward caveats. Like, kill this guy but not with magic. A run that is made easier by frangible rounds is likely to be a rare thing, but not unimaginable.

In addition to the two prime examples you gave yourself, there's always running out of ammo and picking up a security guard's weapon. If frangible is all there is then it's better than nothing.

Well that's just it, it doesen't need a fantastic application, it only need an appropriate one:

-Run taking place in a facility with highly unstable explosives/fuel.
-Run taking place inside submarine, underground faclity

And so forth. I actually prefer ammo, accessories etc. to be more like this and less like "OMG SO powerful anything else is useless!"

If you're worried about forensic evidence and Explosive/EX-EX is out of the question, frangible caseless ammo might have some value to you.

You might also need it for a Fianchetto-style blend-in run. It would be crap to get yourself a perfectly flawless fake ID, get hired as a security guard in the installation you intent to burglarize, then get fired suddenly on a random weapon check when they find that your pistol is packing EX-EX or APDS or SnS instead of the regulation Frangible rounds.

Hmm...Frangible rounds have their uses but let's check the alternatives:

Gel Rounds
Gives Stun & Higher Knockdown - Ineffective against drones

Capsulel Rounds
Stun Damage & Can Carry Drugs - Ineffective against drones
Could be dangerous to use depending on fluids or chemicals.


Stick N Shock
Elemental Damage & Stun.
Could be dangerous to use in enviroments were electric shocks could be dangerous.

The question is how frangible is frangible? At what point do bullets 'break'

Hollow Points?
Plastic Rounds?

Frangible rounds are probably like "Pre-fragmented" rounds IRL. Broken up before and then molded into bullet form, so they break up as soon as they hit the first really solid object.

They're great for not overpenetrating targets. You don't have to worry about your Ares Predator 10mm Caseless round going through the skinny Ganger and hitting Little Suzy down the street.

Mainly because Little Suzy is a Troll with her parents.

Twist: the skinny 'umie ganger is Suzy's parent.