| “ | Rattlers are all through these woods. I can't risk getting chained up again.
―A runaway's fears of the Rattlers.[2]
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” |
The Rattlers are a militaristic gang of slavers based in Santa Barbara, California, who serve as the final antagonistic faction Ellie Williams and Abby Anderson encounter in The Last of Us Part II.[3]
History[]
Background[]
Sometime after the outbreak of the Cordyceps brain infection, the Rattlers were founded. They are a heavily armed group of hostile survivors who have set up camp in Santa Barbara, California. They also occupy and patrol the suburbs and woodland areas.[4] Their base of operations is a former oceanside resort known as Hacienda Polanco that the Rattlers converted into a fortress and slave labor camp.[5]
The group ambushes unwary travelers and takes their supplies for its own uses. They have traps set up across the city to catch infected and humans ("strays") alike, with the former chained up and used as guard dogs while the latter are forced into slavery. Capturing other survivors to use as slaves demonstrates that the Rattlers have a long-term method to secure a stable food supply for themselves, similar to the Jackson community, but with far more brutal methods of accomplishing it. Those who resist their enslavement are sent to "the pillars", wooden beams set out on the beach where they are strung up and left to die from exposure to the elements.[3] Those who did escape harbored a deep hatred for them, some even plotting to gather a group together to attack the Rattler's dome.[6]
The Rattlers are sadistic in nature, some intentionally infecting slaves and chaining them up for their amusement. The Rattlers treat their victims with such cruelty that dying in an escape attempt is preferred by some. Those who do escape are dubbed "runaways" that the Rattlers chase to recapture. They purposely harm slaves in a way that wounds them but does not kill them, evidenced by one Rattler stopping another from beating Abby to death with a bat and a patrol leader instructing her squad to shoot runaways in their legs to stop them running.[3] Despite this, some were still willing to join the group as it secured them protection for their family.[2]
Given the fate that awaits those captured, some view suicide as the better alternative. Ellie witnesses a runaway shoot himself in the head with a stolen gun when cornered by a Rattler patrol, and numerous notes can be found in the area written by residents who either escaped or killed themselves to avoid being captured. As such, they are one of the few groups in the game that lack morals and are known for their villainous nature.[3]
Events of The Last of Us Part II[]
A group of Rattlers intercepted Abby Anderson and Lev's message to the Fireflies, attacking the pair and taking them prisoner at 2425 Constance.
A couple of months later, Ellie is caught in one of the group's traps while searching for Abby. She is found by two Rattlers--the same men who captured Abby and Lev--hours later, who cut her down and plan to take her back to their base. However, she takes advantage of one Rattler's attempt to scare her with a captured clicker hanging nearby, instead grabbing him and pulling him toward it, helping the clicker bite him to death and then taking his gun and shooting the other Rattler in the legs. She then interrogates him for information regarding Abby's location before executing him.[3]
During this time Pat wrote a letter to Jenny revealing they had captured a few strays recently and been rewarded by the Rattler leadership for it with extra rations.[1] Ellie encounters one such stray patrol before pushing through, reaching the Rattler base along the railroad tracks, recognizable by a distinctive domed building in the center of the complex. Sneaking her way in and then fighting through the Rattlers inside, she reaches the cells where the enslaved people are kept. In a brutal fight, she manages to defeat the Rattler guarding the cells and (despite one prisoner wanting to kill her) learns that Abby and Lev attempted to escape and have been taken to the pillars on the beach. The prisoners, finally free, steal several guns from a nearby gun locker and then launch an assault on the Rattlers, setting the resort ablaze and killing many of them outright in revenge.[3]
Strength[]
As the final enemy faction in Part II, the Rattlers serve as the toughest group in the game. Their use of body armor, automatic rifles, bolt-action rifles, pistols, shotguns, Molotov cocktails and large numbers make them a difficult group to overpower.[3] Furthermore, the Rattlers are one of only three known factions (including the Fireflies and FEDRA) whose members have at least one piece of body armor or helmet on their person, making them tough foes to fight.[7][8]
Most members of the group typically have a ballistic vest or a riot helmet, making them much tougher than the Seraphites or WLF and able to take much more damage. The helmets enable them to resist headshots. Most members of the group will use pistols, semi-auto rifles, and bolt-action rifles against escaping slaves or infected. More powerful members of the group typically have a shotgun, bolt-action rifle, or SMG. Those without guns will use melee weapons such as batons, tomahawks, wrenches, machetes, and fire axes. Their biggest strength is their large numbers, which makes evading the group difficult. Even the poorest-armed Rattlers will have a pistol and melee weapon. Melee troops will often use flanking tactics to flush opponents out. Furthermore, the Rattlers are skilled melee fighters and ambushers, as they were able to subdue and capture Abby and Lev with ease.[3]
The Rattlers are well-organized and are skilled trackers, honed by experience in catching runaway slaves. Like the WLF, the patrols outside the mansions searching for fleeing slaves use guard dogs to complement their own tracking skills. These dogs are highly effective at tracking scents, forcing targets to constantly relocate to avoid detection. Furthermore, these dogs also wear canine bulletproof vests, which makes killing them even more challenging.[3]
However, given their careless nature in having infected within their grounds, Ellie is able to set them loose to attack, distract and kill Rattlers in the mansion. The clickers in particular disrupt the Rattlers' patrol patterns, with them also easily killing surprised or underequipped Rattlers.[3]
Known members[]
The following 12 members are randomly generated from a pool of names (6 masculine and 6 feminine) during gameplay, and don't have an established canonical status.[9]
- Amber
- Angie
- Cole
- Judy
- Marta
- Mateo
- Nika
- Pete
- Todd
- Val
- Wes
- Zach
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Rattler's letter home
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Mansion note
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 "Santa Barbara"
- ↑ Runaway warning
- ↑ The Art of The Last of Us Part II, Naughty Dog and Dark Horse Books, 2020, p.184
- ↑ Santa Barbara slave note
- ↑ "The Outskirts"
- ↑ "The Firefly Lab"
- ↑ NPC Enemy Names in TLOU2 - Part 1, YouTube (Accessed 2020)
