I say weapon because it gets to complicated with all the super powers you can get. Turning invisible, walking through walls, teleporting. So for this I want to limit it to sci fi weapons that at least attempt to have a tech basis. So like not the masters device that turns people into dolls. However we don’t care if we can completely explain how it might be done now. Like lightsabers are fair game. As for me I would go with the star gate zat guns as initially put in. Both lethal and nonlethas and very portable. I want to put an honorable mention for tthe minority report sonic shotgun that seems to run on wind up energy so you should never theoretically run out of ammo. although not so sure as there was no indication you could power up more than one shot at a time.
EDITED: Its a little late at this point as the answers have went way off the rails but in case it gets more replies my intention was a weapon someone might carry around and could use as one person. not a weapons system or vehicle. Also no robots or things that essentially are their own entities. It should be a weapon used in a weapon like manner. aim and fire. also that quote about sufficiently advance technology looks like magic. if it looks like magic to us instead of technology then its to far afield. I hope this makes it more clear what I was looking for. Honestly I would have like to not use weapons as a basis but there are just to many things when you look at all of sci fi.


Half Life Grabbity Gun. More useful than just a weapon and no problem finding ammo.
The Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.
boy this kinda hugs the line. I wanted to keep to much utility things from getting in rather than weapons. I think though it stays in bound and is not quite as bad as the masters doll thing. So good one. This might give a run for the money on the phaser as its basically telekinesis.
Pick up a car and release. Much death.
The gravity gun is definitely a weapon. Notwithstanding having “gun” right there in the name, Gordon spends much of his time in Ravenholm using it to decapitate zombies by chucking saw blades at them, flinging exploding barrels and welding cylinders around, and so on and so forth. All that’s even before it gets inexplicably powered up by the Combine’s confiscation field and turns into a literal lightning cannon that disintegrates people.
I mean, nailgun has “gun” in it, but we don’t consider those weapons. Sure they could be used that way, but so can most industrial tools/equipment.
https://youtu.be/JDpvkwBBu6U
Tell that to Snoop
Not really. You need to press a nail gun against something to fire a nail.
oh yeah I think its fair game but like. right on the edge of it. like in dc they call green lantern rings the most powerful weapons and those would not fit as they are virtually do anything devices.