Gungan Weapons
The Gungan energy ball catapult is slow and cumbersome, but makes excellent ground troop support in a large melee.
The weapons of the Gungan army are unlike any seen until now in the Star Wars galaxy. Similar in design to the primitive weapons of many pre-industrial cultures, the Gungan weapons retain this primitive simplicity while enhancing performance with the fruits of energy-weapon technological development. The staple weapons of the Gungan army are the shock lance, the energy ball atlatl, and the energy ball catapult.
The shock lance needs very little explanation, as it is very similar to the force pikes employed by cultures all over the galaxy. Excellent for law enforcement duty because of its variable settings, which allow for the control of crowds or potential suspects without real injury, the shock lance is equally well-suited to battle: at it's full power setting, it can be a lethal melee weapon, with an excellent reach.
Most noteworthy in the Gungan arsenal is the enrgy ball technology they have developed. Imagine a self-contained blaster charge, that, rather than being fired from a complex gun that combines the various elements, can be hurled by a simple mechanical device. The merits of such a technology are immediately apparent: a minimum of moving parts are required to achieve essentially the same offensive force. Repairs and basic maintenance are, therefore, minimal at best. The only downsides to using this type of technology are the importance of the user's skill (anyone can fire a blaster, but using an atlatl adeptly takes true skill and practice), and a limited range due to the simplistic method of hurling the projectile...the projectiles being, of course, the energy balls that are essentially self-contained blaster charges.
Gungan atlatls use the smallest type of energy ball, which can also be used by hand like a grenade. The largest energy balls made in the Gungan collective workshops are for their catapults, which are then lugged into place on repulsorlift sleds and fired from stationary positions, generally against armored units or high concentrations of ground forces. The energy balls themselves are fiarly stable, although they take up a lot of space to transport and stockpile, and can handle serious jostling without accidental detonation. The balls will only explode when they impact another object while moving at a certain speed, such as when hurled or after falling or rolling a fair distance.
One could also safely speculate that the development of the Gungan energy ball technology has something to do with their chosen environment. Since blasters are all but useless underwater, Gungan cities may very well have blaster gas-powered "torpedo tubes" that can propel energy balls at the giant predators of the Naboo depths should they roam too close. Even though the balls would probably do very little damage to any creature larger than the Opee Sea Killer, the shockwave and flash resulting from such a blast could very well drive the creature away. It's an interesting thought to consider.
Gungan Weapon game data