An electro-dart or electro dart was a type of dart designed to temporarily stun an organic target by sending an electric current through the victim's body. The dart was a common weapon among bounty hunters in the era of the Cold War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire. The salvager Hurd Coyle utilized electro-darts in the time soon after the rise of the Galactic Empire. When Coyle rescued the clone trooper pilot HOB-147, who had been stranded in space for several weeks, the salvager was forced to subdue the clone trooper twice with electro-darts because HOB-147 acted aggressively toward the smuggler, whom he falsely believed was working for the Confederacy of Independent Systems.
The electro-dart or electro dart was type of dart intended to temporarily stun an organic being by sending an electric current through the target's body. The weapon was composed of a clear cylinder attached to a needle, which stuck into its target and transmitted the electric current upon contact. The electro-dart was fired from a hand-held or gauntlet-integrated dart shooter.
During the era of the Cold War between the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic, electro-darts were common tools of the trade for bounty hunters, who used them to paralyze targets. Hurd Coyle, a salvager active following the end of the Clone Wars and the formation of the Galactic Empire, utilized electro-darts for defensive purposes aboard his salvaging ship. Soon after the rise of the Empire, Coyle rescued the clone trooper pilot HOB-147, who had been stranded for weeks in his damaged V-19 Torrent starfighter and was floating through space unconscious following a battle during the Clone Wars. HOB, unaware that the Clone Wars were over and that the Galactic Republic he had once served was now the Empire, awoke in the medical bay of Coyle's ship, where he was confronted by a group of reprogrammed B1-Series battle droids that worked for Coyle.
HOB incorrectly assumed that he was aboard a Confederacy of Independent Systems craft and attacked the battle droids. Coyle, having entered the sickbay, shot the clone trooper with an electro-dart to stop him from destroying all of his droids. Coyle relocated the incapacitated HOB-147 elsewhere aboard the ship and left him to regain his faculties. Unbeknownst to HOB-147, Coyle was transporting a group of fugitive Jedi younglings to the Outer Rim. When HOB came to, he found himself being watched by Nia, one of the younglings aboard the vessel. The clone grabbed her, but Coyle walked into the room and shot the trooper with another electro-dart. With HOB-147 paralyzed again, Coyle took Nia out of the room for her protection.
The electro-dart made its first appearance in Star Wars canon in the comic Salvaged, written and drawn by the Fillbach Brothers and published in Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures Volume 9 on October 24, 2007. They also appear in the 2011 video game Star Wars: The Old Republic as "Electro Dart," a stun ability used by players of the Bounty Hunter class.