History Main / DepletedPhlebotinumShells

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** The ''Literature/StarTrekTheNextGenerationRelaunch'' book ''Greater Than the Sum'' introduces a "multivector weapon" designed to use everything against the Borg that had ever been somewhat effective. Then the Borg get ahold of it before it could be used against them -- and do what they always do -- they adapt.
** The EU, specifically ''Literature/StarTrekDestiny'', tries to explain how ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'''s Transphasic Torpedos are so effective against the Borg. Basically, they're Quantum Torpedos which use subspace to simultaneously explode with every possible frequency. Meaning that no shield modulation can possibly block the full force of the detonation, only parts of it. The only way to defend against them would be a shield that simultaneously covers all modulations. [[spoiler:Naturally, the Borg do finally adapt to them, and it takes a DeusExMachina to save the Federation.]]

Hard to work with, [[VampiresHateGarlic but great against vampires]]. There's even a certain basis in reality for this -- garlic contains [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allicin Allicin]], a potent anti-biotic and anti-fungal agent - and is [[https://www.hunker.com/13405924/how-to-use-garlic-to-kill-mosquitoes a great way to kill mosquitoes.]] Remember that the original vampire myths described them as [[LooksLikeOrlok plague carriers]] instead of [[ClassicalMovieVampire angsty nobility]] or [[OurVampiresAreDifferent teenage estrogen bait]].

* ''ComicBook/{{Blade}}'': Blade's opponents are sent into anaphylactic shock by garlic based pepper spray.
* In Italian ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse stories, witches have a weakness for garlic smell, something that Scrooge has of course weaponized to deal with Magica-usually in the form of ''artillery shells''.

* ''Literature/SabinaKane'' has a variation with bullets containing apple cider instead of garlic. Same basic idea, but in this setting vampires are weak to apple-related substances rather than garlic, due to having an ancestral connection to [[Myth/HebrewMythology Lilith]] and the [[Literature/BookOfGenesis Garden of Eden]].

* ''Series/ForeverKnight'': In the episode "Hunted", a hunter shoots Nick with bullets stuffed with garlic.

* The example of exotic ammunition (After his first encounter with the supernatural, an ordinary FBI Agent decided to upgrade his arsenal) given in ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} High Tech'' is modified silver hollow point that can be filled with a dose of poison (which in this case is actually garlic). The bullets in question are expensive but without any special quality, unless they happen to hit a monster's weakness.

* ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'': [[AllThereInTheManual The manual]] for the [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaI first game]] stated that Simon Belmont soaked his signature whip in garlic juice and HolyWater for seventeen weeks before assaulting Dracula's castle. This is kind of undone since one of the first powerups the game will give you after every respawn is a ball and chain weapon that replaces the whip, and retconned out almost entirely with the increasingly-complex history of the whip in later games.[[note]]This was highly unlikely to have ever been canon at all, since whoever wrote Konami's English-language manuals in that era seemed more concerned with making lazy, godawful jokes than with translating whatever actual story Konami had come up with.[[/note]]

* In ''VideoGame/WarioLand 3'' and ''4'', one of Wario's forms is to turn into a vampire upon being bitten by a bat. One of the ways to turn back is to touch a hanging string of garlic bulbs. Depending on the situation, this may be good or bad.

** The demon bullet was deemed a failure, however, another bullet called The Gospel is perhaps the most powerful anti-demon bullet around, which is described as "a magic bullet made of a rare kind of silver that's synthesized using alchemy which has a spell inscribed on it at an atomic level." The results are quite devastating.

* ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'', Father Alexander Anderson uses bayonets that have been blessed which causes instant death to the fake vampires and causes intense damage and pain to true vampires, if they try to remove the blade, they will burn themselves. He also uses pages of religious scriptures, in the TV version it prevents vampires from using their powers and in the OVA it simply creates barriers that vampires cannot cross. The bullets in Alucard's gun are a twofer, being made from a consecrated cross melted down and cast, but also silver. They're extremely potent against everything except the above-mentioned Anderson, due both to his insane durability and incredible healing factor. Even then, though, the solution was just to make the bullets bigger.

* ''ComicBook/AstroCity'': "Confession" story arc, a squad of alien invaders is armed with holographic crucifixes, restraining cables soaked in HolyWater, and a two-handed stake-launching revolver. They are thus armed because [[spoiler:they know that the nocturnal super-hero Confessor is actually a vampire]].
* ''ComicBook/BatmanVampire'': Joker wears a squirting flower on his lapel that shoots HolyWater.

* Film/{{Constantine|2005}} melts gold from crosses to make shotgun shells. He also blesses the water tank in a building's sprinkler system (by adding another gold cross to the cistern) in order to spray all the demons there with HolyWater.
* ''Film/{{Dogma}}'': SilentBob kills the demon Azrael with a golf club he stole from a cardinal. As it turns out, the previous owner blessed it to improve his score. In that same scene, Bethany blesses the sink, turning the whole contents into HolyWater, which the skater-demons are promptly shoved face-first into.
* ''Film/VanHelsing'': used a gas-powered fully-auto crossbow. It was only effective after dipping it in HolyWater.
* ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'': The pastor with a [[CrisisOfFaith Crisis of Faith]] manages to bless condoms filled with water to be used as holy hand grenades against the vampires, and holds them at bay with a shotgun and baseball bat taped in the shape of a cross. [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter The shotgun does a fair bit of damage itself.]] Carving crosses on the tips of bullets makes vampires shot with them ''explode.''
* In ''Film/CurseOfTheUndead'', Preacher Dan finally kills the vampire gunslinger Drake Robey by mounting the small wooden cross from his graduation button--made from a thorn growing at the site of the Crucifixion--on the front of a bullet and shooting Robey in the heart.

** The Knights of the Cross each carry one of three swords: a broadsword, a katana, and a saber[[note]]Also known as Excalibur, Kusanagi, and Durendal[[/note]]. Each sword has one of the nails used in Christ's crucifixion worked into the hilt. While Harry used to believe that the swords had little power on their own, acting more as a symbol [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve being powered by their wielder's faith]], the swords have shown that they are more than mere pieces of steel. Especially when [[spoiler:the katana is now turned into a ''lightsaber'']].

** In ''Literature/ColdDays'' Harry infuses a bullet [[spoiler:with Soulfire, the Fires of Creation to banish a powerful demon]] and fires it right at the target's head.

* ''Literature/FelixCastor'': Felix's landlord Pen fends off a [[SuccubiAndIncubi succubus]] with a shotgun full of filed-down rosary beads. It seriously ruins the succubus's day.
* In the ''Literature/AnitaBlake'' books, in order to better kill vampires, Edward has been known to take a hollow point bullet, fill it with holy water and silver nitrate, and then seal it with wax.
* George Macdonald Fraser's ''The Candlemas Road'' has an interesting inversion: a dying border reiver begs the narrator (a priest) to baptize his ''right hand.'' You see, his parents only baptized the rest of his body at birth: they wanted their son to strike "unblessed blows" (presumably in the hope that this would in some way damn his enemies to hell.)
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** In ''Literature/CarpeJugulum'', we encounter vampyres who have trained themselves to resist holy symbols. This backfires later when [[spoiler:their conditioning is undone -- as a result, they now ''recognize'' hundreds of holy symbols, and start seeing them all over the place when they'd have been blissfully unaware and unaffected otherwise]]. At one point, a vampire is beheaded with a holy item created on the spur of the moment due to the powerful faith of the wielder.
** In ''Literature/FeetOfClay'', Vimes [[spoiler:claims to have used the vampire villain's "poisoned candles to weaken someone" trick against him. He knew the vampire would smell garlic before it had any effect, so tries holy water candles, "the water burns away, just leaves holiness". The vampire isn't entirely sure this could work, but the point is [[INeverSaidItWasPoison he looks at the candles before Vimes explains it]]]].
* ''Literature/MonsterHunterInternational'': Holy symbols in general work against undead and [[spoiler:warding stones]] which specifically work against anything that's actually unnatural/eldritch in nature to the point of being an effective FantasticNuke. An actual bullet made of silver has horrible ballistics; so they get around this by making hollow-point normal bullets with a silver ball (basically, a modified [[http://www.thegunzone.com/powrball.html Corbon Pow'r Ball]]).

[[AC:Film - Live Action]]

* ''Literature/TheSagaOfRecluce'': features two distinct types of magic: Order-mage and Chaos-mage. Chaos energy has difficulty working on iron due to the natural Order energy woven into it, making it a solid defense. Additionally, Chaos-mages tend to build up a large amount of the energy in their body, so direct contact with iron causes their skin to blister painfully, and in extreme cases can lead to death.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': any iron can be harmful to TheFairFolk (which makes Tiffany Aching's choice of a frying pan as a weapon an apt choice). However, some places are protected by a powerful magnetic field to keep any iron from entering. Nanny Ogg uses one of [-Binky's-] horseshoes, which can go anywhere (like [-[[TheGrimReaper Binky's Owner]]-]).
** Considering an explanation, "cold iron" on ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' is an overstatement and means just "below [[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/146902/Curie-point Curie point]]".
* ''Born to Run'': humans fighting TheFairFolk with, among other things, shotgun shells loaded with "Cold Iron, holy herbs, and blessed rock-salt." One character also has a seltzer bottle that's been filled with iron filings and given a "pagan blessing." When he sprays the blessed and iron-laced water directly into a banshee's mouth, its head melts.
** In the same series, elves contemplating battle with gun-wielding humans had to be reminded of how dangerous steel-jacketed bullets would be to elves with a ColdIron allergy. And that's [[AchievementsInIgnorance without the humans even being aware what they're up against]].
* ''Literature/TheSoldierSon'' trilogy: iron beats any kind of magic and mages are "allergic" to iron. At the beginning of the series, the protagonist's country Gernia has subdued most of the magic-using peoples around them by switching from lead to iron bullets.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'':
** Anything with a high-enough iron content is potentially lethal to faeries; Mab, Queen of Winter and one of the most powerful magical beings on earth, recoils from a steel nail in fright the second before it touches her skin. Harry explains in one book that iron is to faeries what nuclear waste is to humans -- horribly wracking, and to be avoided at all costs. He even takes down [[spoiler:Aurora, the Summer Maiden and a powerful foe in her own right]] with nothing more than [[spoiler:a fleet of pixies armed with box cutters]].
** Charity and her nail gun.
** As long as they have iron, ordinary bullets do extra damage against the fae as well -- even if your opponent is the size of a semi.
* ''Literature/SteelMagic'': modern day steel utensils (like forks) are effective against magical creatures.
* ''Literature/TheWitcher'': the main character carries an iron sword that is quite effective against certain enemies.

* In an episode of ''Series/BloodTies2007'', the protagonists find out that a [[OurElvesAreDifferent dark elf]] is impregnating women at a fertility clinic. [[PerkyGoth Coreen]] does her research and hands them a weapon to be used against the elf - a large and heavy iron spike. When they ask if there's anything more compact, she points out that the only other source of research about killing dark elves involves [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons using 20-sided dice]].

* ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'', "cold" iron (material that's 95% iron at least) pierces fae defenses and hand-wrought iron does aggravated damage to [[TheFairFolk the True Fae]]. One of the explanations is that the True Fae made a deal with Iron to gain mystical benefits from it as long as they made sure no human hand could change its essence. Once humans discovered smelting, however, the deal was broken and Iron decided it wanted to do some interesting things to the kneecaps of the True Fae...
* ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'' notes that the high-tech Hunter compacts and conspiracies, like The Cheiron Group and Task Force: VALKYRIE, occasionally use pure iron slugs in their guns when expecting fae activity.

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', fae and ChaoticEvil demons usually have some measure of damage resistance that applies to most weapons, except for those made with cold iron.
** For balance, cold iron weapons are not only more expensive, but harder to enchant, which makes perfect sense for a material with AntiMagic properties.
* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} High Tech'' has information on making iron bullets. They don't get better ballistics, and in fact reduce reliability in firearms... But if a [[TheFairFolk Fair Folk]] has a weakness to iron, they cover it.

* The weakness of TheFairFolk to iron is the basis behind Fairy-type Franchise/{{Pokemon}} being weak to Steel-type attacks.

[[AC:Web Original]]
* ''Literature/TheSalvationWar'': gives us iron-tipped artillery in the form of High-Explosive Anti-Demon rounds. Normal High-Explosive-Anti-Tank (HEAT) rounds have a shaped charge with a copper liner so when they detonate they burn through the enemy armour with a jet of molten copper. HEAD rounds replace the copper liner with iron so instead of just burning through the demon like a HEAT round they burned through it with something that was poisonous to the demon and prevented its flesh from [[HealingFactor regenerating]]. Not that conventional (military-grade) firearms were any less effective against demons, over penetration of APFSDS rounds aside.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', Xanatos tends to cut out the middle-man and have most of his weapons made of iron composites, just in case. Oberon may be a PhysicalGod but even he takes major damage from anything forged from iron. At one ([[WillfullyWeak slightly depowered to impress his wife]]) point he is brought to his knees by [[BadassNormal Elisa Maza]] ringing an iron ''bell.'' In later episode he's toying with the main cast but finally decides to [[GameFace fight for real]] when someone impales him on a home-made harpoon gun.

* ''VisualNovel/TearsToTiara'' has both the [[TheEmpire Holy Empire]] and [[spoiler:the [[OurAngelsAreDifferent angels]]]] use weapons made of Electrum, a holy metal, against NobleDemon protagonist Arawn. ([[spoiler:The latter made it the ammunition of a biological "[[TankGoodness divine tank]]", which was used killed him [[DeathIsCheap the first time]].]]) In-game, any equipment made of Electrum given to non-human characters (elves, dragons, demons, etc.) is only as good as whatever they were wearing earlier. It doesn't lower their stats, but it doesn't boost them either.
* ''Manga/KnightsOfSidonia'': The Gauna can only be harmed by an exotic metal known as "Kabi". Unfortunately, the crew of the ''Sidonia'' has no idea how to manufacture this metal, and are forced to rely on a set of spears tipped with the stuff to fight off any Gauna they encounter. Even those they only happened upon by chance, in an abandoned alien artifact. [[spoiler:Dr. Oochiai later discovers how to manufacture Kabi using captured Gauna-based life forms, which leads to the ''Sidonia'' creating kabi-tipped bullets that prove very successful at killing Gauna.]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': {{Kryptonite|Factor}} is Characters/{{Superman|TheCharacter}} [[Characters/SupergirlTheCharacter and]] [[Characters/PowerGirl his]] [[ComicBook/KryptoTheSuperdog family]]'s best known weakness, so it's hardly surprising that it's been weaponized against him. Kryptonite bullets, Kryptonite cannons, Kryptonite ray beams, Kryptonite cages, Kryptonite dust... [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]] and [[Characters/SupermanBrainiacCharacter Brainiac]] have made a career out of making Kryptonite weapons. The most spectacular being the occasionally mentioned K-Bomb, a Kryptonite-tipped [[NukeEm nuclear bomb]]. In ''ComicBook/TheThirdKryptonian'', Amalak gets anti-Kryptonian weapons manufactured for his pirate crew: Green Kryptonite-powered sniper rifles, knives which give off red sunlight radiation, Kryptonite flechettes...
** Terra-Man carried a pair of Six Shooters modified to fire tracer bullets and other specialized applications; some of these bullets were made of Kryptonite on at least one occasion.
* At the beginning of ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'', [[Characters/NewGodsDarkseid Darkseid]] kills [[spoiler:his son Orion]] with a time traveling Radion bullet -- Radion being the one thing that can kill any New God no matter how powerful. Near the end of ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'', [[spoiler:Characters/{{Batman|TheCharacter}}]] shoots Darkseid with the same bullet which jump-starts the latter's RasputinianDeath.
* In an interesting inversion, Bloodscream seems to be able to recover from attacks by Wolverine's adamantium claws. Guess what happens when he faces Wolverine without the adamantium.
* ''ComicBook/MightyAvengers:'' The [[ComicBook/AdamLegendOfTheBlueMarvel Blue Marvel]]'s last encounter with his arch-nemesis Evald Skorpion has the mad scientist shooting him with a bullet of neutronium -- essentially raw proto-matter, and Blue Marvel's weakness.

* ''Fanfic/AeonEntelechyEvangelion'': there are warheads enhanced with ''Literature/TheColourOutOfSpace''.
* Mithril-tipped bullets in ''FanFic/SarumanOfManyDevices'', made from melting down a dwarven ring of power in Saruman's possession (making the mithril also enchanted). Given how ridiculously few of these he has, he saves them for one task and one task only: a last resort for killing Nazgul. He ends up making use of them in chapter 10.
* In ''Fanfic/HellsisterTrilogy'', ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} makes sure to have Kryptonite weaponry in hand before putting in motion his scheme so he can counteract his [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Kryptonian]] [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} enemies]].
* Subverted in ''Fanfic/ToHellAndBackArrowverse''. Kara carries around a Kryptonite sword after learning there might be other Kryptonians on planet. She also wears Kryptonite-proof clothes to protect herself.
* In ''Fanfic/SupermanOf2499TheGreatConfrontation'', a spell changed the House of El's weaknesses from incredibly rare Kryptonite to incredibly common saltwater, so anyone planning to entangle with a Kryptonian carries around a water gun.

* ''Fanfic/Warhammer40000Trouble'' has the SLAYER bullets. In terms of material they are just a standard tungsten-cored lead rounds. However said core is imprinted with microscopic anti-daemon seal, and whether you are puny heretics or daemon prince, sufficient number of bullets from mundane Pistol/ Revolver (which are better), Shotgun (even better), or Antimaterial Rifle, you're as good as dead. They work on Chaos Space Marines too, where bullets struck on their armor will cause continuous damage, leading to small ruptures which get bigger, and finally result in a big crack. More bullets or larger bullets works better.
* In ''Fanfic/TheVampireOfSteel'', Willow's magically-enhanced stakes created to kill a Kryptonian vampire prove to be useless upon testing, so Kara fetches stakes made from Kryptonian trees as well as Kryptonite weapons.
* Deconstructed in ''Fanfic/SOE2LoneHeirOfKrypton'' when it is stated that you can't make Kryptonite bullets because they would shatter.
* In ''Fanfic/DustOfTheStars'', armor piercing explosive rounds, meant for killing Cylons, do nasty things to relatively poorly protected Jaffa.
* Subverted in ''Fanfic/AForceOfFour''. When three rogue Kryptonians attack Earth, Characters/PowerGirl looks for some piece of Kryptonite to build some sort of weapon, but it turns out her deceased cousin had done away with every fragment he stumbled upon.
* Intentionally averted in ''Fanfic/TheLastDaughter''. The author stated there is no Kryptonite in this universe and Taylor's enemies have no means to make it.

* ''Literature/BattlefieldEarth'': the Psychlos are very resistant to damage due to their inhuman physiology, but anything radioactive would react explosively to the 'breathe-gas' that they used for respiration. In this case, the humans defeat all the Psychlos by simply [[spoiler:detonating a nuclear bomb on their homeworld, and the destruction spread through their teleporter network]]. Though really, an ounce of plutonium in a lead box would have worked equally well.

* ''Series/StargateSG1'':

** By the final season, they have bombs capable of destroying stargates, which are [[NighInvulnerability nigh-invulnerable]].

** Also in this category is the energy weapon the SGC develops in ''SG-1'' Season 7 to kill [[BossInMookClothing Kull Warriors]]. Since Kull armor is, for all intents and purposes, invincible (one of them stepped on a claymore and [[TheJuggernaut didn't even break stride]]), they develop a weapon that disrupts the energy keeping the clone body alive. Since the Warriors' are rapid-grown clones with hyperaccelerated bodies to give them super-strength and durability, the only thing keeping them alive is the healing powers of a Goa'uld symbiote and ancient technology used to "imbue them with life" in the first place. Disrupting the latter kills them instantly. Also, since their body armor is very similar to kevlar, it can be pierced with a tranquilizer dart, which is attempted to capture a Kull at one point.

* In ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'', an Old West outlaw named Turnbull uses a futuristic device (obtained from a time pirate) to locate a vein of dwarf star alloy, the same material Ray used to build his ATOM suit. Turnbull discovers the material's explosive properties and starts building bullets with it. In addition to being explosive, the bullets also go right through Nate's ChromeChampion skin, as dwarf star alloy is incredibly dense.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'': The New German Republic has discovered that hot uranium(ironically for the trope title, ''non''-depleted) rounds prevent supernatural beings from [[HealingFactor regenerating]] or even healing damage.
* ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'': Task Force: VALKYRIE uses bullets treated with the power of SCIENCE! to turn them into super-high-energy rounds that can strike and harm incorporeal targets like ghosts.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSeries'': both Nod and GDI use specialized munitions. In Nod's case, they have a love for filling missiles with various breeds of [[GreenRocks Tiberium]]-based explosives or gases, while GDI has developed sonic-based and EMP artillery shells and grenades.

* ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland'' series: root beer is an extremely effective ectocide. It ''only'' works on ghosts-- when Guybrush tries this on the resurrected Zombie Pirate [=LeChuck=], he shakes it off and chastises Guybrush for trying to off a zombie with a mere soft drink.
* ''VIdeogame/SuicideSquadKillTheJusticeLeague'': Late in the game, the Suicide Squad use bullets made from Gold Kryptonite in order to defeat Superman (who was given a resistance to regular Kryptonite by Brainiac).
* ''[[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration Super Robot Wars OG Saga]]: VideoGame/EndlessFrontier'': Though not particularly used against live targets, Haken's Night Fowl requires special bullets to destroy the Mild Keil crystals causing BrokenBridge antics and other chaos in-game. To ensure they're strong enough for the job, they're made from (or based on the composition of) fragments of the crystal type they're made to break.
* ''VideoGame/Rage2011'': Feltrite tipped bullets are more effective than lead, but rarer, more expensive and you are not able to carry as many of them.

[[AC:Web Original]]
* In ''TabletopGame/NewVindicators'', the Nephilim are children of fallen angels and men, with the power to channel hellfire for all kinds of super powers. However, they are vulnerable to a specific type of tektite, called mithral. More than one character has made mithral into weapons, such as nunchaku, as there are groups that specifically hunt Nephilim.

[[folder:Magic Imbued]]

* ''Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}'':
** ''Literature/FateZero'': Emiya Kiritsugu's custom "Origin Bullets" were filled with his own powdered bones, which contains Kiritsugu's dual Origins (base 'orientations' of an individual) of 'Binding' and 'Severing'. A magus uses magecraft to defend against the bullet? The Origins are forced directly onto his [[FunctionalMagic Magic Circuits]], overloading them and ripping them apart, then binding them back imperfectly, thus making them permanently unusable.
** The ''Nasuverse'' also contains "Conceptual Weapons", the highest class of offensive magical artifacts. One of the most powerful is a gun known as the "Black Barrel", which is specifically designed to kill immortal things, and becomes more powerful the more supernatural power its target possesses. In other words, it can OneHitKill {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. The catch is that only an ordinary human can wield it: anyone with magical power finds it harmful to the touch. This is important in the story where it is featured, ''Literature/AngelNotes'', set during a [[AfterTheEnd Post-Apocalyptic]] war against {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, where it is wielded by the protagonist, [[LastOfHisKind the one single normal human left]]. The rest of earth's population has since become transhuman, and thus, can't use it.

* The Belkan Cartridge System from ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' is a subversion. While it does involve loading weapons with shell casings full of compressed magic, in practice it's used as a NitroBoost rather than an attack (though said boost can be applied ''to'' an attack).

* ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}'': In the "Razing Hell" comic mini-series, written by the [[RetroactiveRecognition Wachowskis]], the protagonists manage to make bullets out of some of their own bones (starting with a fallen comrade who tells them how to do it with his dying breath, and later, in one desperate situation, a character uses his own pinky finger to make more ammo), since one of the only things that can hurt TheLegionsOfHell is Leviathan's own power (which has tainted them too, since they were its prisoners). They use this knowledge to begin a grim but very effective LaResistance campaign against the cenobites and the puzzle-box guardians.
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': in UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} Kryptonians could only be harmed by three things: other Kryptonians, kryptonite, and magic. So if you don't have any GreenRocks handy, get that Billy Batson kid to shout "ComicBook/{{Shazam}}" near him. This is [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] in ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'', with Superman accidentally cutting his finger while admiring Characters/{{Wonder Woman|TheCharacter}}'s magic sword. [[spoiler:Possibly intended as foreshadowing for his later battle with Captain Marvel.]]
* To take down [[Characters/ShazamBlackMarvelFamily Black Adam]], a bullet was made from a piece of the Rock of Eternity.

** In ''Even Hand'', Marcone uses an old musket pistol to kill a Fomor sorcerer. The bullet is the one that killed UsefulNotes/HoratioNelson, and then further enchanted to break through a sorcerer's defenses by Marcone's valkyrie security specialist. It's mentioned that the effort of enchanting the bullet knocked said valkyrie unconscious for two weeks.

* ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'': it's very difficult for an Other to be killed with human weapons, as their instinct is to jump into the magical dimension of the Gloom at the first sign of danger, where physical objects cannot reach. Only enchanted bullets have a real chance of killing an Other. A human working for an Other is given enchanted bullets for his submachinegun. These bullets end up killing a werewolf. Besides that, only a nuke can definitively kill an Other, because nuclear explosions somehow reach even the deepest levels of Gloom.
* In ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror,'' Daylen finds out that [[TheOrder the Archknights]] are [[PowerNullifier vulnerable]] to [[{{Phlebotinum}} darkstone]], and thinks about how he'd have created [[{{Magitek}} shotspikes]] to weaponize this against them, if he'd known when he was [[RetiredMonster still ruling]] [[TheEmpire the Dawn Empire]]. [[spoiler: [[ANaziByAnyOtherName The Dawnists]] later ''do'' create such weapons, to disastrous effect, later on.]]

* ''Literature/SpecialCircumstances'': Generally speaking, weapons imbued with the spirit of a member of the titular organization are often either the only way or the best way of slaying a supernatural beastie. There's also a discussion, at one point, of how normal, non-spiritual FBI agents could battle the supernatural, using "ColdIron" bayonets for their rifles.
* ''Literature/TortallUniverse'': griffin-fletched arrows always hit their targets, and Stormwing-fletched arrows go through magic shielding.
* ''Literature/TheGirlFromTheMiraclesDistrict'': The mercenaries hunting Nikita in the second book are using bullets imbued with magic crystals that nullify her HealingFactor.
* ''Literature/WarhammerTimeOfLegends'': In the Nagash trilogy, Nagash is soundly defeated in a battle where his enemies have acquired special magic arrows that down an undead soldier in one hit.

* ''TabletopGame/GURPSTechnomancer'': The magical metal Necronium, is used primarily as a power source (and can sometimes poison those exposed to it and bring them back as the [[ZombieApocalypse living dead]]), whilst depleted Necronium is toxic to all magical creatures. Depleted Necronium is also completely unaffected by magic, allowing it to penetrate nearly all protective spells, which is why Depleted Necronium bullets (which also share many ballistic advantages of real life depleted Uranium) have military usage when needing to pierce spells such as Reverse Missiles or just for killing magical creatures extra-hard (tho silver will do the trick for man in that category just as well).
* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'': Primium for the Technocracy, which is essentially a kills-supernaturals-dead weapon. Using it in a laser makes its wounds as agonizing to vampires as sunlight, Primium bullets hurt werewolves like silver does, and if you're afraid of magic users, plating yourself with Primium stops magic dead (some of the time at least.)
* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'': (the new World of Darkness's version of the above game) we are given Thaumium. It stores magical energy, it's resistant to magic, and it can [[AbsurdlySharpBlade cut through anything]]. Just for added punch, it's made from silver, gold, ''and'' mercury, all of which have to be mystically purified to produce the essential platonic essence of their being. Yes. Thaumium is made from a mixture of ''depleted'' precious metals.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Thousand Sons Rubric Marines use Inferno rounds, bolt rounds infused with sorcery which can burn through even the heaviest of armour, and is said to be able to burn souls as well.

* In ''VideoGame/FatalFrame/Project Zero'', the character is often an otherwise ordinary person who has the misfortune to "see things other people can't see", which inevitably leads to trouble when they stumble into the haunted house/village/island populated by the restless spirits of the dead. The main weapon used to fight these incorporeal nightmares? A camera. Yes, a camera. One which uses some sort of special crystal or mirror in its makeup so that the user can see ghosts, dispel mystical barriers, and drive off the dead with the snap of a picture.
* Biotics in ''Franchise/MassEffect'' aren't ''exactly'' magic, but they're close enough for government work, so Warp Ammo - bullets imbued with biotic power - would qualify. Warp Ammunition is a signature power of Jack in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' and Liara in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''.
* The ''Dawnguard'' DLC for ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' adds fire, lightning and ice-imbued ''crossbow bolts''. Y'know, for when those vampires just don't die fast enough.

* ''Webcomic/TwoKinds'': the most efficient way to take down one of the series [[EvilTowerOfOminousness Evil Towers of Ominousness]] is to shoot the tower's core with a magic-imbued arrow.

* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': One story [[note]]"written by Bob Kane"[[/note]] pits Batman against a vampire, whom he kills (he did that back in the day) by melting down some silver candlesticks, forging bullets out of them, and shooting the vampire.
* ''ComicBook/BatmanVampire'': During the final showdown with Dracula in ''Red Rain'', Batman attacks him with silver Batarangs. In ''Bloodstorm'', his primary weapons are wooden throwing daggers weighted with silver.
* ''ComicBook/FiendsOfTheEasternFront'': the main character melts down silverware and forges them [[SilverBullet into bullets]] for his machine gun to fight Constanta's vampire troops.
* ''ComicBook/WerewolfByNight'': the armor and weaponry of Comicbook/MoonKnight was specifically tailored for werewolf fighting, laced with silver throughout.

* ''Film/{{Blade|Trilogy}}'': at least the film and TV adaptations, uses silver-coated steel in his melee weapons (spikes and swords).
* ''Film/Underworld2003'': the Vampires fight with bullets filled with silver nitrate [[note]]better known for its real world use in the eyes of newborn babies to prevent infection right after birth, and in photography[[/note]]. Considering how thick and silvery it is, one assumes this ammo is rather stale (silver nitrate looks like table salt, but gradually forms black deposits of pure silver over time, or more quickly when exposed to light). They initially use regular silver, but those require a lot of bullets to be pumped into Lycans to be effective. Some powerful Lycans have even learned to push silver bullets out of their bodies. It also generally depends on how far away from a doctor a Lycan is, since leaving silver bullets in their bodies too long can result in silver poisoning, which is fatal to them. Then the vampires get their hands on the above-mentioned UV rounds and copy them with liquid silver nitrate. A single bullet can then be fatal (after time), since there is no solid silver to dig out.
* In ''Film/SilverBullet'', Creator/GaryBusey forges a silver bullet from some necklaces [[spoiler:to use against the werewolf]]. When the gun shop owner looks at him strangely, he tries to pass it off as "the kids really like Franchise/TheLoneRanger." The other guy has a smirk that says, "Yeah, right."
* During the climax of ''Film/MyBestFriendIsAVampire'', a VampireHunter armed with silver bullets (played by Creator/DavidWarner) shoots the head vampire Modoc (played by Creator/ReneAuberjonois). The latter falls, apparently dead. In a minute, though, he gets up to the surprised protagonist and shocked hunter. When asked by the protagonist (an inexperienced vampire) why a silver bullet didn't kill him, Modoc reminds him that silver is for werewolves.
* In ''Film/GhostTown1988'', Langley melts down the gold coins from the church and uses them to cast gold bullets for the shells for the sheriff's gun. [[{{Handwave}} He says that the gold will mushroom on impact]], but it is not clear that this effect would be that much greater than the lead he is replacing, so presumably he also expects it to have some kind of supernatural effect on the undead outlaws.

* ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy'': Silver is used as a weapon against spirits, since Silver actually causes damage to their essence, and can destroy them if given enough time. Iron also works to a lesser degree.
* ''Literature/JillKismet'': Hunters like Jill go through a lot of blessed silver since it's the only thing that can penetrate a [[OurDemonsAreDifferent hellbreed]]'s etheric shell and wound them. Jill uses a pair of Glock {{Hand Cannon}}s loaded with silver bullets, a bullwhip tipped with silver flechettes, and several silver-alloy knives for close-in work. Due to her own hellbreed pact, silver is also one of the few things that can potentially give Jill herself an instantly lethal wound; [[HealingFactor she'll heal up from nearly anything else]], even [[NighInvulnerability assault rifle rounds to center of mass]].'
* Silver shows up a lot in ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles''. Blevins contemplates taking silver bullets engraved with banishing rites on the first mission, but ultimately decides against it since silver bullets apparently tend to tumble in low-pressure environments. Similarly, one of Harry the Horse's shotgun loads involves "... solid silver buckshot, each engraved with the Litany of Khar-Nesh in ninety-nanometer Enochian".

* ''Series/FridayThe13thTheSeries'': A werewolf was strangled with a [[Creator/EastmanKodak Kodak]] film roll with silver in it.

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', silver blades and bullets will dispatch zombies (reanimated by dark magic), shapeshifters, werewolves and more.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In the classic series, the Cybermen's breathing apparatus intake was readily clogged by any gold which might accumulate there. Gold dust could be used to clog up the works if you could get your hands on it. However, the effectiveness of this weakness became {{Flanderiz|ation}}ed to the point that by the end, you had a handful of gold coins and a slingshot making a whole platoon of Cybermen a non-issue; when touched by gold they fall down screaming and sparking. When the Cybermen were brought back for the new series, they were an alternate universe breed who had the weakness dealt with in R&D according to a FreezeFrameBonus shot. However, a recent Cyberman appearance gives them some weakness to gold, though much much ''much'' milder than in the old series. (According to the writers, the two breeds have worked together for some time and this new breed that comes from that collaboration has aspects of both.)

* ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'': Werewolves use silver knives on each other. More specifically, silver prevents a Werewolf from rolling to reduce the damage of an attack. The silver knives werewolves like to use (called "klaives") have War Spirits bound to them, letting them deal aggravated damage on top of that.
* ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken'': if silver touches a werewolf's blood, it burns them for aggravated damage and has a rare chance of messing up their HealingFactor. Unlike in ''Apocalypse'', however, using silver on another werewolf is a ''major'' sin on the KarmaMeter. It's also implied that the Pure get messed up ''worse'' than the Forsaken because they never sought forgiveness from Luna for the death of Father Wolf.
* ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'': even the lower-tech groups, are known to use silver bullets in their guns, though they don't always use them against the right enemies (i.e. werewolves).
* ''TabletopGame/TheWitcherGameOfImagination'': Weapons coated in or made of silver are extra effective against [[FantasticFragility all kinds of monsters]]. Sometimes silver is the only thing those creatures can be hurt with. Silver also seriously mess up all shapeshifting abilities.

* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering's'' setting of ''Innistrad,'' the distinction is made that only ''blessed'' silver is useful against the various horrific threats to humanity, with the largest prison for demons and such in the land being the Helvault; a massive spire composed of blessed meteoric silver. In vampire-controlled areas, knockoff holy pendants are a hot item on the black market, though the fact that they aren't blessed and therefore [[AllNaturalSnakeOil useless as a protective ward]] is typically not mentioned at time of purchase. Curiously, runes etched with silver are a necessary component to the creation of alchemically-reanimated zombies.

[[AC:Web Original]]
* Blog/ThingsMrWelchIsNoLongerAllowedToDoInAnRPG: ''[[http://theglen.livejournal.com/131998.html Some]]'' variants apparently are over the top:
--> 1117. Can't strangle a werewolf with a roll of Kodak film, no matter what we all know it's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_halide made out of]].

* ''VideoGame/SilentHill4: The Room'' has Silver Bullets, which will knock down a Victim in one shot. However, there are only two in the game.

* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher:'' Witchers usually carry two swords on their back: one made of steel to fight mortal foes, and one made of silver to fight monsters. As Geralt of Rivia, a particularly badass Witcher and the main protagonist of the series, will tell you, "both are for monsters", which he demonstrates by [[spoiler:using the silver sword on Jacques de Aldersburg, a particularly vile human foe whose FantasticRacism has made him little better than a monster himself, at the end of the first game]].

* Parodied in a ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' sketch: A werewolf is shown running from some kind of hunter and gets shot. The werewolf then claims "Only a silver bullet can kill a werewolf!" The hunter then proceeds to shoot the werewolf into a bloody pulp with a chain gun, light the mess on fire, snort the ashes, crap it out on a toilet and get processed in a sewage plant. Cut to 3 kids playing some sort of tabletop game, with the game master reading from the book and saying: "It says it's STILL not dead!"

A common way to kill vampires, using UV rounds, grenades, lamps, or other tricks. Effectively, this is a more modern and scientific version of the traditional [[WeakenedByTheLight vulnerability to sunlight]]. An additional implication is that a number of supernatural creatures are susceptible to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionizing_radiation ionizing radiation]] (by definition, light capable of tanning skin is ionizing), which is often used to sterilize tools and food - cloth hung in the sun to dry is cleansed of bacteria nearly as efficiently as soap - tying into the concept of supernatural creatures as plague carriers. It also means that someone should perhaps attempt to kill vampires with X-ray machines or plain 'ol [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium depleted uranium]].

[[AC:Advertising]]

* ''Anime/ErgoProxy'': the only way to kill a Proxy is with shells that emit UV radiation, because the Proxies [[spoiler:were designed to terraform the world back to normal and then disintegrate when the sunlight came back]].
* In ''Manga/{{Gantz}}'' Kei at one point uses a UV lamp to great effect against vampires.

* Paralleled on occasion in some weapons against Superman developed from the spectograph of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rao_(comics) Rao]] ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krypton_(comics) Krypton's]] red sun) which takes away his powers until he is again exposed to solar rays. Notoriously used by the Soviet Union in Frank Miller's classic, ''[[ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns Batman: The Dark Knight Returns]]'' [[note]]in which Superman took his devotion to ''Truth, Justice and the American Way'' to include enforcing US Policy abroad.[[/note]] who had tempered a high-yield nuke to do as much ecological damage as possible. Effects included a hemisphere covering EMP and a dust cloud that blocked out the sun in very literal nuclear "winter" way. Since Superman was trying to intercept and redirect the ICBM, it almost kills him because he is left with almost no exposure to his solar power source (he somehow drains energy from some plants to get back on his feet, but is still noted to be operating well below his peak power weeks later).
* Twice in ''ComicBook/SupermanUnchained'':
** The U.S. military under General Sam Lane has been working on "black hole" technologies to fight Superman. These include "max-grav-photon-emitters", a.k.a. "black hole lasers", and "black hole bullets", which are 50 caliber rockets with light vacuums inside of them.
** The Russian military has also been working on anti-Superman technology, specifically the "XR" drones. These unmanned drones have shielding that protects them from Superman's HeatVision and SuperSenses, as well as firing bullets that emit red sun radiation just before impact to be able to pierce Kryptonian skin and armor.

* ''Film/{{Blade|Trilogy}}'' has UV lights on his car and weapon-mounted tactical light. Hannibal King's guns shoot UV-radiating bullets, while Abigail Whistler uses a [[Franchise/StarTrek bat'leth]]-like weapon with a UV laser beam running through it. In the second film, Whistler and Scud design phosphorus-based flash grenades that can also deal severe burns to non-vampires, especially when a dozen blow up at once. Even Blade, who's immune to sunlight, is seriously hurt by the blast.
* ''Film/{{Nightlife}}'': a hematologist creates a "prison cell" for a vampire by strategically positioning ultraviolet lamps.
* ''Film/ThirtyDaysOfNight'': ultraviolet causes severe burns to vampire. Unfortunately the protagonists couldn't (or just plain didn't) use it effectively

* ''Film/VanHelsing'': had a full spectrum sunlight grenade. He didn't know what it could be used for, but he thought it would come in handy.
* Hans in ''Film/TheTrollHunter'' has an ultraviolet array on his car and an ultraviolet gun which he uses to kill rogue trolls, which is important because trolls are nocturnal. The first troll killed in the movie turns to stone by the ultraviolet light; the second one outright explodes, and the final one [[spoiler:turns into an outright ''avalanche'' from sheer size after being stoned]].

* One of the example Wonders in ''[[TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression Genius: The Transgression]]'' is a UV "Sungun" Lamp, capable of disintegrating vampires after just a few sweeps. And, since this ''is'' intended to be played in the New World of Darkness, Geniuses with bigger plans will probably need these, and more.

* [[PuppeteerParasite Las Plagas]] from ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' and ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvil5 5]]'' are weak to UV light. The parasites never expose themselves during the day (at least in 4), flash grenades instantly kill exposed Plagas, and in all versions of ''4'' except the [=GameCube=] version, Leon can unlock a UV laser gun that instantly kills enemies when fully charged.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Derelict}}'' UV crossbow bolts appear to be the protagonist's chosen weapon against her robed and masked enemies.

* ''ComicBook/{{Blade}}'': In his original comic book appearances, Characters/{{Blade}} used knives made from the hardest teak wood against Dracula and pals.

* ''Franchise/SherlockHolmes'': wooden bullets were used to threaten the Count in ''The Holmes-Dracula File''. The Count himself notes (either in that novel or in one of the others set in the same continuity) that wood is deadly to his kind while metal cannot truly harm them. This is, in fact, what he takes advantage of to [[spoiler:fake his death at the end of ''Literature/TheDraculaTape'', Saberhagen's take on Stoker's original tale,]] to throw his dogged pursuers off his trail for good.

* Wooden stakes to the chest don't ''kill'' Black Court Vampires -- the closest to the Dracula template -- in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', but they do make the vampires go into uncontrollable, paralyzing spasms. Just about any kind of impalement will manage it, including high-heels and [[ItMakesSenseInContext frozen turkeys]].
* ''Literature/SabinaKane: vampires are vulnerable not to wood but ''specifically'' apple wood (as in, wood from apple trees) -- because in that setting, vampires are somehow mystically linked to the Apple from the Garden of Eden. Sabina even uses apple cider bullets effectively against them.

* ''Series/{{Buffy|the vampire slayer}}'' and its SpinOff ''Series/{{Angel}}'': both use crossbows, and Angel has two devices that extend stakes hidden in his sleeves. Connor also used an automatic-staker in his first appearance as a teenager.
** A later episode of Angel shows that members of the Wolfram and Hart Spec Ops Team carry wooden combat knives.
* In ''Series/TrueBlood'', the Fellowship of the Sun developed quite an arsenal of wood-tipped projectile weapons. They're not the only ones. When Bill decides to kill Sophie-Anne, the Vampire Queen of Louisiana, he brings in a whole SWAT team armed with assault rifles with wood ammo. Even an experienced and powerful vampire like her can't do much against MoreDakka of wood. Later, we're shown the the Vampire Authority has plenty of soldiers armed with similar guns.

* The paramilitary vampire hunters in ''Series/Ultraviolet1998'' use charcoal-nosed bullets.

* Myth/NorseMythology: only mistletoe can harm Balder; everything else in the Nine Worlds has promised not to hurt him, because Balder is [[PrettyBoy just so damn pretty]]. (The mistletoe probably would have promised too, but Frigga forgot to ask it.) MagnificentBastard Loki simply cannot resist the opportunity this presented ...

* ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil Task Force'': VALKYRIE sometimes uses specially treated wood bullets against vampires-the bullets can come in all sizes, and can be used to effectively "stake" a vampire at range. Funnily enough, the round isn't common even though it's easy to make, partly because they feel it's too "low-tech".
* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} High Tech'' includes a sidebar on exotic ammunition. Wood has poor ballistics and armor penetration and thus is only good for triggering a weakness.

* ''VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4'', being based off of Myth/NorseMythology, makes use of this. [[spoiler:At one point in the game, the dwarf Sindri gives Kratos' son Atreus a bunch of mistletoe arrows. When Freya sees them she demands the arrows and immediately destroys them to protect Baldur. However, earlier Kratos used one of the arrowheads to affect temporary repairs to Atreus' quiver; later on Baldur punches the boy, which causes him to get the arrowhead driven through his palm, taking away his invulnerability.]]

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius:'' Dame Aedith of Master Payne's Circus is armed with a gun that shoots wooden stakes. It's intended to be used against vampires, if in fact she ever manages to meet one, but she's willing enough to deploy it against non-undead targets.

* ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'': Alucard's bullets, like his gun(s), are made to order - each is made from the silver of a Lancaster cross that was specially melted down for the purpose. The fact that the rounds are also ''explosive-tipped'' helps as well.
--> "Nothing ''I'' shoot ever gets back up again."
** He later receives a gun which fires Macedonium silver-jacketed bullets with blessed mercury (quicksilver) cores. Those don't need an explosive added, since mercury, being a liquid with about the same density as lead, virtually explodes upon terminal impact anyway.

* ''ComicBook/AstroCity'' "Confession" story arc (see above): Mordecai Chalk, a cyborg monster-hunter. He had a shotgun that fired shells with wolfsbane and holy water, mechanical parts etched with holy symbols and crafted in iron and silver, and an on-board computer that references thousands of occult tomes. [[spoiler:It doesn't do him any good.]]

[[AC: Fan Works]]

* In the ''Fanfic/ThisTimeRound'' fic "Friendly Hopes", William Starr's shotgun contains a mix of lead, gold, silver, iron, hardwood, platinum and diamonds. He's not aware of anything with a vulnerability to platinum or diamonds, but you never know.
* ''FanFic/SlayerAndAHalf'': Rachel carries around [[WaterGunsAndBalloons squirt guns]] filled with [[HolyBurnsEvil holy water]] mixed with [[VampiresHateGarlic garlic juice]] and [[SaltSolution rock salt]]. She also has boots engraved with cross symbols, and gives a pair to Buffy in the ChristmasEpisode.

* The titular character of ''Film/{{Hellboy|2004}}'' fights most demonic creatures using a big honking gun (forged from a church bell, no less) with ammunition comprising of glass bullets filled with ''"holy water, clover leaf, silver shavings, white oak... the works."''

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** In the undead bar of Ankh-Morpork, the bartender, Igor, has a weapon as follows:
--->''Like many barmen, Igor kept a club under the bar to deal with those little upsets that occurred around closing time... Igor's weapon of choice was a little different. It was tipped with silver (for werewolves), hung with garlic (for vampires) and wrapped around with a strip of blanket (for bogeymen). For everyone else, the fact that it was two feet of solid bog-oak usually sufficed.''
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': "Greater Than the Sum" introduces a "multivector weapon" designed to use everything against the Borg that had ever been somewhat effective. Then the Borg get ahold of it before it could be used against them -- and do what they always do -- they adapt.
** The EU, specifically ''Literature/StarTrekDestiny'', tries to explain how ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager's]]'' Transphasic Torpedos are so effective against the Borg. Basically they're Quantum Torpedos which use subspace to simultaneously explode with every possible frequency. Meaning that no shield modulation can possibly block the full force of the detonation, only parts of it. The only way to defend against them would be a shield that simultaneously covers all modulations. [[spoiler: Naturally, the Borg do finally adapt to them and it takes a DeusExMachina to save the Federation.]]

** In ''Literature/ReservedForTheCat'', the heroine carries a revolver loaded with two ColdIron bullets, two {{Silver Bullet}}s, and two Blessed Lead bullets, plus extra ammo of all three types. It's anyone's guess which type offed the mystical BigBad at the end of the novel.
** In ''Literature/UnnaturalIssue'', the Kerridge family have similar bullets for their shotguns, and they along with their friend Peter and his valet Garrick also have shotgun shells filled with [[SaltSolution blessed salt to take down the undead]].
* In ''[[Literature/MediochreQSethSeries The Good, the Bad and the Mediochre]]'', the tempomancer threatens to shoot [[{{Dhampyr}} Dhampinella]] with a tranquiliser dart loaded with garlic oil, citric acid and holy water. [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill With a crucifix motif]].
* While Vampires and Werewolves have largely integrated into the alternate Victorian setting of ''Literature/TheParasolProtectorate'', there are still quite a few characters who like to be prepared. Alexia's signature parasol, for example, [[ParasolOfPain has retractable spikes of both silver and wood]] along with a chemical spray tailored to each, one of which doubles as a powerful acid. Other examples include sundowner bullets (wooden musket balls banded with silver) and, amusingly, [[EdibleAmmunition pesto sauce]] (Werewolves in this universe are allergic to basil. Throw in some garlic...).
* ''Literature/MyVampireOlderSisterAndZombieLittleSister'' has anti-vampire bullets, made from consecrated steel or silver that was soaked in holy water when cooled.

** The general method seems to be -- if it's a demon, apply holy water followed by magic knife or exorcism (if you have time). If not, apply iron, silver, and liberal amounts of salt (often loaded into shotguns) and fire. All that said, the one thing that seems to have been capable of taking down anything a hunter faces (with a few exceptions) is relatively mundane - [[OffWithHisHead beheading.]] It's the only way to kill a vampire (aside from the [[TooAwesomeToUse Colt]]). Okami are susceptible to being run through a wood chipper. Wood chippers pretty much trump...everything. Presumably, they would work on a fair amount of monsters but the Okami is the only one ever shown in the show. Demons and Angels are more complicated because they inhabit [[DemonicPossession hosts]]; reducing them to ChunkySalsa would just slow them down because they'd have to find a new body.

** One ''Dragon'' article on almost-as-good-as-magical items suited for low-level adventurers to retrieve proposed the inclusion of "coldsilver" weapons: weapons that didn't have any bonuses, but which incorporated both silver ''and'' ColdIron into their substance. Hence, they could do damage to monsters resistant to non-magical attack, but vulnerable to either one or the other metal.
* In ''TabletopGame/TheDresdenFiles'' RPG, many types of supernatural creature have a power that improves their toughness and/or regeneration. Every one of these is required to have a "Catch" or critical weakness, which will prevent their durability or recovery from taking effect. Catches are rated on a [[PointBuildSystem points system]] (helping to offset the cost of the original powers), with more common weaknesses providing a bigger refund. For instance, a creature that's weak against fire or sunlight gets a 4-point discount, because this is well-known and easy to find; one vulnerable to something more esoteric like True Love might only get 2 points, and someone vulnerable to only a specific, difficult-to-find object (such as the Noose of Barrabas) gets nothing. However, certain rare artifacts and powers allow a player to spend a fate point to simply ''declare'' that their next attack matches a given target's Catch, allowing them to penetrate whatever supernatural defenses it might have.
* The anti-vampire kit in ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Steam-Tech'' includes a revolver with a selection of silver bullets, lead bullets inscribed with crosses, hardwood bullets, and actual miniature stakes which can be fired with a blank cartridge. How well they work depends on the kind of vampire and the quality of the specific kit (in the accompanying vignette, an unfortunate vampire hunter discovers - among several other problems with his kit - that the stakes don't actually fit the gun, and tend to fall out).
* In ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'', this is one of [[TheMenInBlack Task Force: VALKYRIE's]] Endowments, called Compound Rounds, which deal Lethal damage against supernatural targets that would usually only take Bashing damage from bullets. Come in various sizes for extra fun. However, the substances inside the bullet is too little to do aggravated damage.

[[AC:Web Original]]
* The legendary Usenet poster "Gharlane of Eddore" once proposed a design for a Standard Generic Monster Load, which was:

If bullets won't kill it, then obviously the answer is to make better bullets. If they're just really well protected, use a harder material like bronze or tungsten. If somebody's playing tricks with magnets, use compressed plastic. With magnesium, you can KillItWithFire! Or perhaps you can recycle their phlebotinum and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Hoist Them By Their Own Petard]].

* Kiritsugu Emiya of ''Literature/FateZero'' uses bullets containing one of his ribs (powdered, of course), which hit exponentially harder as his opponents dedicate more of their magic circuits to defense - and destroys those magic circuits in the process.

* Gene's Caster in ''Anime/OutlawStar'' fires bullets that contain magic spells. They're ridiculously rare, which means Jim is always on Gene's case whenever he has to use one (which is far more often than either would like).
* In ''Literature/RebuildWorld'', CWH rounds are specially-made [[ArmorPiercingAttack armor-piercing bullets]] designed for use with an anti-materiel rifle when normal piercing rounds don't cut it. These rounds are so powerful that they can take down monsters the size of a building by blasting a bus-sized hole in their skulls while still retaining enough momentum to shatter a part of a concrete structure behind it. Smaller monsters are instead reduced to unrecognizable LudicrousGibs. Naturally, this level of power comes with a price tag that makes it TooAwesomeToUse, leaving hunters to pack only one or two of them for emergencies.

* ''ComicBook/XMen'': Characters/{{Ma|rvelComicsMagneto}}gneto, Master of Magnetism is often faced with plastic or composite weapons, and was locked in a "plastic prison" on more than one occasion. In ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' a Sentinel boasts about how its plastic coating stops Magneto's powers... Magneto's response is an annoyed "You fools, this whole ''ship'' is my ''weapon!''" and promptly throws the huge generators nearby through the Sentinels.

* The Daximites' [[note]]a race of aliens which has Franchise/{{Superman}}'s powers,[[/note]]only weakness is LEAD, which means that any attempt to take over the Earth while firearms and lead bullets are the most common weaponry on the planet is pretty futile.
* In ''ComicBook/TheBoys'' it's shown that [[TropeNamers actual depleted uranium]] ammunition is a common weakness of superheroes.

* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''/''[[Series/Lucifer2016 Lucifer]]'' crossover "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13198941/1/Tripping-Down-the-Rabbit-Hole Tripping Down the Rabbit Hole]]", Gabriel and Maze discover that someone has brought a collection of angel blades from Gabriel's world to Lucifer's, prompting Gabriel to speculate that someone is using these to forge angel-killing bullets.

** The "6000-degree magnesium burn" of "high-heat 105mm sabot rounds" fired from an AC-130 gunship allowed the US military to hurt the marauding Decepticons in the movie (it's not much, but it works rather better than normal bullets). Discarding-sabot rounds being neither hot, magnesium-laden or used by AC-130s, this has little to do with military practice or actual physics, though it is implied that weapons technology in the movie-verse is different because many human technological advancements came from studying Megatron's body.
** By the second movie, the human NEST teams are shown carrying heavily-upgraded, large-caliber assault rifles and machineguns that can actually inflict damage on Decepticons; the NEST units and Marines fighting the Decepticons at the end of the movie prove surprisingly effective against the Decepticons in the all-out battle that results.
** By the third film, a number of key Decepticons are taken down ''without'' any help from Autobots beyond the training shown earlier in the film.
** By the time the fourth film rolls around, [[spoiler:a rogue anti-Cybertronian organization has used trained soldiers and new tech to exterminate most Cybertronians on Earth]].
* In ''Film/{{Posse}}'', Jesse Lee has some of the stolen gold recast into golden bullets he intends to use on his father's killers. Father Time explains that, according to New Orleans voodoo ladies, gold is the only way to kill a demon. In Jesse's case, the demons are symbolic rather than actual.
* The shells for the ''Götterdämmerung'''s main gun in ''Film/IronSky'' are said to be made from metastable metallic hydrogen. They are powerful enough to [[DefaceOfTheMoon tear our huge chunks of the Moon]] with each shot.
* ''Film/TheBeastFromTwentyThousandFathoms'': The only way to safely kill the beast. Its blood carries a deadly virus from prehistoric times, so shooting it will only cause the disease to spread and kill even more people, so in the end it's shot with a rifle grenade loaded with a potent radioactive isotope, causing it to die of radiation poisoning, which also neutralizes the disease it carries.

* ''Literature/HammersSlammers'': there's all sorts of strange weapons and ammo. One example is the "osmium penetrator" used by some of the other merc companies. These weapons take a rod of osmium, put behind it roughly a liter of propellant, and force it down a diamond-coated barrel to flechette thickness. It emerges as an osmium needle well capable of getting through tank armor, though it has little effect on personnel (the needle just blasts through people as if they weren't there, and since it doesn't splash, it just makes a very small hole). And powerguns, that fire ''bolts of energy'' from polyurethane wafers as ammo.

* ''Literature/TheAlloyOfLaw'': Anti-Allomancer rounds. The expensive ones are made out of Aluminum, the cheap ones vary based on target: Coinshot rounds are fronted with ceramics that will keep going when they push on the metal, Lurcher rounds contain ceramics surrounded by metal and fragment when pulled, Tineye rounds are excessively loud, Thug rounds are enormously over-sized.
* In Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'', most of the stuff mentioned above is useless against vampires (in fact, they deliberately let {{Muggles}} think it works). Even silver doesn't kill them, though being shot with a SilverBullet hurts like hell. What's deadly against a vampire? Vodka. Luckily most of the novels take place in Russia, where [[VodkaDrunkenski vodka is everywhere]].

* In ''Literature/AncillaryJustice'', [[spoiler:the bullets fired by the Garseddai guns will, after impact, go through ''anything'' for exactly 1.11 meters, by simply creating as much energy as they need. In the third book it is revealed that the 1.11 meters were just a side effect of their even more exotic intended function of specifically destroying Radchaai ships while not being able to harm the guns' Presger creators]].
* ''Literature/TheFallOfTheHouseOfCabal'': The [[BigBad Red Queen]] equips her PraetorianGuard with ammunition that immolates vampires from the inside out, ostensibly because they contain holy water. Unbeknownst to them, the contents are neither holy nor water, and are costly in a way beyond financial expense.

** This continues in the new series, where UNIT uses rad-steel coated bullets [[spoiler:to counter the Sontarans' anti-bullet field (that expands the copper casing of normal rounds and stops the guns firing)]].
** In "Revenge of the Cybermen", the Doctor mentions the "glittergun", which turns Cybermen into gold-plated statues as it clogs their vents.

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', Crowley manages to make angel-killing bullets by melting down angel blades.

* At one point in ''[[Series/{{V 1983}} V: The Final Battle]]'', the heroes discover that Visitor body armor is now impervious to conventional bullets. Teflon-coated bullets solve this problem rather quickly.
* In ''Series/FallingSkies'', the alien mechs can't be damaged by conventional bullets. Bullets made from salvaged mech armor, however, are quite effective.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Ogre'', the standard anti-personnel round is "ap-fizz dizzy-doo" (APFSDSDU): armor-piercing, fin-stabilized, discarding sabot, depleted uranium.

* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' games traditionally feature acid grenades and fire grenades in addition to normal grenade rounds. The precise effects of these specialized rounds varies from game to game. Acid grenades tend to be more effective against [[SuperSoldier B.O.W]] type enemies, such as the Hunters in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'' and the Lickers in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2''. Fire grenades can be used to burn up zombies (before or after they are "killed") to prevent them from becoming [[EliteMooks Crimson Heads]] in [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil1 REMake]], whilst in [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2 RE2]], they can OneHitKill [[PlantPerson Ivies]] (and their range means they're a far better choice for doing so than [[VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck Leon's flamethrower]]).

* The titular enemies from ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' are typically weak to ice.
* The [[EleventhHourSuperpower tail end]] of ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve'' features bullets laced with the protagonist's mitochondria. And that's not even touching the fact that the game's main feature is [[EliteTweak elite gun tweaking]] to make bullets that freeze, burn, tranquilize, or poison with acid and cyanide. (Then there's the crazy things the guns themselves can do, barring the already-powerful-enough rocket launchers.)
* ''VideoGame/ChexQuest'': Originally the flemoids/phlemoids (Whichever you prefer) were immune to conventional weapons. However, the "Zorcher" works by [[ReversePolarity remodulating the dimensional frequencies]] of the creatures, sending them back to whatever realm they came from. Therefore, [[NeverSayDie no killing]] the... green... slimy mucus things that want to eat the main character alive, and Ta-Da! It's kid-friendly!
* ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'' has ammo for weapons ranging from (relatively) realistic things like armour piercing bullets to things like electric shotgun shells, exploding shotgun shells, a flamethrower that also fires liquid nitrogen and electric gel, and a crossbow with fire bolts and bolts that shoot wires. And then there's [[LegoGenetics plasmids]]...

* ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance 2'' v1.13: introduced AET (Advanced Energy Transfer) ammunition. They pierce armor better than standard armor-piercing (AP) rounds, and do more damage as well (though less than hollow-point (HP) rounds). [[NecessaryDrawback They're also extremely expensive and wear down guns faster than any other ammunition in the game]], as otherwise you would never use any other type of ammunition. The developers suggest [[MST3KMantra not thinking too hard]] [[GunsDoNotWorkThatWay about how that works]].
** [[DownplayedTrope On a more realistic level]], there's also [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaser_Safety_Slug Glaser ammunition]] (G), which causes the absolute most damage possible to an unarmored opponent, but [[NecessaryDrawback can't even hurt someone wearing even a basic flak jacket]], only doing (surprisingly minor) stamina damage instead, with the added benefit of also preventing overpenetration (the bullet won't pass through your target and hit someone or something behind it). Glaser ammunition is almost overpowered at the beginning of the game, when most enemies you fight are unarmored, and almost completely useless by the middle of the game on, when enemies start wearing at least basic armor[[note]]Glaser ammunition is still good for fighting enemies like Bloodcats and the Crepitus, however, as they are unarmored by default[[/note]]. [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential But the fun of doing 130 points of damage with a headshot in a game where the maximum health is 100 (and most units don't even have that) cannot be overstated.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Singularity}}'': is powered up with the time-warping abilities of "Element 99". Some of the weapons have special abilities because of this (like a sniper rifle that slows down time so you can shoot a moving target) but for most, it just makes their bullets hit harder.
* ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'': when Ryu used APFSDS cores as ''arrows'', to destroy heavily armored ''tanks and helicopters''. But then, that whole section of the game is an exercise in RefugeInAudacity. There are also explosive arrows for when getting through armour is less important than AOE.
* In ''Franchise/StarCraft'', the "U-238 Shells" upgrade swaps out the standard Terran Marine rifle round for [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin one made from depleted uranium]]. This increases Marines' attack range by 25%.
* Railgun rounds in ''VideoGame/EscapeVelocity Nova'' are stated in flavor text to be forged of metals that are highly conductive but cheap, such as copper and gold. The rounds come in 100, 150, 200, and (with the [[GameMod ARPIA plug-in]]) 400 millimeter sizes.
* ''VideoGame/TheGodfather 2'' has incendiary rounds as a reward for completing a certain crime ring.
* ''VideoGame/XComApocalypse'':
** The ultimate anti-alien weapons are anti-alien toxins and anti-alien gas. The former requires a special pistol and has to be upgraded twice to be effective against advanced forms, the latter is discovered fairly late, but can be used in grenades and missiles for existing launchers. Both completely bypass aliens' force field shields and pose almost no threat whatsoever to allied forces in the event of psionic attack. With those the last missions are a breeze. You still need conventional weapons, explosives or rayguns to disable alien structures, though. Good thing you can borrow them from dead aliens.
** Equally, it takes multiple disruptor blasts or devastator missiles to take down ''your'' troopers at that stage, thanks to your [[NighInvulnerability Nigh-Invulnerable]] disruption armor and stolen shield technology... and then the aliens bust out ''their'' enzyme guns, which shoot target-seeking organic "missiles" loaded with nasty stuff that can melt through your super-armor in seconds. They may still be stopped by shields, but the moment you see them on the field, you take notice.
* ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' has a basic upgrade in the form of Reaper Rounds, which can only be used in projectile weapons and are developed based on the initial research of alien alloys. They ''tend'' to hit harder than regular rounds (higher chance of critical hit), but also tend to fly less reliably than regular rounds (lower chance to hit).
** The sequel ''VideoGame/XCOM2'' introduced a wide variety of alternative rounds. Toxic rounds poison enemies. Hellfire rounds can light them on fire. Talon rounds pack a huge punch (higher critical chance ''and'' critical damage). But the most commonly sought and used rounds are Bluescreen rounds, which cause extensive damage to robotic enemies, and also completely ignore any armor said robotic enemies may be using. With 4 out of the 5 most powerful enemies in the game vulnerable to Bluescreen rounds[[note]][[spoiler: Sectopods, Gatekeepers, Andromedon Shells, and Codexes]][[/note]], and frequently decked out in a lot of armor to boot, Bluescreen rounds are worth their weight in gold.
* ''VideoGame/{{Evolve}}'' has super material rounds, or super-mat for short. How they work exactly isn't explained, but a super-mat pistol [[HandCannon packs enough of a punch]] for a multi-story tall monster to take notice.
* ''VideoGame/EarthAndBeyond'' had Projectile (read: bullets) and Missile ammunition (as well as beams) that came in a wide variety of flavors, each of which behaved differently and was effective against different targets. It did at least try to be "realistic" by limiting which damage types could fit into which ammunition. Damage types were: Impact, Explosive, Energy, Plasma, Chemical, and EMP. Impact Explosive and Energy were the basic type that did instant upfront damage equally on all targets; no Impact/Explosive Beams, Explosive Projectiles, or Energy Missiles existed with only 1 extremely rare Energy Projectile existing. Plasma and Chemical each did [=DoT=] with Plasma doing extra damage to metal hulls and Chemical doing extra damage to organic Space Whales; all weapons could fire Plasma ammo, but there were no chemical Beams. EMP did extra damage to shields and ScratchDamage to anything else; only 1 rare EMP Projectile existed but were common for Beams and Missiles.
* ''VideoGame/CorpseKiller'' has Datura bullets, made by soaking regular or armor-piercing bullets in a brew of ground-up Datura leaves, which is especially potent against zombie poison. You also need them to damage the game's EliteMooks.

[[AC:Web Original]]
* Jack Yaeger's gun in ''WebVideo/TheMercuryMen'' fires bullets made of solid light, apparently the only thing that can kill the Mercury men.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Centurions}}'', energy specialist Rex Charger had assault weapon systems that fired missiles that contained... energy-changing stuff. Magnetic shields, light, [[EnergyAbsorption energy that was absorbed by a gun]]--the missiles were {{Technobabble}} shells. This meant that they were exactly as powerful as the plot demanded: on separate occasions, Rex blew up a SwirlyEnergyThingy and ''killed a black hole.''

* ''Literature/TheSpiderwickChronicles'' book four: Jared confronts a faerie by pulling out a steel knife. His reasoning was that faeries don't like iron, and steel is at least part iron. It worked.

* The Daximites, a race of aliens which has Franchise/{{Superman}}'s powers, only weakness is LEAD, which means that any attempt to take over the Earth while firearms and lead bullets are the most common weaponry on the planet is pretty futile.

* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' has exorcist rounds for the Lawgiver. These rounds were developed with supernatural foes and contain garlic, silver nitrate, and anything else proven effective against supernatural foes.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', Devil Fruit users are all [[WeaksauceWeakness weak to submersion in water]], and Sea-Prism Stone is [[KryptoniteFactor a rock that causes people touched by it to suffer the same effect as being submerged]]. Usually, it's used in handcuffs, restraints, and cages, but the marine Smoker walks around with a weapon tipped with the stuff despite being a Devil Fruit user himself.

* ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'': [[AllThereInTheManual The manual]] for the [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaI first game]] stated that Simon Belmont soaked his signature whip in garlic juice and HolyWater for seventeen weeks before assaulting Dracula's castle. This is kind of undone since one of the first powerups the game will give you after every respawn is a ball and chain weapon that replaces the whip, and retconned out almost entirely with the increasingly-complex history of the whip in later games.[[note]]This was highly unlikely to have ever been canon at all, since whoever wrote Konami's English-language manuals in that era seemed more concerned with making awful jokes than conveying whatever plots Konami had come up with.[[/note]]

* ''Manga/ElfenLied'': When traditional firearms [[ImmuneToBullets prove useless against the diclonii]], the antagonists resort to [[{{BFG}} anti-tank rifles]] loaded with purpose-made tungsten slugs, which are too heavy for the diclonii's [[PsychicPower Vectors]] to easily deflect.

** The general method seems to be -- if it's a demon, apply holy water followed by magic knife or exorcism (if you have time). If not, apply iron, silver, and liberal amounts of salt (often loaded into shotguns) and fire. All that said, the one thing that seems to have been capable of taking down anything a hunter faces (with a few exceptions) is relatively mundane - [[OffWithHisHead beheading.]] It's the only way to kill a vampire (aside from the [[TooAwesomeToUse Colt]]). Okami are susceptible to being run through a wood chipper. Wood chippers pretty much trump...everything. Presumably, they would work on a fair amount of monsters but the Okami is the only one ever shown in the show.