Needler

Needlers were a type of blaster which fired ropes of red lightning at their target, causing great pain and caused fatal heart seizures if the user desired. The weapon was fired using a trigger, and the amount of pain it caused could be changed using a dial on the device's side. On the planet Sevarcos, Zygerrian slavers used needlers to control and punish the slaves working in the planet's spice mines. During the Battle of Sevarcos, in which the New Republic attacked the Imperial-aligned mines on the planet, one slaver used a needler on the rebelling Wookiee slave Greybok, intending to kill him. The Wookiee was saved from death when his fellow slave Hatchet killed the slaver with a rock, freeing Greybok from the needlers effects.

Behind the scenes
Needlers first appeared in "Death by Triflexia", an Star Wars Legends adventure for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game written by Peter M. Schweighofer that was published in the magazine Challenge 76 in 1995. They were revealed to be canon by the novel Aftermath, which was written by Chuck Wendig and released in 2015.

Appearances

 * Aftermath