Psi Blast

"Say something hideous and horrible jumped out at you. Something so disgusting that it simply must die. [tiffany lamp appears] 'Ack, oh. So tacky, I can't look directly at it.' But I control those feelings. Focus them. Concentrate, and... RELEASE. [destroys tiffany lamp with psi-blast] And the world is a better place."

— Sasha Nein, Psychonauts

They say that the brain generates enough electricity to light a lightbulb. In the world of fiction, the more activity occurring in it, the more the brain is capable of. When the brain possesses Psychic Powers in one form or another, powers designed for raw offensive applications are probable. In this case, it is the power to channel and fire raw psychic energy in the form of a blast.

Psi Blasts are most commonly fired from the head, a Pstandard Psychic Pstance used as a means of focusing the raw psychic power and aiming it like cross-hairs. It might not even be visible, the battle of the minds happening exclusively in the psyche.

Sub-Trope of Psychic Powers and Energy Weapon. Related to Chest Blaster, Hand Blast and Eye Beams.

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Examples:

Comic Books

• The DCU: Jason Praxis is a police detective with psychic powers, one of his abilities being able to project psionic force bolts that affects a victim's mind so as to cause the victim pain or knock them unconsciousness.
• Marvel Universe:
  • Pictured above is Jean Grey of the X-Men. Her incredible telepathic and telekinetic powers can be manifested in the form of concussive psi bolts or waves of energy.
  • Almost every significant psychic in Marvel, from M.O.D.O.K. to Professor X, can unleash a devastating psychic blast that bypasses most armor and overloads the brain of the victim, causing unconsciousness or even death. This is one of the few things that works on the Nigh-Invulnerable Juggernaut.
  • New Warriors: Vance Astrovik can fire telekinetic bursts of energy from his forehead. His alternate timeline counterpart Vance Astro can use this ability, but unlike Astrovik, this is the only way he can use his telekinetic powers.

Films — Live-Action

• In Pokémon Detective Pikachu, Lucy's Psyduck unleashes a blast of psychic energy when it gets headaches; these manifest as energy waves that radiate from it.

Gamebooks

• TSR's Endless Quest series in the '80s had one example from the Gamma World setting and another from the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons setting. In the first, you're a tribal warrior whose sister is badly injured by a tech item while your kid brother mutates to develop mental blasts that'll stun. In the second, you're the grandson of one of the mightiest mages existent and start developing psionics — including the ability to use some psionic attacks based on the Attack and Defense modes from AD&D.
• The Lone Wolf series has several variations. The earlier series has Mind Blast and Psi-surge which mechanically just increase your fighting skills. But if Lone Wolf has the Grandmaster skill of Kai-surge and has advanced sufficiently in it, he can focus the power to unleash a Kai Blast or Kai Ray that does direct damage to an enemy's health with the drawback that he takes some damage from the strain.

Literature

• The Demolished Man: Basic Neuro-Shock is a newly-developed psychic attack that knocks the target unconscious. Powell implies that it's a technique only taught to top-level Espers.
• The Lord of Zapp, Usúmgal, from the Kadingir series has the habit of using these on people that bring him bad news, with invariably deadly results.
• Telzey Amberdon: Human telepaths like Telzey have the power to launch psychic bolts, and the ability to shield their minds against them.

Live-Action TV

• Power Rangers: Dino Thunder: Mesogog's primary attack is a beam of psionic energy fired from his head which can be used to immobilize or torture targets.
• In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Jem'Hadar", Sisko, Quark and Eris were taken prisoner by the Jem'Hadar as part of a Dominion plot. Eris is wearing a Power Nullifier that blocks her psychic powers. When Quark removes it, Eris uses psychic blasts to free Sisko and Quark and even take out some of the titular aliens. Only it was a lie, she's really working for the Dominion and the power nullifier was fake.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • Mind flayers are known for their Psychic Blast attacks, which is a powerful blast of psychic energy that they project in a cone-shaped area in front of them. In older editions, it was merely a stun attack with a long duration, but as of 4th ed., it also deals damage. Psyonicists have also traditionally been able to learn it as a psychic power.
  • In 5th ed., psionic attacks are no longer the sole domain of psionic characters/creatures. As the sourcebooks have piled on, psionic attacks at nearly all levels have surged for casters, from the merely intrusive Mind Sliver cantrip to the devastating, head-popping Psychic Scream 9th-level spell.
• Warhammer 40,000: Psykers have various ways of dealing death and destruction; for those with the Telepathy discipline there's Psychic Shriek where the Psyker unleashes a blast of mental energy that flays the victim's mind and body with psychic resonance.

Video Games

• Azure Striker Gunvolt: The Final Boss, Nova, has simply Psychokinesis as his Adept ability, compared to the more divergent abilities of other adepts in the game. He mainly uses it to create spheres or rings of mental force in order to hit Gunvolt from a distance. His sheer raw power compared to other Adepts lets him become a formidable boss.
• In the original The Bard's Tale Trilogy, Mangar's Mind Blade and Mind Blast spells are described as this, though the game didn't differentiate between psionic damage and regular physical or elemental damage.
• In Brute Force, the Seers attack by making use of psionic blasts.
• City of Heroes features psychic powersets, and this trope comes into play with Psychic Blast and Psionic Assault, which involve a whole lot of mental energy projectiles (the most basic in both being "psionic dart"). Then there's Psionic Melee, which instead uses psychic energy blades projected from the user's fingertips.
• The Yuri Clones in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and the expansion have the ability to unleash a psychic blast through the deploy command which tears apart any nearby infantry including your own. Yuri Prime in Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge skirmishes have the same ability with a shorter cool down with the added benefit of not harming friendly infantry.
• Dark Sun had every character capable of using psionics and among the psionic disciplines is the Telepathic Sciences and Devotions which had abilities like Psychic Crush and Psionic Blast.
• Mutants from Destroy All Humans! attack solely by generating psionic shockwaves on the floor, which Crypto can easily dodge with his Jet Pack. It's described as the psychic equivalent of yelling really loudly in somebody's ear, as opposed to Crypto's more refined set of Psychic Powers (various flavours of Mind Control, mind reading, and psychokinesis).
• In every Dragon Age game, Mind Blast is a common spell that lets the caster hit all surrounding enemies with a wave of telekinetic energy emanating from their head. Its main purpose is to leave any melee attackers stunned long enough for the mage to escape to a safe distance again. It is also useful for flushing out stealthy rogues, who cannot be targeted while invisible, because Mind Blast doesn't need to be targeted and cancels the rogues' stealth if they're successfully stunned.
• EarthBound (1994) has multiple psychic attacks to use, most of them are element based. However, some of the more powerful attacks manifest as a colossal explosion of energy.
• Kirby: Planet Robobot: One of the new copy abilities for Kirby, ESP, lets him create blasts or spheres of electricity with his mind.
• Mass Effect: Biotics have many varieties of this ability. Anything from concussive blasts to giving enemies seizures.
• Pokémon: There are a few Psychic-type moves that fit this description.
  • Psybeam is a beam described as a peculiar ray of psychic energy.
  • Max Mindstorm is a massive beam of circular psychic energy that creates a huge pillar of light at the point of impact.
• One of the plot-relevant psychic abilities Raz learns in Psychonauts is psi-blast, taught to him by Sasha in his mind The Shooting Gallery. Psi-blasts are described as raw negative emotions (mainly the will to attack) and expel them in the form of a red laser that works as a long-distance attack. After getting permission to learn psi blast from Ford Cruller with a learner's permit, Raz can use the power outside of his mind with the Marksmanship merit badge.
• In South Park: The Fractured but Whole, one of the Psychic abilities the player could learn is Cerebral Blast, an attack of raw psychic energy that inflicts damage and lowers an enemy's defense.
• StarCraft: Tassadar is unique in that he has all the High Templar's spells but also has a psionic attack (actually called Psi Blast).
• In VOCALOID no Natsuyasumi -Final 4 Days-, Miku's Alien Form launches psionic waves as her base attack. The form's signature attack and its stronger variant unleash a psychic blast to the enemy.
• The later three Wizardry games have the Psionic class, a form of spell caster embodying this trope. Mind Blast is one of their signature spells.
• XCOM: Enemy Unknown: This is the primary power of the Psi Ops soldiers, and is expanded further in both sequels.

Webcomics

• The Order of the Stick: As a telepath, Laurin Shattersmith can stun victims with her will, as demonstrated in this strip against the whole Order of the Stick.
• In Servants of the Imperium, Lyle's most-commonly used psyker power is a psionic blast that tends to make heads explode.

Western Animation

• Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers: Psionic blasts were one of the things Niko could do with a badge charge. However, it drained the charge quickly and was nowhere near as potent as her teammate Zachary's Arm Cannon.
• One of Lexi Bunny's main superpowers in Loonatics Unleashed is the ability to collect pink psionic energy in the form of "psi-balls" from the top of her head. In the atmosphere or vacuum of space, this power usually manifests as an explosive beam of pink energy, but underwater, the Brain Blast disperses into a concussive wave attack, which unfortunately runs the risk of hurting Lexi herself.

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