When fired at point-blank range continuously, the stun setting can still be lethal. A 'stun' setting can incapacitate targets for capture without causing serious harm one incident has shown that even starship phasers have this capability, enabling them to stun large numbers of people from orbit. įrom their first appearance in continuity, hand phasers have had variable power settings. While they can make human tissue disappear in a moment, they are far less effective against denser materials like metals and completely ineffective against some materials, such as 'toranium inlay'. The operating principle of phasers - whatever it may be - makes them more effective against some materials than others. Phasers at full power have been known to make their targets completely disappear, an effect often described as 'vaporization', although it is never accompanied by the violent explosion and superheated cloud of vapor one would expect from vaporizing a target such as a human in less than a second. They often start chain reactions of an unknown nature that continue well after the beam stops striking the target.
Phasers are particle beams that usually heat materials they strike.
