Board Thread:General Nerf discussion/@comment-27125665-20180809024909/@comment-27306930-20180809050450

Without getting too technical, here's how that works Buddy. AAA, AA, C, and D batteries all operate at 1.5 volts. But each of them have a different amount of stored energy, and each produce a different amount of instantaneous current (aka amps) at any given moment. And OMG, the web is chock-full of weird and contradictory information about how all that works. I couldn't even figure out how many amps a D cell is capable of producing. Holy cannoli !

Bottom line, little batteries have less stored energy and produce lower amounts of current. Bigger batteries store more energy, and can provide more amps at any given moment. Quite simply, bigger is better when it comes to alkaline batteries.

Sure, you can run a RapidStrike on four AAAs with adapters. The spin up time will suck because AAA's can't produce the current necessary to get the motors up to speed quickly. And your play time is going to suck too. You'll be out of juice in 15 minutes, or less, because AAA batteries can't store that much energy.

D batteries have a lot more stored energy, and can produce a lot more current. Your motors are going to spin up faster, and you'll have a lot more play time because there's a lot more energy stored in a D cell.

I won't argue, you can definitely run your RapidStrike really cheap on dollar store AAA's and battery adapters. I'll give you that. But it's gonna totally suck, you'll hate it, and some dude with a Jolt is gonna smoke you. But it's definitely doable.