Han ' s heavy blaster pistol Han ' s heavy blaster pistol was the modified heavy blaster pistol of the Rebel Alliance General and smuggler Han Solo . The heavy blaster pistol was a DL - 44 model manufactured by BlasTech Industries , and , despite newer models having come and gone , Solo preferred only his own modified DL - 44 as his sidearm . Solo carried the weapon with him since before the Galactic Civil War between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire , and had it by his side at the time of his death on Starkiller Base over 30 years later . Description . Han Solo ' s heavy blaster pistol was a modified version of the standard BlasTech Industries DL - 44 model . Like all DL - 44s , Solo ' s blaster offered above - average firepower without compromising accuracy , and was one of the reasons why the weapon was so ideal for the smuggler . It was also easily modifiable , which allowed Solo to make a number of modifications , including , at one point , removing the blaster ' s motion - sensitive barrel scope . Solo did this so the blaster pistol could be drawn faster from its holster and improve his reaction time , but also because he was confident in his own aim . Even in his later life , as he grew older , Solo remained a quick draw . The DL - 44 ' s capacitor was capable of charging a laser bolt at twice the power without overheating . The heavy blaster pistol still retained a cooling unit beneath the firing barrel , as DL - 44s were prone to quickly overheating otherwise . The DL - 44 was renowned across the galaxy as one of the most powerful blaster pistols , as its laser bolts were powerful enough to pierce through the armor of Imperial stormtrooper s . Solo ' s heavy blaster also had a steady grip that emitted a low - power pulse warning whenever the weapon was low on power . The weapon ' s power cell was located near its hair - trigger , and it had a detachable macroscope above the firing barrel . The weapon ' s grip was brown in color , while the rest of its body and firing barrel were black and silver . History . Origins . Han Solo , a human male , was orphaned at a young age and thereafter became a street thief . His personal adventures eventually led him to become a smuggler and adapt to a rogue life , taking on larger and riskier smuggling operations as he entered adulthood . Sometime during his criminal career , and before the Galactic Civil War began , Solo acquired a DL - 44 heavy blaster pistol manufactured by BlasTech Industries , which became his most favored and trusted weapon . During his travels , Solo came to believe he should always have his blaster pistol at his side for any situation . Smuggler ' s sidearm . Business went awry for Solo after he was forced to dump illegal cargo belonging to Jabba the Hutt , a notorious gangster , when the Galactic Empire boarded his starship , the " Millennium Falcon " . This put the smuggler in debt with the crime kingpin , with a bounty of 224 , 190 being placed on his head . When a Rodian bounty hunter named Greedo attempted to collect the bounty on Solo in Tatooine ' s Chalmun ' s Cantina , Solo used his DL - 44 to kill the Rodian before Greedo could shoot his own shot . Soon after , Solo agreed to give transport to Alderaan to the Jedi Master - in - hiding Obi - Wan Kenobi and his companion Luke Skywalker , who were on a secret mission , for a payout of 17 , 000 . Solo used his blaster in their escape from Tatooine and , reluctantly , ended up assisting in the rescue of the Prince ss Leia Organa from the Death Star battle station , where he used his heavy blaster pistol to steal the armor from unexpecting Imperial stormtroopers . He temporarily holstered his trusted DL - 44 while disguised as a Stormtrooper soldier , using the standard - issue E - 11 blaster rifle instead for the remainder of the escape . Alliance weapon . Following the Battle of Yavin , in which Solo aided in destroying the Death Star superweapon , Solo became a hero and respected member of the Rebel Alliance . In 3 ABY , while patrolling the frigid planet of Hoth , the site of the Alliance ' s Echo Base , Solo and his lifelong friend Chewbacca came across an Imperial probe droid . In an attempt to prevent the probe droid from outing the location of the Rebel base , Solo used his DL - 44 to fire on the droid , but it self - destructed before his blaster could do any damage . This alerted the Empire to the Alliance ' s location , forcing Echo Base to evacuate the planet . The " Millennium Falcon " escaped during the subsequent Battle of Hoth , but its hyperdrive was damaged , forcing Solo to find refuge from the pursuing Imperial TIE Fighters and Star Destroyer s in an asteroid field . Solo hid the light freighter within a nearby asteroid cave rn , where he used his heavy blaster pistol to clear mynock s off the hull of the " Falcon " . He then realized that the " Falcon " was actually inside the mouth of a giant space slug after the creature lurched from the blast of the laser bolts from his DL - 44 . Immediately after , Solo and the " Falcon " escaped the asteroid field and their Imperial pursuers , but the bounty hunter Boba Fett managed to stealthily track the smuggler down . Fett ' s pursuit gave the Empire the advantage against Solo and his rebel allies , beating the smuggler to the planet Bespin , where Solo sought to repair the " Falcon " . A trap was set , and when the Sith Lord and Imperial enforcer Darth Vader arrived on the planet , he coerced Lando Calrissian , Solo ' s friend , into cooperation against Solo . The smuggler , in vain , attempted to shoot down the dark lord on Cloud City using his heavy blaster pistol , but Vader effortless deflected the bolts telekinetically with the Force . Vader , using his Force power s , subsequently took Solo ' s DL - 44 from his hands . Not long after , Han Solo was frozen in carbonite and taken by Fett to collect on the bounty set by Jabba the Hutt . Solo ' s trusted blaster ended up in the hands of his rebel allies following their escape from Cloud City . In 4 ABY , Luke Skywalker , now a Jedi , alongside Leia Organa , Chewbacca , and Lando Calrissian , successfully rescued Solo from Jabba ' s Palace , effectively erasing Solo ' s debt to the crime lord when the Hutt was killed . Solo , promoted to the rank of Rebel Alliance General , then volunteered for the Alliance ' s mission to the Endor moon , where they sought to disable the shield generator to the Empire ' s second Death Star . Solo had his DL - 44 returned to him prior to the mission , but it was once again taken from him when the Ewok s of the Bright Tree Village captured Solo and his companions on the surface of the moon . After the group befriended the primitive species , Solo had his weapon returned to him and thereafter rendezvoused with the Alliance Special Forces to continue their mission . During the following Battle of Endor , Solo used his heavy blaster pistol against the opposing Imperial forces in the Alliance ' s efforts to infiltrate the Death Star ' s deflector shield bunker . When the Alliance emerged victorious , Solo rounded up the defeated Imperial forces at gunpoint using his DL - 44 and subsequently destroyed the bunker using explosive charges . After the Death Star ' s destruction , Solo reunited with his companions and celebrated the defeat of the Empire and , thus , the end of the dark times . Upended retirement . After the end of the Galactic Civil War , Han Solo and Leia Organa married and had a son named Ben . Solo retired for some time and became a successful racing pilot , abandoning his former career as a smuggler completely . However , Solo ' s son became corrupted by the dark side of the Force and massacred the new generation of Jedi Luke Skywalker was training alongside Ben . This led Skywalker to go into self - imposed exile , having felt responsible for the massacre , and Solo to return to smuggling with his longtime partner , Chewbacca . As the " Millennium Falcon " was eventually stolen from Solo by Gannis Ducain after his return to smuggling , Solo became the pilot of the heavy freighter " Eravana " . Alongside his favored DL - 44 , Solo began carrying around a LPA NN - 14 blaster pistol as another sidearm . Despite newer models having been available , Solo chose not to replace his DL - 44 , highly preferring its design . Final conflicts and destruction . 30 years after the Battle of Endor , a conflict began between the First Order , which had risen from the ideals of the Empire , and the Resistance , an effort led by Leia Organa to counter the First Order . Solo stayed out of the rising political tensions between the New Republic and the First Order , preferring to keep to his smuggling business . However , when the scavenger Rey and First Order defector Finn came across the stolen " Millennium Falcon " during their escape from Jakku , Solo ' s " Eravana " captured the " Falcon " and inadvertently became involved in the Resistance conflict . While inspecting the " Falcon " with his DL - 44 drawn , Solo found Rey and Finn , alongside the Resistance astromech droid BB - 8 , stowed away on the freighter . After realizing Rey and Finn were not a threat , and learning that BB - 8 carried a map that lead to Luke Skywalker ' s hidden location , Solo ' s hand was forced into helping the two when the Guavian Death Gang and Kanjiklub boarded the " Eravana " . The two gangs sought to force Solo into returning their investment of 50 , 000 each from Solo ' s rathtar smuggling operation , but attempted to apprehend Finn , Rey , and BB - 8 when they realized the BB unit was the same one the First Order had been hunting down . Solo did not use his DL - 44 during his escape from his heavy freighter , only using Chewbacca ' s bowcaster — for the first time — when the Wookiee was injured . The escape aboard the " Millennium Falcon " led Solo and the group to Takodana , where Solo sought to have the pirate Maz Kanata aid Rey and Finn in returning BB - 8 to the Resistance . There , he gave Rey his secondary sidearm , the NN - 14 blaster pistol . Kanata refused to undergo the task of aiding the pair , however , and told Solo he had been avoiding the conflict for too long . Soon after , the First Order located the group on Takodana and led an assault on Maz Kanata ' s castle , forcing Solo to use his DL - 44 blaster pistol against the attacking First Order stormtroopers . Solo , using his keen skills , gunned down numerous stormtroopers during the battle . However , having been impressed with Chewbacca ' s bowcaster previously , Solo borrowed the Wookiee ' s weapon again in the skirmish . Solo ' s blaster was temporarily taken by stormtroopers after they had seemingly won the battle , before the Resistance Starfighter Corps overwhelmed the First Order legion s and allowed Solo to retrieve his heavy blaster . Solo used his blaster pistol for the last time on the First Order ' s Starkiller Base , a superweapon hosted on an ice - planet that dwarfed the Death Star of the Empire . Solo , from experience , believed that the superweapon could be destroyed and volunteered to aid Finn in taking down Starkiller ' s deflector shield , as well as rescuing Rey , who had been abducted on Takodana . After getting the " Falcon " through Starkiller Base ' s shields at lightspeed , Solo , Finn , and Chewbacca infiltrated the base and blasted their way through numerous stormtroopers . Solo used his DL - 44 extensively throughout , up until the trio located Rey and made their way back to the " Falcon " . However , as the Resistance was suffering numerous casualties in the battle above , Solo realized he could not leave until the Starkiller Base thermal oscillator was severely crippled . After once again infiltrating Starkiller Base , Solo used his heavy blaster pistol to make his way to the superweapon ' s thermal oscillator . Once there , Solo and Chewbacca placed explosive charges throughout the structure of the oscillator , which were controlled by a remote detonator , and planned to escape . However , Solo ' s son , who had taken up the name of Kylo Ren , was nearby in search of Solo and his companions , seeking to apprehend them . When Solo saw Ren nearby , he holstered his weapon and approached his son , seeking to fulfill the promise he made to Organa while he had been on the D ' Qar Resistance base of bringing their son home . However , Ren , seeking to fully commit himself to the dark side and the Supreme Leader of the First Order , Snoke , instead murdered his father by impaling him with his lightsaber . Solo died and fell into the depths of Starkiller Base with his DL - 44 in tow . When the Resistance eventually succeeded in destroying Starkiller Base , the planet collapsed into itself and turned into a star , destroying everything that had been on the superweapon , including both Han Solo ' s remains and his trusted heavy blaster pistol . Behind the scenes . Han ' s heavy blaster pistol first appeared in the 1977 " Star Wars " film . It subsequently appeared with Han Solo in each of his " Star Wars " film appearances , , , and . Since the era of the Lucasfilm Story Group canon began in 2014 , the blaster has also appeared in numerous publications that include Han Solo in comic books from Marvel Comics . It has also appeared in the novelizations of the " Star Wars " films it featured in , which include " " , " " , " " , , and the . Another novel , " " from the " " series , also features the heavy blaster pistol . The weapon was also featured in the 2015 video game " Star Wars Battlefront " by EA DICE , in which Han Solo is a playable hero . In " Battlefront " , the heavy blaster features special abilities called " Rapid Fire " and " Lucky Shot " that allow the player to participate in both long and short ranged combat when using Solo ' s character . The reference books " Ultimate Star Wars " , " " , and " " all feature detailed information on both Han Solo and his heavy blaster pistol . " Ultimate Star Wars " identifies the weapon as " Han Solo ' s modified DL - 44 heavy blaster pistol , " meanwhile " The Visual Dictionary " , the most recent source to be released , identifies it as " Han ' s heavy blaster pistol . " When originally creating the blasters and weapons of " Star Wars " , creator George Lucas did not want to use the conventional concept of used in many films at the time . Lucas instead designed blasters based on real - world weapons , including many from the era . Han ' s DL - 44 was built by cannibalizing weapons together , including an antique and a modified barrel from the , and detailed with numerous random bits called " " to give the blaster a unique aesthetic . Roger Christian was one of the earliest crew members to assist Lucas in creating the weapons of " Star Wars " , such as Han ' s heavy blaster pistol . " Han shot first " . The expression " Han shot first " refers to the Mos Eisley Cantina scene between Han Solo and Greedo in " Star Wars : Episode IV A New Hope " , in which both characters take a shot at each other from their blasters , but Greedo misses and is killed by Solo . It is a frequently discussed topic among " Star Wars " fans in regards to who actually fired first , Solo or Greedo . The discussions came about after the release of the " The Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition " , in which numerous changes were made by George Lucas to the original trilogy of films , including the cantina scene . In the original release of the film , Solo preemptively fired his DL - 44 blaster and killed Greedo before the Rodian , who had been holding Solo at gunpoint , could fire his weapon . Lucas has stated that the changes were made so that Solo would not appear to be a " cold - blooded killer " and to clear up confusion about who actually shot first . When asked about the subject , Harrison Ford , who portrayed Han Solo in the " Star Wars " films , stated , " I don ' t know and I don ' t care . "