Energy weapons are powerful and versatile with numerous iterations. Like kinetic weapons they can be adjusted to inflict damage differently based on the target, but without needing specially modified shells. They are in fact a wide variety of different energy weapons out there, but they can typically boil down into one of three groups.
The first up is the good old laser. Lasers are lower-yield weapons, but they have fantastic range, often allowing a vessel to engage a target pretty much the instant they have line of sight. Laser beams like many energy weapons do suffer from dissipation which results in the beam weakening with distance.
This content is taken from fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm.
While perhaps not the most damaging per hit, they have a good recharge rate, and are generally pretty decent at cutting through armor and shielding. As a result they are superb general purpose weapons and their long-range allows a ship to score the first hit reliably. Lasers are often picked for point defense and long-range gunnery, both roles they excel at.
Lasers come in a number of different forms, you may have heard mention of high energy-linked lasers already. Earth and her colonies made extensive use of this type of laser. They are stable, allow for fairly high energy outputs and are reasonably compact. However they aren’t the only way to make military-grade laser weapons.
Next up Particle Weapons. We’ve seen these quite a bit, they are good solid weapons. Characteristics can vary depending on who made them, but they generally inflict good damage with each hit and can fire at a fair clip. The range of particle weapons are typically pretty average.
So far we have two major models for use in particle weaponry. The first is the human model. Human particle weapons are fast firing, inflict moderate damage with each hit, and shred armor. However they tend to fare poorly against strong shields and their tendency to rip right through a hull does limit the damage they do.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The Toral also use such weapons, their versions are much slower to fire, but hit much harder. They have similar range though, and can punch through even thick powered armor.
Notably both types of particle weapons are strong against armor, which seems to be a feature of particle beams. They tend to shred armor in a fashion other weapons don’t.
Finally the last member of the conventional trio are plasma weapons. We’ve seen three different takes on these weapons. The Valorian model which features low powered, rapid fire plasma rounds with good range. Roughly on par with a particle beam, if slightly longer range. However these bolts have been noted to struggle against human armor.
Another model we’ve seen is the Cathamari version which is in line with the general abilities of most plasma weapons. These are high damage short range energy projectiles that burn through shields and armor with rapid impunity. They also have a decent recharge rate, so once in range a ship outfitted with plasma guns will shred.
The final model we’ve seen is the Krall version of plasma weaponry. Krall weapons are effective at medium ranges and fire slow but powerful focused plasma streams. Any hit they score will punch through shields and armor due to raw firepower alone. The extreme heat of the beam will ignite anything that can burn, even some metals, while melting the hull.
So where does all of this leave the conventional trio? Well they are all solid weapons to arm a ship with. Your choice likely depends on what you need. In general Particle weapons tend to be solid, while plasma weapons are devastating but suffer from limited range. Lasers are great first-strike weapons but have comparatively limited damage per shot.