I make nearly 100% of my isk gas mining anymore, so a few pieces of advice. Take it for what it is, but this is what I do. Take a combat ship, a PvE ship, gas mining ship, and a scanning ship. The k-space rats in gas sites are about the same as the rats in ore sites, so a drake would be able to do the job. If you're paying attention, you easily have time to warp you venture out when rats spawn.

I personally live in WH space and do most of my mining there, so be careful when gas mining. sleepers spawn 15 minutes after the first person arrives at a gas site in wormholes, but there are also a LOT more gas sites, so you can make very good ISK simply mining each site for 15 minutes. There's a good 10 second window to jump out after they spawn, so you shouldn't lose a ship.

As far as ships go, I have a few lowsec bases set up for more relaxing gas mining in low-traveled places where I can jump into empty null, as well as roam around LS. Roam around in your scanning ship of choice (I have mine purely set up for scanning speed, no relic/data analyzer), scan everything and bookmark everything. After some time scanning and bookmarking, come back in your data/relic ship or venture/prospect (and train a prospect, it's definitely worth it) and do all the sites. I typically fight the rats in a PvP fit T3D or T3 cruiser, in case anyone else shows up, but they don't scam you, so grab your drake and give it a shot.

By far the biggest thing is to find somewhere you can dock up to house a half dozen ships or so, then get to know that LS/NS area. Gas can take up a decent chunk of cargo space, so I don't use a blockade runner, I use a deep space transport. I keep an eye out for WHs that lead to HS and simply avoid the risk completely of transporting loot through null or low.

Just to check - you do this solo right? Switching ships every time you need to (meaning your 'base' must only be a few jumps away?).

This is how I was imagining doing it myself. I'm already well set up in 0.0 will plenty of resources/access to ships etc.

Has it changed? I thought the sleepers spawned 15 minutes after the 'warp to' the site was initiated. Is it now arrive at?

I'd strongly recommend joining a corp. 99% of the time we clear the rats from all gas sites as a corp and run them in groups for safety, etc., but I do have a few solo setups and that's what I'm describing now.

My favorite setup (which I selfishly won't give the location away to anyone) has a loop of 20 or so systems that are inhabited by people who live on the other side of the world from me, so most of the time I'm online they are completely empty. I found it when roaming around in a scanning ship, and there are stations I can use. When I am going solo, I typically fly the loop of 10-20 systems depending, scan every sig in those systems and bookmark every site I want to run, I then come back with a combat ship/gas mining ship/relic ship as needed.

And even saying that is somewhat of a lie, because I run multiple accounts at the same time, so I have one account scanning while the others run sites, but I'm writing this from the perspective of how someone with only one account would do it. Basically think 'batch processing'. Do all your scanning/bookmarking (and in low/null find and mark the location of every hostile pos/citadel, take notes on who owns it and what corp/alliance they are with) then run all the sites.

That's one reason why it's good to set up a base. It will take some time to get ships in and scout out who the local residents are and where their assets are that could potentially kill you, but once you have done that for that pocket of space, it's done and will probably save you from losing a few ships.

And for clarity (because this is definitely subjective) anything less than 15 jumps away I consider 'close' to whatever base of operations I'm currently using

Gas site rats do not respawn.

Mostly true. IIRC they reset at downtime, in sleeper sites at least. Sometimes you'll clear the sleepers and if you don't finish the site you may be surprised when they respawn the next day at a site you thought was cleared.

Last question - I promise!

I'm having issues getting a Drake out to null-sec (Drakes aren't as easy to move as Covert ops ships...) - is it possible to clear rats in something like a Caracal or maybe an Assault Frigate?

** edit ** I would try it out myself but my station is being camped at the moment!

I've never had sleeper sites respawn after being cleared. I lived in w-space nearly 3 years. Maybe you have bad luck.

Last question - I promise!

I'm having issues getting a Drake out to null-sec (Drakes aren't as easy to move as Covert ops ships...) - is it possible to clear rats in something like a Caracal or maybe an Assault Frigate?

** edit ** I would try it out myself but my station is being camped at the moment!

The k-space rats in gas sites are about the same as the rats in ore sites,

I've tried to run a gas site in null once.

Landed on grid, was instantly neuted out by the structures already on-site and the rats popped me before I got into warp.

Fact that I'm notoriously bad at PvE aside, I suggest you check out the site with a cloaky first. And maybe, just to be on the safe side, get something that can blap from afar in case you do need to bail.

The ship I lost was a Huginn. Yes it's replaced, No I haven't tried to run a gas site ever since-- I'd have to PvE for a month to earn it back OR I could blow up some poor random guys, steal their loot and call it a day. It was one of the easier decisions in PvE I've ever made.

You were unlucky and found a site with turrets that's called Ordinary Perimeter Reservoir if I remember well.

Every huffer knows it's to be avoided.

Gas huffing is very funny because of the risk of being caught and it's not very time consuming.

The only thing I struggle to do is to sell gas at a decent price in hisec.

I live between wormholes, lowsec and hisec so I really dunno if in nullsec it's easier to sell it anyway...

Ore site rats just seem to be belt rats. I do know a bit about belt rats. A BC is almost overkill for most belt rat spawns. You can kill belt rat spawns in a cruiser and I've even seen people doing them in destroyers. I tried it myself and it is challenging but it can be done. I used to belt rat in an AF in null sec and that was a lot of fun for me. I switched away from the AF just because it was taking too long.

To me a faction cruiser seems to be ideal for belt ratting. The perfect mix of DPS, tank and the agility to warp from belt to belt quickly as well as being cheapish to replace. I've never flown a T3 before. HACs work well also but are more expensive.

Short answer is if you are just looking to kill one spawn then a cruiser or AF should work fine. You might have trouble killing a faction spawn and I've never encountered an officer spawn but in theory if you are in NPC null sec you could encounter one of those.

Again the ore sites have the same spawns as the asteroid belts. I've seen faction spawns warp into ore sites and I've chased ore site rat spawns to other belts so I know that they are the same spawns.

There are no Ordinary Perimeter Reservoirs in null sec

Unless the guy was talking about wh space and doesn't know the difference between the two.

What? No

Null sec

NULL sec

NULL sec

There are no Ordinary Perimeter Reservoirs in null sec

Unless the guy was talking about wh space and doesn't know the difference between the two.

Again: Ordinary Perimeter Reservoirs only appear in wormhole space

The gas site you warped to was likely one of the guarded ones with hackable cans I mentioned before

Ordinary Perimeter Reservoir DEFINITELY rings a bell so unless they're all called alike, that's the one.