GTA 6 Maps Explained: Vice City and Rockstar’s Leonida State Revealed

Rockstar’s upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI isn’t just taking players back to the Miami-sized sandbox of Vice City—it’s expanding the premise into a whole fictional Florida state called Leonida, built to move beyond skylines and lean hard into tropical islands, swamps, industrial corridors, and long stretches of natural wilderness.

Key takeaways

• Grand Theft Auto VI is set across an entire fictional state named Leonida, not only one city.
• Leonida is Rockstar’s satirical reinterpretation of Florida, featuring tropical wildlife, endless roads, and both wealthy neighborhoods and decaying towns.
• Vice City returns with neon, beaches, and Art Deco vibes, but is now modeled on contemporary Miami.
• Distinct regions include the Leonida Keys, Grassrivers (based on the Everglades), Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia, and Mount Kalaga National Park.
• Several parts of the state are tied to criminal infrastructure and groups, from contraband operations at a shipyard to biker gangs running other illicit activities.

Leonida: Rockstar’s full-state Florida fantasy

For years, it was easy to boil GTA 6’s setting down to two words: Vice City. That assumption still holds—Vice City will be the game’s major urban hub—but Rockstar has designed Leonida as the larger stage. The fictional state is described as a satirical Florida with the same kind of direct inspiration relationship seen in other GTA settings, only here it’s about an entire ecosystem: beaches, mangroves, tropical fauna, luxury developments, and the human texture that has made “Florida Man” a long-running internet shorthand.

Instead of concentrating everything into a single skyline, Leonida is built to let players leave the city behind and travel through a variety of environments, including tropical keys, swampy wetlands, industrial areas, rundown towns, and large natural spaces. Rockstar’s goal is framed as a map that offers more than “a big city surrounded by secondary areas,” with each region pushing the overall world design in noticeably different directions.

Vice City and the state’s named regions

Vice City is positioned as the central urban area of the game and brings back the series’ signature look—beaches, palm trees, neon, and Art Deco architecture. The big change is that the city is now inspired by contemporary Miami, with huge residential buildings, clubs, ports, and nightlife that feels closer to today’s version of the setting.

Rockstar has highlighted several named locations within Vice City. Ocean Beach is presented as the clear stand-in for Miami Beach and Ocean Drive. Little Cuba reflects the Cuban presence associated with Miami. The market district of Tisha-Wocka is paired with VC Port, which is focused on cruise-ship industry activity.

To the south are the Leonida Keys, Rockstar’s take on the Florida Keys: small tropical islands linked by long roads and bridges over ocean water. This area is described as a place of boats, fishing, bars, and a seemingly relaxed lifestyle—though the game will also show its criminal side. Jason is specifically connected to this region through work for Brian Heder, a veteran smuggler who uses his shipyard to move goods.

Grassrivers represents Leonida’s Everglades. Here, tall buildings give way to sprawling water, mangroves, small homes, and boats powered by large propellers. Caimans are expected to be a frequent presence in the region, with Rockstar warning that they won’t necessarily be the most dangerous threat players encounter. The design is used as an example of how the world aims to deliver more than a city-first layout.

Port Gellhorn is framed as a Florida that doesn’t match the glossy travel-poster version. Rockstar describes it as an old vacation zone that has declined—cheap hotels, closed attractions, and rundown shopping centers that suggest better days have passed. Its surviving businesses and local economy are less glamorous, with cheap alcohol, medications, gas stations, and criminal activity becoming prominent. It’s the kind of off-the-main-road America the GTA series has explored for decades, including since San Andreas.

In the middle of the state sits Ambrosia, an industrial-and-agricultural region dominated by the massive Allied Crystal sugar refinery. The inspiration is suggested to align with inland sugar-producing areas of Florida, though Rockstar hasn’t drawn exact one-to-one comparisons. The company is said to provide a significant amount of jobs, while a biker gang controls other activities that are “quite a bit less legal.”

Farther north is Mount Kalaga National Park, described as the most unexpected location in Leonida. It’s a forest-and-river region defined by large natural spaces, offering activities like fishing, hunting, and off-road driving. The area also includes characters who prefer staying away from cities—ranging from rural communities to paranoid radicals who aren’t friendly toward the government—helping widen the range of options players will encounter across the different zones.