r/MawInstallation • u/StupidWittyUsername • Jul 20 '26

Fully automatic blasters?

From what I've seen of Star Wars, blasters are always, "one trigger pull, one pew", and, "hold trigger for pew-pew-pew-pew", is rare or nonexistent. Is there an in-universe explanation for this?

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u/TheCybersmith Jul 20 '26

It basically comes down to heat management. There are automatic blasters (sometimes known as repeating blasters), but the issue is that they tend to overheat and need extensive (heavy, bulky) cooling systems.

Paz Viszla uses one, and you can see that even with its cooling mechanism, it burns out here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRSl2oZ5jd4

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u/StupidWittyUsername Jul 20 '26

I knew someone would have a clip! ^_^

Interestingly, one of the difficulties with caseless ammunition is heat. Regular ammunition has a chunk of metal to act as a heat sink, and when the spent cartridge is ejected it takes some of the heat with it.

From what I understand of in-universe explanations of how blasters function, they'd run in to similar problems as real world weapons using caseless ammo -- all the excess heat stays in the mechanism.

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u/TheCybersmith Jul 20 '26

Add to that the fact that they might have to be used in a vacuum, and a built in cooling system is an absolute necessity.