Ships & Modules

You've obviously got a set up mainly for your drones.

I wouldn't use Caldari launchers. Go with T2 and use Fury missiles. The missiles are for the large targets, drones for the smaller ones.
Maybe carry some T2 light drones too.

Never run a mission fit without a not-MJD prop mod. It helps you take less than 10 minutes to move to an acceleration gate 50km away.

Edit: Why did I say not-MWD?

The Snake is one of the best L4 mission runners out there for full clears. I wouldn't recommend a buffer fit though. It works well with either an active or passive shield tank. I also like to run an afterburner, MJD and tractor beam for maximum safety and flexibility.

Here's my fit. It's a cap stable active tank. It's similar to a passive tank but costs far less. Over 1200DPS and 850 HP/s at a cost of less than 700m (including the Gecko).

[Rattlesnake, L4]

Drone Damage Amplifier II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II

Gist X-Type Shield Boost Amplifier
Large Micro Jump Drive
Pith X-Type X-Large Shield Booster
Gist X-Type 100MN Afterburner
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II

Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Heavy Missile
Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Heavy Missile
Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Heavy Missile
Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Heavy Missile
Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Heavy Missile
Small Tractor Beam I

Large Capacitor Control Circuit II
Large Capacitor Control Circuit I
Large Capacitor Control Circuit I


Federation Navy Hobgoblin x5
Salvage Drone I x5
Hornet EC-300 x5
Gecko x1

Well you're certainly free to run heavy or cruise missiles as well if you if rapid heavies give you night terrors. Anything you put on there is more than enough to deal with L4s, especially given that half your damage come from drones.

As for training into a marauder, yeah sure, that works. But that's like telling people that they need to train into a carrier in order to rat. Of course a marauder is superior - but totally unnecessary to run L4s effectively. People with several hundred million SP tend to forget that most people cannot fly everything in the game either for SP or budgetary reasons.

A Rattlesnake is already OP for L4s and will do full clears at 80-90% of the speed of a marauder. And you can fly it effectively with 10m SP.

While perfectly viable, I've never understood why people snipe with the Rattlesnake. It can easily face tank 98% of L4s (there are a couple of rooms in a couple of missions that require a little extra care). Sniping is ideal for ships with limited tank (like say a Raven), but that doesn't apply to the Rattlesnake. And it costs you a massive amount of applied DPS. It's like wearing a suit of armor to fire a bow, when you could just walk in unscathed and beat them to death with a sword.

Short range weapons typically have much better application than long range weapons. For example, at all 5s, your fit with cruise missiles has a 361m explosion radius and an 81 m/s explosion velocity. Even when you factor in 2 x target painter IIs with a 37.5% signature radius increase each, that still only brings the typical 35m frig size up to 61.25m - against a 361m explosion radius, making the total difference 299.75m. And of course that does nothing to offset the slow explosion velocity. And it costs you two slots for TPs.

Now recompute that same fit using heavy (or rapid heavy) launchers firing Caldari Navy Inferno missiles. You get an explosion radius of 89.3m and explosion velocity of 122m/s, making the total difference when shooting at that same frigate only 54.3m (compared to your 299.75m) and a substantially faster explosion velocity. And that's WITHOUT target painters. You can now use that space to fit other mods.

The most significant benefit of cruise missiles is massively long range, but it comes at the cost of less ability to apply that DPS against all but the largest targets. But given the massive tank of the Rattlesnake and the fact that virtually all L4 targets are within heavy missile range, you don't need the extra range that cruise missiles offer.

Cruise Missiles absolutely make sense on some mission running ships - I just don't understand them on a brawler like the Rattlesnake. That's not to say they don't work - they clearly do. They're just not as efficient at clearing a typical L4 site as a Snake fit for brawling.

A brawling fit is simply designed to fight up close. Bling is entirely optional. In my case, any bling was done for fitting and cap requirements because I don't like changing fits. Everything you need for every L4 is already on the ship. Yours costs about 450m and mine runs about 650m, so it's not that much more expensive. Not that I think it's necessarily ideal for everybody - but it's what works best for me.

And don't get me wrong...yours is a common fit and it's effective.