Axelay/Weapons

At the start of each stage, you are allowed to equip weapons in three different slots. When in use, these weapons replace the default weapon equipped.

Pod

Default	Fires a weak laser forward. Used when you have the bay weapon selected, or if you are critically damaged.
Straight Laser	A stronger version of the basic laser.
Needle Cracker	Available on stage 3. Fires lasers that will try hitting targets around the level. While numerous, the needles are a bit slow.
Wind Laser	Available on stage 6, and is fired by pressing instead of the regular primary shot. It shoots four laser beams from behind that turn around to the front of the vessel. Their firing pattern can be adjusted - they may either converge by moving forward, or spread out if you move backward.

Side

Round Vulcan	Shoots behind the craft; while is held down, it will start shooting towards the front, and when released, will aim towards the back before it stops firing. Effective for crowd control.
Morning Star	Available on Stage 5. Creates eight bullet that quickly circle the ship. Release to launch them in a large circle. Effective against clusters of weak units.

Bay

Default	A set of missiles drops to the side (or downward), then flies forward. Used when you have a pod or side weapon selected, or if you are critically damaged.
Macro Missile	Fires a batch of missiles forward.
Explosion Bomb	Available on Stage 2. Fires a set of missiles that travel in a downward diagonal line (or forward on vertical maps.) Creates a small explosion that continues inflicting damage.
Cluster Bomb	Available on Stage 4. Drops a large quantity of missiles straight down (or backward on vertical-scrolling levels).