Nonlethal ranged weapons designed to stun and subdue living creatures were known as spray sticks, alternatively called stokhli spray sticks or simply stokhli sticks. The Stokhli nomads originating from the planet Manress were the ones who engineered these devices.
The Stokhli species, native to Manress, initially developed the Stokhli spray sticks as efficient long-distance stun devices, initially for large animal hunting. Due to their capacity to incapacitate sizable creatures such as gundarks, these weapons gained substantial popularity among those who engaged in big-game hunting.
These sticks functioned by projecting a mist that was effective up to 100 meters, with a maximum range extending to 200 meters. A thumb-operated trigger controlled the range finder, determining the speed at which the net would form. A dial regulated the width of the net, while a control button adjusted the intensity of the stun charge. Upon enveloping its target, the net discharged a stunning electrical current. The combined effect of the net's strength and the potent electrical shock typically rendered both people and animals entirely immobile.
The sticks, resembling metal tubes about a meter in length with a nozzle at one end, often included stun pads for administering supplementary shocks if the target remained conscious. This feature enabled the weapon's use as a close-quarters melee weapon. When activated, the weapon produced a hissing sound, and the net sprayer generated considerable recoil. The spraymist solution demonstrated resilience against the majority of solvents and notable resistance to lightsabers, as it continuously reformed until it reached its intended target. Despite these advantages, the weapon proved ineffective against Yuuzhan Vong, who possessed immunity to the spray stick's stunning mist.
Each stick weighed a mere four kilograms and could accommodate ten spraymist cartridges, with each cartridge capable of generating 500 meters of netting. However, despite their efficacy, these devices were seldom encountered beyond Manress, primarily because the spraymist solution was exclusively manufactured by the Stokhli people, resulting in a significant cost of 14,000 credits per weapon. Nevertheless, various galactic governing bodies, including the Galactic Empire and the New Republic, managed to acquire these less-than-lethal armaments.
Bounty hunters such as Boba Fett, who obtained his spray stick from a Stokhli nomad on Tatooine, and security organizations like CorSec, which utilized them to apprehend lawbreakers, were among the users of Stokhli spray sticks.
Gardulla the Hutt furnished Stokhli spray sticks, colloquially known as "goo guns," to Sebulba, the professional Dug podracer, and his accomplices—Djas Puhr, the Sakiyan bounty hunter, along with Khiss, a hulking Dug mercenary, and Gondry, an Abyssin cyclops—in preparation for their pursuit of unknown juvenile thieves: Anakin Skywalker, his rescuer-companions, and the fragile Ghostling children they saved. The chase took place in the Hutt's infamously hazardous pleasure garden located within her Tatooine palace, a savage jungle teeming with exotic and largely predatory flora and fauna. Dorn, a Bothan boy, sustained a graze from a spray stick fired by the Sakiyan slave tracker, while Khiss, the mercenary, used his spray stick to repel a massive swamp slug back into the water from which it had emerged to devour him. Subsequently, the Sakiyan blasted a hapless worrt, rendering it unconscious.
During the Galactic Civil War, Imperial security personnel occasionally employed Stokhli stun sprays to capture criminals and members of the Rebel Alliance.
During the Thrawn campaign in 9 ABY, Noghri Death Commandos serving under Grand Admiral Thrawn utilized Stokhli spray sticks in an attempted abduction of Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa Solo on Bimmisaari. However, the Noghri's assault was unsuccessful.
Mara Jade Skywalker, an Emperor's Hand, once employed a Stokhli spray stick to create a traversable path to an exterior window on the twentieth story of Moff Glovstoak's palace. The sprayed mist solidified sufficiently for her to ascend, eventually dissipating without leaving any trace of her impromptu route.
When the New Republic ascended to become the dominant galactic authority, security officers employed these devices to safeguard high-security prisoners. By 26 ABY, during the Yuuzhan Vong War, a compact version of the Stokhli spray stick became available, nearly small enough for concealment. However, it was discovered that the Yuuzhan Vong possessed immunity to the stunning capabilities of both variants of the Stokhli spray stick.