Leonida, south to north: a road trip through all six regions, using only what Rockstar has shown

Same rule as always. If Rockstar showed it, I say so. If it's me guessin', I say that too.

Edge told us this week that Leonida has nearly as much land as GTA IV, GTA V and Red Dead 2 put together, and that the map opens up early. So here is the trip I am going to take the first evening it does, bottom to top, with what Rockstar has actually confirmed about every stop. Six has how the vehicles work; this is where to point them.

Stop 1: the Leonida Keys

Confirmed. A bridge-linked island chain south of the mainland, modelled on the Florida Keys, where Jason lives rent-free in a property owned by Brian Heder, a veteran smuggler who runs product through his boatyard. Rockstar frames the Keys' heyday as long past.

In the screenshots. A seaplane over the islands, boats and divers on a reef, a sea turtle, dolphins beside a boat, iguanas on the rocks and in the road. Scuba diving is a confirmed activity. The Ultimate Edition hands you a Shitzu Squalo speedboat and a Crest kayak on day one.

My plan. Start on the water, not the road. The Keys are the only region where the boat is the main vehicle, and the reef is where the 170-plus species start. Fuel up before you leave; Edge says tanks last, but the Keys are a long way from anywhere.

Stop 2: Vice City, briefly

Confirmed. Rockstar's centrepiece: pastel art-deco hotels on white sand at Ocean Beach, Little Cuba, a cruise port, an international airport, a glass downtown. Confirmed (Nelson, to Edge): the roads are narrower than Los Santos's.

My plan. Drive through it once at dusk, because the longer sunsets are new, and keep going. The city is for later. Ruby has where it all came from.

Stop 3: Grassrivers

Confirmed. Sawgrass wetlands after the Everglades, thick with alligators, crossed by airboat. It has been in every trailer since the first.

In the screenshots. An airboat deck with a gator at two men's feet, houses on stilts over the water, an airboat chase under a helicopter with a gator watching from the water, open sawgrass to the horizon.

Reported (Edge). Wind is sheltered near islands and buildings, so a boat handles differently in a channel than in the open, and storms send people running. Game Informer's list has alligators, flamingos, manatees and invasive cane toads, iguanas and rhesus macaques, some of them Rare, Discoverable or Legendary and trackable.

My plan. This is the stop I would give a whole evening. Airboat at dawn, then sit still and let the animals come to you. My guess: the legendary animals Game Informer would not name live here and in the north, not in town.

Stop 4: Port Gellhorn

Confirmed. A faded Gulf Coast beach town of cheap motels and shuttered attractions. Rockstar says the story begins here, and describes a population running on cheap liquor and truck-stop energy drinks.

In the screenshots. Dusk over a row of motels, neon at night, shirtless men with full-torso tattoos, a backyard wrestling ring, a fist fight outside a motel. The Extended Look's backyard wrestling clip is set here.

My plan. Stay one night. It is the closest thing Leonida has to a frontier town, and Red Dead taught me those are where the strangers with the best stories are. Keep the shotgun in the boot; Edge says people react to what you carry.

Stop 5: Ambrosia

Confirmed. An industrial interior town built around the Allied Crystal sugar refinery, in flat cane country, where Rockstar says a local biker gang supplies "much of everything else."

In the screenshots. A column of bikers in leather cuts two abreast on the highway, the refinery lit up like a city at night, golden fields at sunset, a crowded party.

My plan. Drive it at night for the refinery, then get out before the bikers decide you are interesting. My guess: this is the inland end of Brian's smuggling route, which makes it the one stop on this trip that is also a plot.

Stop 6: Mount Kalaga National Park

Confirmed. Forested highlands and a national park at Leonida's northern edge. Rockstar lists hunting, fishing and off-roading as what people go there to do.

In the screenshots. A dirt bike on a forest trail, sunrise through the trees, two armed people in dense forest, a canyon trail, a big cat that looks like a Florida panther walking past white-tailed deer at a watering hole, a kayaker under a bridge on a calm river.

Not confirmed. How hunting and fishing actually play. Nobody has shown a rod or a rifle in use. Our wildlife guide has everything that has been shown.

My plan. Arrive by train if the line goes that far; Edge says you can ride them and Phil Hooker takes the bus to watch the world. Then kayak, then the ridge at sunrise. If the panther is there, I am not shooting it. That is a rule, not a guess.

What I'm packing

Our guess, built on confirmed systems. A full tank and a plain car, because Edge says expensive ones carry trackers. A change of clothes in the boot, because the police track your outfit. A gym membership, because walking and cycling with Lucia raises the closeness scale and I plan to do a lot of both. And nothing in the Criminal Profile I would be ashamed of, because that one never resets.

Twenty-one days. The Leonida map has every confirmed place. See y'all up north.