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Heavy blaster rifles were a larger and more powerful variant of the blaster rifle.[2] They were often only distributed to one or two infantry members per squad, and inflicted more damage from greater distances than anything else used within a squad. With barrels that were often exceptionally long, heavy rifles tended to be very accurate. They could easily pierce plastoid and heavy combat armor, and could even pose a threat to lightly armored speeders.[1]
Heavy blaster rifles employed a powerful, sometimes concentrated blaster gases, advanced XCiter technologies, upgraded Galven circuitry, and precision-ground focusing crystals to achieve their longer range, beam cohesion, and energy output. A key divider between standard rifles and heavy rifles was the option to make them fully automatic, however, over the course of galactic history, a number of semi-automatic weapons, often high-powered sniper rifles, were classified as heavy blaster rifles, and were regulated as such.[1]
