This is a prototype I created to sell the idea of 'charged' weapons, but with minimal dev support needed. The idea was to use Unity's state controller system, and by setting an integer parameter on the Cycle Offset property, we could force the animation to the specific frame we needed. Then, by setting keyframes for different size and intensities on the vfx emitters, we could trigger diferent sized vfx using the same single prefab. Below is a video show it in effect- notice hwo the size of the muzzle, projectile, and impact effect change according to the power used for the shot.
I created the vfx for this weapon.