Blaster 4

A blaster cannon fires a concentrated beam of high-energy particles. In the most poweful blasters, these beams (or "bolts") can punch or bunr through advanced alloys with relative ease.

 -  The New Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology


Though soldiers trapped in a shootout would swear otherwise, blaster bolts themselves carry no heat. But their displacement of matter produced kinetic energy that causes heat. The atmosphere is superheated by the bolts' passage; materials struck by a bolt deform and fuse; and liquids inside bodies instantly change into steam, expanding and doing terrible damage to surrounding tissue.

    - Essential Guide to Warfare