Plasma blasters are most useful for penetrating armour, while remaining effective against unarmoured targets. The plasma inflicts full damage to both armour and target AND full damage to unarmoured targets (a significant advantage over armour-piercing and armour-penetrating weapons). The weapon heats a small volume of gas to over 80 000 K, which it encapsulates in an opaque shield. This transfers the discharge into the highest-energy physical state: plasma. At the extreme excitation level of weapons-grade plasma, the blast doesn't just burn material, it converts it to a gas. The opaque shield surrounding the blast allows it to not lose much energy by radiation, but instead only exposes the plasma to material in its path. Thus, this weapon pokes finger-sized holes through virtually anything - inflicting harm to armour and target alike. The explosive force of the material expanding into a hot gas provides the "blast" for this blaster. *The microfusion generator of a plasma blaster can be detonated yielding an explosion of twice the weapons normal damage. The blaster can also be allowed to generate an uncontainable mass of plasma, resulting in an armour-eating plasma explosion with twice the weapons normal damage (blast radius = 1m). Plasma weapons are generally considered to be unsavoury, with a stigma for being used by ruthless and untrustworthy characters. Many establishments and governments ban them. Assassins love them. |
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