Masks

Sometimes called \"goggles\", masks are safety devices that players are required to wear. These completely cover the eyes, mouth, ears and nostrils of a person. Some masks even feature throat guards. The lenses are designed to protect against paintballs traveling up to 300 feet per second, but are not guaranteed to withstand impacts at greater speeds.

Double-layered or \"thermal\" lenses are also available. These lenses are much less prone to fogging. These work by separating an inside and an outside lens with an air chamber, that allows for the difference in temperature between the inside and the outside of the mask without forming condensation. However, if any moisture whatsoever somehow gets in between the two lenses, the inner faces of both lenses will fog, and it will take a very long time to dry out, if it does at all.

Fogging masks can be a significant hazard while playing. Besides the lost vision, players may be tempted to remove their mask and expose themselves to serious eye injuries. To reduce fogging of lenses while playing, some masks include electric fans that remove humidity and dry the lens. This is especially useful for situations that require wearing the mask for extended periods of time, such as wood play, large games, or being a referee. Finally, there are many anti-fog topical solutions that players can apply .

The exterior of the thermal lenses (or the lenses, in non-thermal masks) is usually made of Polycarbonate. This material provides excellent impact resistance. Because polycarbonate is soft, these lenses are manufactured with anti-scratch coatings. But great care must be taken to keep proper care of the lenses. Many vendors recommend the immediate replacement of very scratched lenses, or lenses subjected to very strong impacts.

Generally, more expensive masks tend to be smaller (which in turn makes the player a smaller target), more comfortable, have more interchangeable parts and be made of soft enough material to get some bounces.

It should be noted, that while playing paintball, even just shooting at the ground or trees, wearing proper paintballing masks is mandatory for safety. Some paintballs are very thick and can bounce off the ground, and other objects, and hit people.

Paintball marker or Hopper

Hoppers are the means by which a paintball player keeps their marker fed with ammunition, much as magazines are to a regular rifle. With few exceptions, hoppers are all mounted above the marker, and most use gravity as the ultimate force to get the balls in the marker. That is to say, if most hoppers are turned upside down, the marker will not be fed with balls. There are two main types: Gravity feed, and Agitated Feeders. Gravity Feed hoppers often get jammed up with balls at the feed neck, which can result in a marker \'dry firing\' (firing without paint) or chopping balls due to the timing of the ball entering the marker. This is detrimental to the performance of the marker and speed of shooting. Agitated Feeders, sometimes generically known as revies, improve on this method of feeding the marker. Though a few actually force the balls down the tube when needed, most simply use some method, from agitation to revolution of a wheel inside the hopper, to shake up the balls and send them down the tube. Using various methods, hoppers have been able to achieve feed rates of 30 BPS (balls per second) and above. A special type of hopper, called a helixal fed hopper, feeds balls using a spring driven helix shaped tube. These special hoppers can be mounted under a barrel, giving the marker a much lower profile. In addition to a lower profile, they can also achieve the highest feed rates in a paintball hopper- about 30 BPS. The most commonly seen is the Q Loader. There is some confusion about the term \'loaders.\' Though a loader can often refer to an agitated hopper, the term is also used for gravity hoppers, and some people use the word to refer to pods used to carry extra paintballs.