Blaster

Blasters were a type of small directed energy weapon which fired high-velocity bolts of plasma energy. Thanks to the simplicity, scalability, and ruggedness of blaster technology, blasters were the predominant form of small arms weaponry throughout most of galactic history. Operated by ionizing small amounts of high-energy gas and funneling the resulting plasma through a focusing channel and out of the weapon inside of a magnetic bottle effect, blasters boasted lesser recoil and much greater ammunition capacity over traditional projectile weapons, with the main downside being the slower relative velocity and much greater visibility of blaster bolts compared to solid projectiles, something which was easily made up for by a blaster bolt's completely straight flight trajectory regardless of external atmospheric or gravitational conditions.