Blaster

"The Blaster is a great all-purpose weapon. Even though its range is limited, its high rate of fire makes it ideal for taking on tough enemies at close and medium ranges."

- The Ion Blaster's description, found in the game's physical manual

The Blaster, also known as the Ion Blaster, is a weapon manufactured by Gadgetron featured in Ratchet & Clank. It is a medium-ranged pistol with a high rate-of-fire which automatically targets enemies and deals minimal damage. It can be upgraded to the Gold Blaster.

Ratchet & Clank
The Blaster becomes available as soon as the player reaches planet Kerwan, and costs 2,500 bolts. It could later be upgraded to the Gold Blaster with 4 gold bolts and 20,000 bolts upon completion of the game.

Comic series
Ratchet's Blaster made an appearance during the first issue of the Ratchet & Clank comic series, in Ears of War. Ratchet used it to help defend Veldin from Zogg's robot mechs. After running out of ammo, Ratchet threw it at a robot in a futile attempt to inflict some harm. In this appearance, the Blaster was smaller and fired red blasts of energy, rather than the yellow balls as seen in the original game. When he broke out the Vartax Detention Facility, he utilized a second Blaster identical to his first one.

Characteristics
The Blaster is a large, black pistol with orange and red trim. It has a large, circular muzzle due to the large blasts fired. The ammunition fired is yellow, and appears to have similar particle effects to flames. Blaster ammunition is blue and cylindrical with a large black target icon on the front.

Combat
The Blaster's nature allows it to be fired rapidly, at the expense of its ammunition, which is depleted very fast. Its damage is minimal, although this is often enough to easily defeat the weaker enemies in the game. Its high rate-of-fire also allows it to be more powerful and more cost-efficient against larger enemies. However, due to a lack of strafing in Ratchet & Clank, the Blaster is susceptible to missing the mark, and the player should make sure that an enemy is targeted. When upgraded to the Gold Blaster, the projectiles can ricochet off walls to hit enemies.

Though the Blaster is useful when it is acquired, it can be very quickly outclassed. The Pyrocitor, and later, the Tesla Claw, can easily outperform it at defeating smaller enemies quickly, while weapons such as the Devastator are always far more useful against larger enemies. This means that the Blaster has only a small window within the game's story in which it is the optimal weapon for its job, although it is still useful when other weapons run out of ammo.

When upgraded to the Gold Blaster, its rate of fire and damage were even higher.

Behind the scenes
The Blaster was called the Bolt Blaster before Ratchet & Clank was released.

The Blaster and the Gold Blaster were the only blasters in the series that used auto-targeting, as in the later games it was mostly replaced by the HUD-based targeting.

If Ratchet fell to his death while firing the Blaster, the Blaster would fire faster than normally.

In-game summaries
"Blaster! Point it more or less at the bad guys and mow 'em down!"

- Vendor Description

"The Blaster is a great all-purpose weapon. Even though its range is limited, its high rate of fire makes it ideal for taking on tough enemies at close and medium ranges. Hold down L1 to use its sniper capabilities. This gun chews up ammo fast so be sure to pick up as much Blaster ammo as you can carry."

- Normal Help Menu description

"Why settle for a regular Blaster when you can have a Gold Blaster? Greater range, firing rate, and power is yours with this gold-plated beauty. And as an added bonus, your projectiles will ricochet off any object, increasing the damage you can do!"

- Help Menu Description

"Never embark on an intergalactic adventure without your trusty ion blaster. Or your toothbrush. But if you have to choose, go with the blaster."

- Holocard description

Appearances

 * Ratchet & Clank
 * Ratchet & Clank: Issue 1: Ears of War
 * Ratchet & Clank: Issue 2: Friends with Benefits
 * Ratchet & Clank (PS4)

Notes and references
Blaster Blaster