Most available blasters fall into two main categories: Springers and Flywheelers.

Springers use a spring-based mechanism to compress a volume of air to launch the foam dart. “Priming” a blaster compresses a spring attached to a plunger head, holding it in place until the trigger releases. For many blasters, this priming handle is the foregrip on the blaster (“pump action”), but the prime might also be a knob that sticks out on the side or top (“bolt action”), or for small blasters, a t-pull or loop at the bottom of the grip. Some springers now use an electric rather than a manual priming mechanism, creating an AEB or Automatic Electric Blaster.

Springers are generally prized for greater accuracy over flywheel blasters, but the rate of fire is more dependent on the user and on the priming mechanism. Changing the length or material of the blaster’s barrel or adding a “scar” or “b-car” (s for string, b for bearing centering-and-rotation device) to the barrel can alter the performance of the springer in terms of its range, accuracy and fps (the feet-per-second at which the dart leaves the barrel).

Flywheel blasters rely on batteries to power motors in a pair of wheels which propel the dart. The choice of motors, flywheels, or the spacing between flywheels (using a different flywheel cage) can make the blaster more powerful and/or accurate. Flywheel blasters typically have two triggers, a rev trigger which starts the motors to spin up the flywheels, and a firing trigger which activates a separate mechanism to push the darts into the wheels themselves (Though newer designs are trending towards a single trigger to complete both actions). This pusher may be strictly mechanical, or it may be a solenoid, a specialized magnet with a spring of its own. With additional hardware, flywheel blasters can be made semi- or fully automatic, launching multiple darts at the squeeze of the trigger.

Hobby flywheel or AEB blasters usually use LiPo rechargeable batteries that need some careful handling, but are a great, long-lasting investment. Using a smaller capacity battery can help a powerful flywheeler meet a lower fps cap for different game modes.

Other blaster types, including the stringer—which uses elastic or other string-type tension to propel darts—or HPA—pressurized air blasters, banned in some areas—are less common. At the Blaster Tag Invitational, several players ran a new blaster called the Pariah (or Yoinky Sploinky) using a motor to pull a string-powered mechanism resulting in a stringer AEB.

While full-length darts used to be standard, most blasters in play, especially for competitive blaster tag, now use half-length darts. Some blasters also use round ammunition or Rival balls. Blasters of all types are often magazine-fed, using “mags” pre-loaded with a number of darts. Others take 3-D printed shells that can be loaded with various types of foam darts including larger dart types, or multiple darts in a single shell.

Blaster clubs are often happy to let respectful newcomers try firing blasters to see what they like, but there are great, fun blaster options easily available just about anywhere.

Blasters can be purchased off-the-shelf in many retail stores or from specialty blaster shops and designers on-line. Many blaster fans now have 3-D printers and choose to purchase the hardware kits for a new blaster design, then get files to print and customize their own blasters right at home!