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Blaster

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The popular -issue — The popularstormtrooper-issueBlasTech Industries E-11 blaster rifle

"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side."

―Han Solo, toLuke Skywalker on the supposed advantages of a blaster over alightsaber^[1]

Ablaster, also called agun, was a ranged weapon that fired bursts ofparticle beam energy calledblaster bolts from a replaceablepower pack. The most commonly used weapon inthe galaxy, blasters' intense beams consisted of compacted high-energy particles and intense light that could kill or paralyze their target, depending on the setting. Blasters ranged in size and power from compactpistols to large, heavyrifles tostarship-mountedblaster cannons. Some beings used blasters from their youth:Anakin Skywalker owned a smallion blaster in his childhood,Leia Organa was given asporting blaster when she was a teenager, andMandalorian children were given blasters, along with extensive training, prior to becoming thirteen standard years old. Throughout theClone Wars, aclone trooper usually held a blaster rifle if not any type of specialist.

Name[]

The termsblaster andlaser were often used interchangeably in everyday conversation, both denoting the same type of particle beam weapon. However, technically speaking, the laser was a much older weapon design than the blaster, and blasters' firing cycles had faster recharge rates than those of lasers, allowing them to attain a much higher rate of fire, though at a loss of range and accuracy.

A blaster could also be referred to as a "gun".^[2]

There was some dispute as to what size of weapon the termblaster denoted. For example, blasters were commonly thought of as handheld weapons only, but starship-mounted blaster cannons could fall into this category as well.

Blaster mechanics[]

Operation[]

"An old trick...
...that always works"

―Kir Kanos destabilizes a blaster pistol, creating a makeshiftbomb^[3]

A blaster pistol. Here, the device is being rigged to explode.

Instead of firing a coherent beam of light like the archaic laser, the blaster fired a compressed, focused, high-energy particle-beam that was very destructive, commonly referred to as a "bolt". Generating the bolt relied on two components: a gas cartridge filled with an energy-richblaster gas (typicallyTibanna) and apower pack. When the blaster was fired, a small amount of gas moved from the cartridge through theHeter valve into the gas conversion enabler chamber, commonly called theXCiter. In this chamber, the power pack energized the gas, before it passed into theactuating blaster module, where the now extremely high-energy gas was transformed into a compressed beam of intense energy particles, coupled with intense light. The particle beam was then focused through aprismatic crystal or a similar device, which generated a deadly high-energy particle beam, fired from the emitter nozzle as a bolt of glowing energy. The color of the bolt depended on the gas used and the type of focusing device, and could vary from red to blue to orange to white.^[4]^[5]

A side effect of firing blasters was the gas conversion enabler heating up as gas was energized by the power pack, which could cause blasters to overheat, sometimes to the point of destruction. Additionally, a small amount ofozone was emitted as a trace product of the bolt emerging from the emitter nozzle, lending blaster bolts a distinctive smell thatHan Solo characterized as being like burnt meat.^[6]

Ammunition[]

Most personal blasters had two kinds of ammunition: a gas cartridge and a power cell. Blaster gas cartridges could typically provide for up to five hundred shots before needing replacement. Most blaster power packs could supply energy for up to one hundred shots. Certain more powerful weapons put greater demands on the gas cartridge, power pack, or both: less powerful weapons, like theDrearian Defense Conglomerate Defender sporting blaster pistol, relied largely on the power cell and used only a small quantity of gas, while very powerful weapons, such as the illegaldisruptor, used much larger amounts of gas. Still other weapons, namely those dating from earlier times, employed a kind of removable power cell/cartridge which supplied enough energy (though at weaker levels) to make total expenditure seldom. Most blasters also had astun setting, which fed power through a secondary emitter, bypassing the gas chamber to create a ring-shaped electromagnetic burst that disrupted the target'snervous system, often leaving them unconscious.^[5]

Blaster bolts themselves carried no heat. On impact, however, their displacement of matter produced kinetic energy that caused heat: theatmosphere was displaced by the bolt's passage (causing the blaster's iconic sound^[7]); materials struck by bolts tended to deform and fuse, and liquids inside organic bodies instantly changed state to steam, expanding and doing terrible damage to surrounding tissue.^[5] Consequently, bolts usually dissipated in a small, but violent, explosion of extreme heat and force upon contact with an unshielded surface, sometimes leaving blast points. Weapons such as Han Solo'sDL-44 heavy blaster pistol and theE-11 blaster rifle could cause incredible destruction, and had the power to blow large chunks from stone walls and smaller holes and pockmarks out of durasteel bulkheads, as seen in Han Solo and Luke Skywalker'sraid onDetention Block AA-23 in0 BBY.^[1]

History and usage[]

"So uncivilized."

―Obi-Wan Kenobi, after killingGeneral Grievous with the latter's own weapon^[8]

The oldest known weapon that could be called a blaster was used by anancient droid of an unknown model employed by theRakatan Infinite Empire. This weapon was considered to be extremely up-to-date compared to the blasters of the year3956 BBY.^[9]

The first blasters developed by the greater galaxy were reverse-engineered from Rakatan technology after the collapse of the Infinite Empire. These were heavyartillery weapons that combined large energy conductors with huge power generators. These early blasters were destructive but were slow to fire, temperamental, and difficult to move. As more efficient energy sources were developed, blasters became smaller and more practical, becoming anti-infantry emplacements and then handheld weapons known asbeam tubes. These consisted of backpack power generators with a hose coming out of the side that connected to a handheld focusing tube. All of the equipment that created the blaster beam was contained in the backpack and was fired through the hose. The beam tube was the dominant weapon of the elite infantry ofXim the Despot, theDuinarbulon Star Lancers, around25,130 BBY and came to displaceheatbeams andplasma cannons (both of which usedlasers to heatplasma) because they were safer to carry and required less maintenance.^[5]

Beam tubes were replaced bypulse-wave blasters in7811 BBY. These weapons produced a more powerful beam and had a much greater rate of fire. The pulse-wave weapons ofWaymancy Hollow dramatically overpowered theGalactic Republic during theWaymancy Storm conflict until the Republic was able to reverse-engineer theSif-Alulan process to produce pulse-wave blasters of its own.^[10]

The next innovation in blaster technology was thetriple blaster, which dated to the early Galactic Republic. It worked by using three separate weapons connected to the same targeting system, often coordinated in sets of two or four and fired simultaneously at a target. Triple blasters had become exceedingly rare by therise of the Empire. Pulse-wave weapons were still in extensive use at the time of theGreat Sith War around4000 BBY, but lost out to the triple blaster as they were imprecise and lacked range.^[5]

Further developments in the lead up to theMandalorian Wars led to the decline of triple blaster technology as what is traditionally thought of asthe blaster was created: a self-contained unit that could produce bolts by itself with no additional equipment. Blasters were a mature technology from this point, and blasters from theClone Wars were considered identical in operation to their successors from theGalactic Civil War twenty years later.^[11]

Han Solo used a DL-44 heavy blaster pistol.

Blasters rapidly displaced theslugthrower as the primary infantry weapon owing to their greater ammunition capacity and power, and lighter ammunition thanslugs. However, slugthrowers were still more useful than blasters in certain environments, such as exceptionally humid locales like jungles, which might destroy a blaster's delicate internal components.^[12] Slugthrowers could also be silenced more easily than blasters and did not produce a visible bolt.

An updated version of blaster technology developed during the Clone Wars were"stealth" blasters, exemplified by theDC-19 "Stealth" carbine used by the Republic'sclone shadow troopers. The DC-19 had a sound-suppressor unit that allowed the user to operate the blaster in virtually complete silence, and also had an alternate stealth firing mode that used a refined mixture of tibanna gas, making the bolt invisible to the nakedeye. However, the invisible tibanna mix had to be reloaded after every ten shots, and there was a required cool-downtime between each shot to protect the blaster's dampeners from overheating. A further development of this was theNightstinger sporting blaster rifle. Another development during the Galactic Civil War was theautoblaster. Designed for theB-wing starfighter, it had a higher rate of fire than other blasters, but did not become commonly available until after theBattle of Endor.

The most common personal weapon inthe galaxy by the rise of the Empire, blasters were often used not only by military personnel, but by civilians as protection. They were more commonly seen in theOuter Rim worlds, though small, concealablehold-out blasters were frequently used by social elite, such as Baron AdministratorLando Calrissian. Many establishments, such as theCantina inMos Eisley, had restrictions against use of blasters, though these were often overlooked if the conflict remained small.

The most common manufacturer of blasters during the Galactic Civil War wasBlasTech, which had contracts with both the Imperial Military and theAlliance to Restore the Republic. It also manufactured theProtector civilian fighter-grade blaster line as well as the E type, such as theE-11 blaster rifle used commonly bystormtroopers and later by a semi-major pirate faction called FTS, most of which was salvaged after the end of the Galactic Civil War.

Blaster accessories[]

Many blasters had attachments and accessories to aid in targeting, accuracy, rate of fire, and grip. Attachments includedtargeting lasers,electronic scopes, and larger power packs.Delta Squad's DC-17m interchangeable blasters had sniper and anti-armor attachments for adaptability in unpredictable situations.Boba Fett's EE-3 carbine rifle had a small scope which could interface with Fett's helmet for increased accuracy.Jango Fett's twoWESTAR-34 blaster pistols haddallorian alloy plating, which kept the weapon from overheating.Clone troopers'DC-15A blasters could interface with their helmets.