Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." ...Han Solo, to Luke Skywalker

The ray gun, the standard weapon of classic science fiction, is also the most common weapon in the Star Wars universe under the name "blaster".

A blaster was a ranged weapon that fired bursts of particle beam energy called blaster bolts from a replaceable power cell. The most commonly used weapon in the galaxy, blasters' intense beams consisting of compacted high-energy particles and intense light could kill or paralyze their target, depending on their setting.

Blasters ranged from compact pistols, all the way up to large, heavy rifles and starship-mounted blaster cannons. Nearly every being in the galaxy owned or used 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.

The more common type was the blaster that fired a high energy particle beam that was more deadly to humanoids and other biological targets than superheated plasma (which was quite deadly anyway), but it was still effective enough against droids to put a B1 battle droid down and keep it down. Particle-beam types were also more efficient because they used less blaster gas to produce the beam than is necessary to form a plasma bolt(as plasma is a form of gas).

There are many variations of blasters: pistols, carbines, cannons, assault rifles and even machine guns. For example, Princess Leia Organa wielded a sporting blaster when her ship was boarded by Darth Vader's forces, while Han Solo prefers his heavily modified blaster pistol .

One of the most common and well-known blasters is the E-11 blaster rifle, the standard weapon of Imperial stormtroopers.

Several of the Star Wars films' fictional weapons are modified from real-life blank-firing prop guns: Han Solo's pistol is a customized Mauser C96, while the stormtroopers carry Sterling submachine guns of the World War II-era German MG34 general purpose machine gun, most easily seen in the detention center break-in in Episode IV.

The Star Wars universe makes use of fictional weapons that correspond in class to those of real-world armaments, those include mortars, grenades, land mines, missile launchers, shotguns and remote explosives.