Weapon Types

Kinetic

This type of weapon uses accelerated solid projectiles to inflict damage on impact using the projectiles' kinetic energy. The weapons themselves are very simple and are usually just barrels to safely accelerate and guide the projectiles without any more complex parts to perform other actions to increase the power of their payload.

• KSA weapons (Kinetic Self-Acceleration) use small amounts of explosives to accelerate the projectile, usually packaged together with the bullet into a cartridge. This means that KSA ammunition is usually heavier or comes in multiple parts and also that access material is often leftover, like the casings of most cartridges since caseless ammunition is quite rare. The advantage is that the weapon itself is very simple and a weapon capable of firing KSA ammunition can be crafted with primitive tools.
• KAA weapons (Kinetic Assisted-Acceleration) use systems in the weapon to accelerate the bullet, like in a railgun. Its ammunition is much lighter than KSA ammunition since it only consists of the bullet itself, however, it requires a more complex weapon that relies on multiple types of ammunition, most commonly an additional energy cell or integrated battery next to its standard ammunition, to deliver its payload. This downside has cost many lives in previous wars were due to logistical failures KAA weapons ran out of energy long before running out of KAA ammo itself, which lead to the development of more bulky KAA ammo where magazines had their own small batteries with enough power to deliver all rounds in it. In extreme cases cartridges similar to those of KSA ammunition where made, with small batteries instead of explosives, coming full circle again.
• KSP weapons (Kinetic Self-Propulsion) are fundamentally the same as KSA weapons and you could fire ammunition from one out of the other without much problem. The main difference is that KSA ammunition can have its explosives and bullet separate or combined and that the explosives only provide initial acceleration while inside the barrel of the weapon. KSP ammunition on the other hand always comes packaged as one as it not only accelerates in the barrel but continues to accelerate or at least hold its velocity by propelling itself. KSP ammunition can be easily confused with missiles as it works the same way, however, missiles typically use rocket propulsion to carry a non-kinetic payload (explosives, chemicals, etc.) while KSP weapons are best described as bullets with integrated rocket propulsion.

 

Plasma/Energy

Weapons in this category use superheated gas, metamaterials or other materials in highly energetic states to inflict damage on impact using predominantly thermal energy. They are referred to as either energy or plasma weapons depending on where you are, but the correct scientific term is plasma weapons. This naming problem originates from the history of plasma weapons, as they existed even before kinetic weapons, however, no one knew that they actually fired plasma as they were powered by magic. A classic example is a magic bolt of energy which, was created from essence and caused the air to turn into plasma, creating the bolt. It was not until far after kinetic weapons were invented though, that plasma was understood and the connection to weapons that fired energy bolts were made. Today no magic is required to operate these weapons, although there are still plenty of magically powered versions available. When a plasma weapon is fired, its medium of choice turns into plasma creating enormous heat and pressure which is used to shoot out the bolt of plasma that forms in the barrel of the weapon. Barrel length is an important factor in range and power of plasma bolts as longe barrels mean bigger, but slower and weaker bolts, while shorter barrels greatly increase the bolts range and power but put increased stress on the weapon.

• PAC weapons (Plasma Air Converter) use energy cells and a focus crystal to suck in air and turn it into plasma. These weapons are costly to produce due to having a surprising complexity and their performance heavily depends on the environment they are used in. They are completely useless in a vacuum and most variants also don't work in very moist environments or underwater due to needing air to form their plasma bolts. They are still favored by some factions for ground operations though since they have a long lifespan and only require energy cells to function.
• PGC weapons (Plasma Gas Converter) use special gases to create their plasma and do not require special focus crystals. They are much cheaper to produce than PAC weapons but require both energy cells and gas cartridges to function. Depending on the weapons manufacturer there are often combined cartridges that have enough energy stored in them to turn the included gas into plasma and fire it. Unlike kinetic ammunition, plasma ammunition can be scaled up quite well as you don't need to fill magazines with individual cartridges but can instead just make cartridges the size of magazines.
• LPB weapons (Laser Plasma Beam) are often categorized as plasma weapons, but since they do not shoot out plasma but merely turn anything in their path into plasma are instead classified as a laser weapon. See laser weapons.
• HLP weapons (HardLight Plasma) are also often categorized as plasma weapons and rightly so, but have been moved to their own hardlight weapon class. See hardlight weapons.

 

Laser

Laser weaponry is rarely seen on small arms, but becomes more prominent the larger weapons become. Laser weapons fire concentrated beams of energy in either short bursts or continuous beams to inflict their damage as pure thermal energy. They require a focusing crystal not dissimilar to that of a PAC weapon to focus energy into a deadly beam, but except that they are very simple weapons. Laser weapons are favored for long-range battles in the vacuum of space as they hit exactly where you aim without delay and a continuous beam can melt through even the thickest armor. Laser weapons have been around longer than modern plasma weapons, however they have found very practical use until the space age. For a long time, they were simply referred to as LAS weapons (Laser, shortened to 3 capital letters to fit the norm) while what is now the LPB class of laser weapons was considered a plasma weapon. Due to better understanding of the technology the old LAS category has now been named LOB, although the old name still sticks around and LPB weapons are now properly classified as laser weapons.

• LOB or LAS weapons (Laser Optical Beam) use light and focus it into highly concentrated beams capable of melting most armor. They are however very reliant on the medium they are shot through and can lose a lot of power very quickly when shot through polluted or moist air. For this reason, LOB weapons are not used much for ground combat and are more frequently seen in aerial combat where you usually have clear or no air and distances so long that the almost instantaneous delivery of a LOB weapon is highly effective compared to other weapons.
• LPB weapons (Laser Plasma Beam) use focused beams of essence instead of light. The beams created by this kind of weapon cause the medium it's being shot through to turn into plasma for a split-second or explode which makes them highly destructive. Unlike LOB weapons they suffer much less from a bad medium and can be shot through any gas without problems and can also penetrate many liquids quite deeply. They are much more complex than a LOB weapon though since they require either a direct essence input by the user or an essence converter. This also makes them much more power-hungry and only worth over other weapons in specific cases. For this reason, they are rarely seen, although they have found their own niche in sniping as they can deliver an instantly killing hit over a much larger distance much quicker than other types of weapons.

 

Hardlight

This kind of weapon fires an essence metamaterial known as hardlight to inflict its damage. It has a vast amount of properties depending on the exact amount of energy and the wavelength used to create it. Due to this, hardlight weapons are often considered hybrid weapons as they can deliver both kinetic energy from a bullet as well as thermal energy where laser, plasma, and kinetic weapons rely solely upon or at least overwhelmingly on either. Weapons can even be constructed with this technology that can freely switch the exact type of hardlight being fired, although that requires very fine and complex engineering.

• HLP weapons (HardLight Plasma) fire a softer, more energetic hardlight projectile that delivers a high amount of thermal energy and behaves very similar to plasma. One great advantage over real plasma weapons though is that HLP weapons create their plasma without the need for another medium like gas as they create their plasma from essence particles. They only require energy cells to fire but are much more complicated to manufacture and maintain than plasma weapons.
• HLK weapons (HardLight Kinetic) fire hard, less energetic hardlight projectiles that act similar to kinetic weapons. Unlike kinetic weapons though, HLK weapon projectiles usually still carry a substantial amount of thermal energy. This makes them great at inflicting damage against unshielded targets as they also inflict heavy damage to armor but they struggle heavily against mixed defenses as shields greatly weaken HLK projectiles and unlike kinetic ammunition can even be completely destroyed by a strong enough shield. The amount of thermal energy carried can vary greatly and HLK weapons are often further subcategorized by the ratio of thermal to kinetic energy. HLK-H weapons fire hotter projectiles that are more easily repelled by shields but inflict much higher damage, while HLK-C weapon fire colder projectiles that penetrate shields much easier but are more likely to simply shatter when hitting armor. HLK weapons often come with dials or buttons to set the ratio, allowing the user to adjust between HLK-H and HLK-C as needed. Some HLK weapons use excess energy from imperfect hardlight creation to accelerate their projectiles while others have self-propelling projectiles that decay back to front to propel themselves.
• HLX weapons (HardLight X) can replicate the functionality of both HLP and HLK weapons and often they use this capability to create hybrid projectiles as seen in the R105 Kobra which creates plasma which is then enveloped with a cold hardlight shell to create a projectile that delivers the damage potential of an HLP projectile with the shield penetration of an HLK-C projectile. These weapons are the most expensive in its class and higher-end models often allow the user to load up any compatible projectile profile to create any projectile they want.