GTA 6's Leonida: Six Regions, Localized Weather and 170 Animal Species

By Indie Kings | September 29, 2026

Updated September 29, 2026: Game Informer's 14-page cover story on Grand Theft Auto VI is out, and the full text is the first place the 170 animal species, the localized weather and the region breakdown come from a named source. Five Rockstar executives are quoted by name, and two of their statements correct things that have been circulating for months. Leonida is twice the size of GTA V, per head of development Aaron Garbut, who also says Rockstar has never built anything close. And the game does not have central Florida in it, which environment art head Paul MacPherson confirmed rather than denied. The romance system has no gameplay benefits either way. This site had covered the map's six regions from trailer footage. It had never had a developer on the record about them.

Grand Theft Auto VI Leonida wildlife including manatees, flamingos and alligators, one of the details from Game Informer's exclusive cover story on Rockstar's Florida setting

Image: Leonida's wildlife, confirmed by Rockstar vice president of dynamic art Michael Kane. Credit: Rockstar Games via Game Informer.

The map is twice the size, and it is the interiors that did it

The single most concrete number in the whole cover story is a size claim, and it comes from the person who would know.

Aaron Garbut, Rockstar's head of development and co-studio head, describes Leonida as the biggest map Rockstar has ever created "by some degree", and puts it at twice as large as GTA V. He adds that it is more dense, detailed and interactive, and that the interiors are the reason it reads as real rather than as a map.

His quote is specific about what drove that, and it is not the open world. Per Game Informer, Garbut said the team "obsessed about every part, the rooftops, the alleys, the internals and everything in between to the point we hit a critical mass with the numbers of our interiors", and that once you pass that threshold "you start to feel the buildings are more real inside and out." His conclusion: "This world is a cohesive whole with the density of content and a hand-crafted quality to every bit."

That reframes the size claim. Twice the map is the headline, but the work Garbut describes is vertical. Buildings with interiors you can enter, on a map twice the old one, is a different and harder thing than an open world twice the size with empty shells.

The six regions, and the one Florida region that is missing

Game Informer gives the state six primary regions, and for the first time a Rockstar executive explains how they were chosen and what is not in them.

Region	Real-world basis	What Rockstar says about it
Vice City	Miami	Glamour and hustle, deco architecture, congested roadways that make police chases harder, beaches, cruise ship port
Leonida Keys	Florida Keys	Where Jason works for drug runners at the start of the game
Grassrivers	The Everglades	Expansive biodiverse wetland with reptilian predators and armed outdoorsmen
Port Gellhorn	Smaller Florida tourist traps	Abandoned attractions, cheap motels, derelict strip malls
Ambrosia	Florida's industrial belt	Factories, refineries, and a local biker gang calling the shots. Rockstar calls it the heart of Leonida
Mount Kalaga National Park	The Florida Georgia line	Wildlife and natural wonders, plus the Leonida-Gloriana line culture

Stewart asked specifically about Mount Kalaga, on the grounds that northern Florida is the most traditionally country-feeling part of the state and the most often overlooked in pop culture. Paul MacPherson, senior vice president of environment art, says the team examined Panama City, Jacksonville, Ocala and smaller rural towns in between, and cites the area's lumber industry and deforesting zones as "visually striking spaces and fun gameplay opportunities." He also found that gated communities built around private jet ownership, complete with personal landing strips, fit the region's narrative, alongside economically struggling west coast towns.

Weather is localized, and rain leaves the ground wet

Owen Shepherd, vice president of art for lighting and rendering, is the source for the weather system, and his framing is that Florida's less pleasant weather was the target.

Shepherd says the team "re-engineered our weather system to make everything much more localized and persistent" and wanted the world to feel dynamically solid at a scale not felt before. He describes "new fully dynamic cloudscapes that roll across the map" producing everything from Miami winter skies to the cumulonimbus clouds with sporadic lightning you see most afternoons in the Floridian summer and autumn.

Three specifics from the interview are the ones worth having, because they are the difference between rain as a particle effect and rain as a state.

Storms are local, not global. Per Game Informer, you can occupy a sunny zone on the map and watch a storm batter a nearby area, which is the specific Florida behaviour Stewart was drawn to.
Rain leaves evidence. Shepherd says the rain creates realistic rainbows under the right lighting, and that recently showered areas remain wet on the ground and create persistent puddles once the storm passes. His framing is that you could enter an area and realise it had just rained by looking around you.
There is a real wind model. Per Shepherd, the wind system includes "offshore breezes after sunset, convectional updrafts, and occlusion from buildings." He describes hair and debris swirling on rooftops, gusts putting ripples on water, and grass bending in swamps.

Tropical storms and hurricanes are confirmed, and Shepherd describes them as heavy clouds, strong winds, dense atmospherics and a lot of rain, with water gushing off roof edges and lampposts. He did not share how often they occur or how they affect gameplay and the story, which is stated plainly in the article rather than glossed over.

170 species, and which ones are native versus invasive

The 170 figure comes with a breakdown this site has not seen published anywhere else, and the breakdown is more useful than the total.

Game Informer states Leonida features over 170 animal species across the map, including over 60 bird types and more than 30 land mammals, plus various fish, reptiles and more. Rockstar vice president of dynamic art Michael Kane confirms the inclusion of manatees, flamingos, pelicans and alligators, and says Leonida-native species appear that have never appeared in a Rockstar game.

Then comes the part that separates this from a generic wildlife claim: five of the confirmed species are invasive, not native. Per the article, GTA VI includes the green iguana, feral cat, cane toad, nine-banded armadillo and the rhesus macaque monkey. Kane's framing is that Florida's ecosystem is a patchwork of natives and invasives, and that Rockstar wanted to represent it faithfully across biomes.

Marine life is confirmed as different shark species, whales, rays, turtles and jellyfish, each with distinct movement behaviours, and Kane says the animal art and population teams are focused on research-accurate species with supporting movement and animation.

The rendering is built on Red Dead Redemption work. Per Game Informer, animals display iridescence, bioluminescence, translucency and feather types, plus new hair and fur systems for coats and pelts. Kane's quote on fur is the specific one: it is fully simulated and set up for "human-to-animal interaction with dirt matting and clumping in environmental contexts, including getting wet, as well as color and coat variations." Fur reacts to mud and water rather than being a fixed texture.

And like Red Dead, GTA VI will feature many animals for players to track, categorised as Rare, Discoverable and Legendary. Rockstar is keeping the specific species under wraps so they surprise players, and Game Informer's author is publicly hoping the Skunk Ape, Florida's Bigfoot cryptid, is among them.

The romance system has no gameplay benefits

This is the single most consequential clarification in the cover story, and it corrects a reading that has spread widely.

Game Informer states it plainly: "There are no gameplay benefits to being friends versus being a couple, so it's largely a role-playing option for those interested." Rockstar has emphasised that players are not required to engage with the systems at all.

What does build the bond, per the article, is smaller interactions outside missions: holding hands, opening doors for each other, calling and answering calls and texts promptly and regularly, and accepting invitations to do activities together. Robbing places as a duo also grows the relationship.

Certain elements of the story will be affected by the bond, and that is the part with consequences. Jason and Lucia are a couple in the sense that they are partners, and the player decides how that reads, but there is no stat, reward or mechanical difference attached to it.

Robberies, the money gate, and the new Heat system

Money matters more in GTA VI than in previous Grand Theft Auto games, and it gates the story rather than just the economy.

Per Game Informer, raising money matters more than ever, as certain missions only become available based on your current income. Robberies can be done alone or as a duo, with the duo option growing the protagonists' relationship, and each can be executed loud and fast or quiet and thorough. The degree of escalation determines if and how police respond.

The law changes too. Alongside the returning six-star Wanted Levels, a new Heat system means officers gather information from reported incidents based on the player's appearance and whereabouts at the scene. Game Informer states that changing hairstyle and clothing, bought from the game's distinct retail stores and salons, and ditching the vehicle you escaped in, help escape a comprehensive and lethal response.

Splitting up also works. If police know they are chasing a pair, Jason and Lucia can separate to divide attention, and if the other escapes you still get a "Busted" screen. There is no partial success.

Three things in circulation that this article corrects

The cover story is being summarised in a lot of places, and three of those summaries are wrong in ways that matter.

The map size is confirmed at twice GTA V, and that number was not in the trailer coverage. This site reported the six regions from trailer footage, and the size claim from Garbut is new and specific.
The romance system has no gameplay benefits. Much of the coverage describes platonic versus romantic as a meaningful choice. Rockstar's own position, per Game Informer, is that it is a role-playing option with no mechanical difference, though story elements do respond to it.
Central Florida is not in the game, and Rockstar said so. The absence of Orlando's theme parks and the Space Coast has been treated as an oversight or an unconfirmed gap. MacPherson addressed it directly when asked: "we may not have those exact locations, everything we have is geared to getting that full Florida experience!" His full answer describes distilling the state's diversity of landscapes, towns, structures, landmarks, vistas, plant species and rock formations down to a list that serves the game.

What is not verified

Nothing here is first-hand played. This site has no copy of GTA VI. Every claim above is from Game Informer's interview, which is a primary source with named executives, and none of it has been confirmed against the game.
Hurricane frequency and gameplay impact are explicitly unknown. Shepherd did not share how often major storms occur or how they affect gameplay and storytelling, and Game Informer says so directly. The article is not treating that as a gap in its own reporting.
The specific Rare, Discoverable and Legendary species are under wraps by design. Rockstar is withholding them, so no list exists to publish.
No total species count is given by Rockstar directly in the article's quote form. The 170, 60 bird and 30 mammal figures are Game Informer's reporting of Rockstar's detail, and Kane's quotes confirm specific species rather than the totals.
Central Florida's absence is not a denial that theme parks exist in the game. MacPherson says they may not have those exact locations. Whether any park-like location appears is not stated.
Wanted Level behaviour, the wanted system in general, and robbery mission design are not detailed here. The cover story is about Leonida as a place. Its robbery section is brief and the story itself remains largely undisclosed, with Rockstar sharing out-of-context clips.

What is verified from the primary source: the twice-GTA-V map size and the interiors rationale, both from Garbut. The six regions and their descriptions. MacPherson's research locations and the central Florida quote. The weather re-engineering, dynamic cloudscapes, localized storms, persistent puddles, rainbows, wind model and hurricanes from Shepherd. The 170 species with the 60 bird and 30 mammal breakdown, the five named invasive species, marine life, fur simulation and tracking tiers from Kane. The no-gameplay-benefit romance statement. The money gate, duo robberies, Heat system and splitting-up mechanics.

FAQ

How big is the GTA 6 map compared to GTA V?

Twice as large, per Aaron Garbut, Rockstar's head of development and co-studio head, who calls it the biggest map Rockstar has ever created "by some degree." He attributes the quality to interiors rather than area, saying the team obsessed over rooftops, alleys and internals until hitting a critical mass that made buildings feel more real inside and out.

Is central Florida in GTA 6, with Disney World and the Space Coast?

Not those exact locations, and Rockstar confirmed the gap rather than dodging it. Paul MacPherson, senior vice president of environment art, told Game Informer that while the game may not have those exact locations, everything in it is geared to getting the full Florida experience. He described the process as constantly evaluating the state's landscapes, towns, structures, landmarks, vistas, plant species and rock formations before distilling them into a list that serves the game.

Does the romance between Jason and Lucia affect gameplay?

No. Game Informer states directly that there are no gameplay benefits to being friends versus being a couple, describing it as largely a role-playing option, and that players are not required to engage with it. What does change is story. Certain elements are affected by the bond, which grows through small interactions like holding hands, answering calls promptly, and accepting invitations to activities, as well as by robbing places as a duo.

How many animal species are in GTA 6 and which ones?

Over 170 across land, air and sea, including over 60 bird types and more than 30 land mammals. Rockstar vice president of dynamic art Michael Kane confirms manatees, flamingos, pelicans and alligators. Five further confirmed species are invasive rather than native: the green iguana, feral cat, cane toad, nine-banded armadillo and the rhesus macaque. Marine life includes different shark species, whales, rays, turtles and jellyfish with distinct movement behaviours.

How does GTA 6 weather work, and are there hurricanes?

The system was re-engineered to be more localized and persistent, with fully dynamic cloudscapes rolling across the map. Owen Shepherd, vice president of art for lighting and rendering, confirms localized rain showers, realistic rainbows under the right lighting, and areas that stay wet with persistent puddles after a storm passes. The wind model includes offshore breezes after sunset, convectional updrafts and occlusion from buildings. Tropical storms and hurricanes are confirmed, though Shepherd did not say how often they occur or how they affect gameplay.

Do you need money to progress in GTA 6?

Yes, and that is new. Game Informer states that raising money matters more than in previous Grand Theft Auto games, to the point that certain missions only become available based on your current income. Robberies can be done alone or as a duo, loudly and quickly or quietly and thoroughly, and how much you escalate determines how police respond. Alongside the returning six-star Wanted Levels, a new Heat system has officers gather information from reported incidents.

Bottom Line

What makes the cover story worth more than a trailer is that five executives are on the record and two of them corrected things. The map is twice GTA V, and the reason it reads as real is that the buildings have interiors, not because the map is big. And central Florida is not in the game, which is a real absence Rockstar confirmed rather than a gap nobody has noticed yet.

The most useful correction is the romance one. It is described widely as a meaningful choice, and Rockstar's own position is that there is no gameplay benefit either way. It is a role-playing option, it grows from small deliberate acts rather than from a system, and the consequence is in the story rather than in the numbers. Players who were reading it as a mechanical fork were reading it wrong.

The wildlife detail is the part most likely to outlast the launch news cycle. 170 species with a published breakdown, five of them invasive, fur that mats and clumps when it gets wet or dirty, and a tracking structure borrowed from Red Dead with the specific species deliberately withheld so they can surprise players. That is the deepest an open world has gone on animals, and it is a structural feature rather than a number.