Science Fiction is home to some of the most awesome, powerful, creative, and just plain cool weapons ever imagined. There are tiny guns that can level city blocks, big freakin’ guns that can blow up rooms filled with cyberdemons, and even a space station that can obliterate entire planets. Those massive weapons aside, most characters carry that trusty blaster by their side that gets them out of many a tight spot. So today we’re taking a look at some of the best sidearms from the genre.

5. Mal’s Pistol (Firefly)

This one isn’t as powerful as some of the others on this list but it’s too darn cool to be left off. Mal Reynolds is a man’s man. His trusty sidearm is a retro-style steampunk pistol and, while it doesn’t shoot lasers, disintegrate people, or blow up tanks, it does get the job done. And, in the end, that’s all that matters. Now… let’s go be bad guys.

4. Lightsaber (Star Wars)

This one almost made number one until I reconsidered. Aside from being one of the coolest weapons in sci-fi, a lightsaber isn’t really that great of a weapon. It can cut through things and… well… that’s about it unless you’re a Jedi. If you’re one of the small group of people that can actually manipulate the force, then a lightsaber becomes a much deadlier and more powerful weapon but since that depends on the person wielding it more than the weapon itself, the lightsaber makes it in at number four.

3. Tesla Gun (Warehouse 13)

The lighting-shooting Tesla gun is the standard issue sidearm for Warehouse 13 agents. Invented by electrical genius, Nikola Tesla, it is capable of incapacitating its target as well as erasing their short-term memory. On higher settings, it has been known to completely obliterate human being. It’s a perfect weapon for a group of people who do not want the world to know that they exist.

2. Phaser (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

Like the Tesla gun, the phaser is a multipurpose weapon. With settings from stun to disintegrate, the phaser has a much wider range of uses. It has been used to cut holes in walls or heat rocks for warmth. It also can be adjusted from a concise beam to a wide range blast. The phaser’s versatility makes it one of the most useful weapons in existence.

1. Power Ring (Green Lantern)

One of the few weapons more versatile than a good Federation phaser is the power ring issued to members of the intergalactic Green Lantern Corps. The ring is powered by will and can be used to create anything that the user can think of. It can mimic any weapon in existence, create a force-shield to protect the wearer in extreme conditions, allow the user to fly across galaxies without a ship… the list goes on. The only weaknesses of the power ring are that it is only as powerful as its wearer, it has to be recharged after extended use, and that it has no effect on the color Yellow. But seriously, how many other weapons are yellow?