Blaster/Legends

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

- Han Solo to Luke Skywalker

A Blaster is a ranged weapon that fired bursts of particle beam energy from a replaceable power cell. The most commonly used weapon in the Galaxy, blasters' intense beams of light consisting of compacted particles could kill or paralyze their target, depending on their setting. Blasters ranged from compact pistols, all the way up to larges heavy rifles and starship-mounted blaster cannons. Nearly every being in the Galaxy owned a blaster at some time: Anakin Skywalker owned a small ion blaster in his youth, Leia Organa was given a sporting blaster when she was just a teenager, and Mandalorian children were given blasters, along with extensive training, prior to becoming thirteen standard years old.

Technical information
"Not as clumsy, or as random, as a blaster."

- Obi-Wan Kenobi, referring to the lightsaber

The term blaster was often used interchangeably with the term laser in everyday conversation, both denoting the same type of particle beam weapon. However, strictly speaking, the laser was a much older weapon design than the blaster. And, unlike those of lasers, blasters' firing cycles had more proficient recharge rates, allowing them to be capable of attaining much higher rate of fire, though at a loss of distance and accuracy.

There is also some dispute as to what size restrictions denote a "blaster". For example, blasters are commonly thought of as handheld weapons only, but starship-mounted blaster cannons may fall in this category as well.

Laser mechanics


A laser beam was a coherent shaft of light. When referring to light (or any other wave pattern for that matter), coherence refers to the pattern's "sameness" in multiple waves. In other words, each light wave emitted from the laser device had the same wavelength and amplitude as all other waves emitted from the same device, and all "crests" and "troughs" of every wave were aligned with the others.

Lasers were generated by introducing energy to a medium, the substance used to generate the beams. Tibanna gas was a frequently favored medium. When an atom of the medium was excited by energy, one or more of its electrons would "jump" to a higher energy level. When the atom stabilized (the point at which the electrons return to their original energy levels), a photon was released. A photon was a "packet" of energy that traveled in both a wave-like and a particulate manner, giving it a high energy level, as well as a high damage rating. Some types of sniper rifles fired invisible bolts of energy by using a special type of blaster gas. This weapon was very useful for acting from concealment, especially if the user were wearing a portable stealth field generator or sound dampener.

Blaster mechanics
Blasters were a considerable improvement over the archaic laser design. The energy that made up the blaster bolt depended on the type of blaster being used. In plasma-based blasters, a high-energy gas (tibanna gas, for example, in the BlasTech DC-series) would move from the gas chamber into another chamber where it was altered into a plasma state, then released from a magnetic "bottle" effect through the collimating components in the barrel as a coherent energy bolt of light and plasma. This combination of light and plasma formed the deadly bolt fired from a blaster. In particle-beam based blasters, like the E-11 used by stormtroopers, a small amount of high-energy gas moved from the gas chamber to the chamber commonly called the XCiter. In the XCiter chamber, the gas was energized by the power pack, then passed into the actuating blaster module, which, when assisted by the components in the barrel, processed the now extremely high-energy gas into a compressed beam of intense energy particles, coupled with intense light. In these blasters, the combination of light and a compressed bolt of intense energy particles formed the deadly bolt.



Most personal blasters had two kinds of ammunition: a gas cartridge and a power cell. Very weak weapons, like the Drearian Defense Conglomerate Defender sporting blaster, relied on the power cell and used only a small quantity of gas, while immensely powerful weapons, like the illegal Tenloss DX-2 disruptor pistol, used abnormally large 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.

Some blasters, such as the Wookiee bowcaster, fired several blaster bolts that ricocheted off surfaces, increasing their chances of hitting something.

Electronic enhancements
Many blasters had side attachments and accessories to aid in targeting, accuracy, rate of fire and grip. Some known attachments included targeting 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 two WESTAR-34 blaster pistols had dallorian alloy plating which kept the weapon from overheating.

History and usage
"So uncivilized."

- Obi-Wan Kenobi



The oldest known type of blaster was used by the Ancient droid model employed by the Rakatan Infinite Empire. This weapon was considered to be extremely up-to-date compared to the blasters of the year 3,956 BBY. Besides that, the oldest and most venerable example of blaster technology was the triple blaster, which dated back to the Galactic Republic. It worked by using three separate blasters connected to the same targeting system, often coordinated in sets of two or four and fired simultaneously at a target. By the rise of the Empire, triple blasters had become exceedingly rare. Prior to the innovation of the triple blaster, beam tubes were used. They consisted of backpacks with a hose coming out of the side that connected to a focusing tube. All of the equipment that created the blaster beam was contained in the backpack and was fired out of the hose. These lost popularity quickly once triple blasters were invented.

Triple blaster technology began to wane as what we traditionally think of as "the blaster" was created, as it was a self-contained unit that could produce bolts by itself with no additional equipment.

An updated version of blaster technology was the autoblaster. Designed for the B-wing starfighter, it had an even higher rate of fire than other blasters but was not available to other models until after the Battle of Endor.

The most common personal weapon in the 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 the Outer Rim worlds, though small, concealable Hold-out blasters were frequently used by social elite, such as Baron Administrator Lando Calrissian. Many establishments, such as the Cantina in Mos 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 was BlasTech, which had contracts with both the Imperial Military and the Alliance to Restore the Republic. It also manufactured the Protector civilian fighter-grade blaster line.

Blaster variants

 * Holdout blasters
 * Sporting blasters
 * Blaster pistols
 * Heavy blaster pistols
 * Blaster rifles
 * Blaster carbines
 * Repeating blasters
 * Autoblasters
 * Blaster cannons

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Most Expanded Universe stories.
 * Most Star Wars video games