Raycaster

Raycasters, also known as beamcasters or proto-phasters were a class of laser gun that was an ancestor to the blaster designed by reverse-engineering the Kingdom of Cron's beam gun. As the name suggested, these weapons, which were typically mounted on the wrist and connected to a back-mounted power pack, generated rays or beams of heated particles that reached a plasmatic state after leaving the weapon, unlike the blasters of the future. Around 6000 BBY, raycasters replaced automatic projectile guns as the Republic Military's standard issue infantry weapons. Because of its unpredictability and sophisticated technology, raycasters very rarely ended up in the hands of non-military combatants, and thus was only seen on the fronts of the Republic's conquests. In 4500 BBY, Republic weaponsmithes created a more portable beam gun that used refined gasses like Tibanna and also implented a gravity ring and a crystalline focal lense, allowing the prototype to fire several individual bursts of plasma known as laser bolts. These new weapons came to be known as phasers, which ended up in the hands of Republic soldiers and Hutt gangsters by 4200 BBY. By the time of the Great Sith War, phasers had evolved into blasters, which were further spread across the galaxy by the Republic, Sith Empire, the Hutts, and the Mandalorians. By the time of the Mandalorian Wars, phaser and blaster technology overshadowed projectile-based firearms, slugthrowers, and hand cannons of the past.