Region file 02 / 06 ·LK · Southern island chain · anchor: The Florida Keys — 24.66° N · 81.54° W
Leonida Keys in GTA 6
Before the skyline, before the scores — GTA 6 starts down here, at the frayed southern end of the map. The Leonida Keys are where Jason Duval lives, works, and gets pulled into the story, and they may be the most personality-dense stretch of coastline Rockstar has ever drawn.
What the Leonida Keys are
The Keys are a chain of small, flat islands strung south from the Leonida mainland, tied together by long bridges that run straight over open water. Officially, the region’s identity is built on three things: marinas and boat culture, diving spots, and a smuggling heritage that never really became history. It is the slow-paced counterweight to Vice City an hour up the road.
Narratively, this is home turf. Rockstar introduces Jason as a Keys local scraping by on trafficking runs, and two of the revealed supporting cast — Brian Heder and Cal Hampton — are embedded in the same island economy. That makes the Keys the rare GTA region that is a character’s neighborhood first and a playground second.
The Florida Keys, refracted
The real-world template is impossible to miss. The Florida Keys are a 120-mile island arc stitched together by the Overseas Highway, where the road itself — miles of bridge over turquoise water — is the landmark. The Leonida Keys’ officially described overwater highway bridges read as a direct homage, and the marina-town, dive-shop, end-of-the-road atmosphere matches Islamorada and Key West energy.
The smuggling angle is historically grounded too: the actual Keys were a legendary corridor for running contraband into Florida, which is precisely the “golden era” Brian Heder’s backstory references. As always, this is our reading of the inspiration — Rockstar doesn’t annotate its geography.
What official material has shown
From the two official trailers (December 2023 and May 2025) and Rockstar’s own region and character descriptions, the confirmed picture is: small islands linked by long overwater bridges, laid-back marinas, diving spots, and a deep smuggling tradition — with Jason’s story explicitly starting here. The Vintage Vice City preorder pack also references nearby coastal geography, hinting at how the Keys blend into the metro’s orbit.
What is not confirmed: island names, how many islands are individually explorable, or whether any part of the chain is story-gated. Anything you see claiming otherwise is speculation or leak content, which we don’t traffic in — our interactive map plots the Keys where official reveals put them, and nothing more.
What you’ll likely do here
Expectation territory, flagged as such: with boat yards, marinas, and diving officially in the region’s DNA, the Keys look like GTA 6’s water-gameplay showcase — boats as daily transport, diving as an activity, and the bridge highway as one of the game’s signature drives. The smuggling heritage plus Jason’s trafficking-runs setup strongly suggests early missions built around moving cargo by water at night.
Expect pace contrast to do a lot of work. Rockstar has framed the Keys as laid-back; that reads as an intentional cold-open tempo before the story escalates toward the city and the wilder interior regions like Grassrivers.
Who’s tied to the Keys
The Keys have the strongest confirmed character roots of any region. Lucia Caminos enters the picture from Leonida Penitentiary and becomes the other half of the duo — and Jason’s island life is the world she steps into:
Jason Duval
Protagonist
An ex-Army Floridian living in a trailer on Brian Heder’s boat yard, running jobs for local traffickers when the story opens.
Brian Heder
Old-school smuggler
A drug runner from the Keys’ golden smuggling era. His boat yard is Jason’s home base — rent paid in odd jobs.
Cal Hampton
Paranoid fixer
Jason’s conspiracy-minded friend, listening to Coast Guard chatter from his couch and keeping smuggling runs one step ahead.
Where the Keys sit in Leonida
The southernmost region of the map — the island chain dangling below the Vice City metro. How far the chain extends is one of the open questions in the map size debate.
Leonida Keys in official material
We've tagged 6 official images and 16 catalogued trailer frames to Leonida Keys — pulled from Rockstar's site and the two official trailers.
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Notable places in Leonida Keys
Our locations database currently holds 17 catalogued Leonida Keys places — each with its own page covering what's known and where it sits.
- Animal Hospital of Key Lento Hospital
- Brian's Boat Works & Marina Marina
- Chip's Body Shop Mod shop
- Daiquiri Republic
- East Key
- Gulf of Mexico
- Key Lento Town
- Key Lento Safehouse Stilt house
- Keys Causeway Highway
- Nagasaki Vehicle manufacturer, Aerospace manufacturer
- U.S. Route 3 Highway
- Unnamed GTA VI Bahia Honda-inspired rail bridge Rail bridge
Frequently Asked Questions
Where are the Leonida Keys on the GTA 6 map?
At the southern tip of the state — a chain of small islands trailing off the mainland below Vice City, connected by long overwater highway bridges. They are one of six officially named regions in Leonida.
Are the Leonida Keys based on the Florida Keys?
That is the obvious real-world reference: a string of low islands linked by an overseas highway, with a marina-and-diving economy and a famous smuggling past. Rockstar has not officially confirmed the mapping, but the parallel is unmistakable.
Does GTA 6 start in the Leonida Keys?
Rockstar’s official character material describes Jason Duval living in the Keys and doing runs for local drug traffickers when the story finds him — so the region is where his side of the story begins. How much of the opening plays out there has not been detailed.
Can you drive between the islands?
The islands are officially described as linked by overwater highway bridges, so driving the chain end-to-end is clearly intended. Boats are also confirmed to matter here — Brian Heder, a Keys smuggler, runs a boat yard where Jason lives.
Will the Keys be available at launch?
Yes — the whole state of Leonida ships with the game on November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. There is no indication any region is gated behind post-launch content.
The other five regions
Every island, every bridge, pinned
The GTA 6 Locations app launches with a full interactive Leonida map on November 19, 2026 — Keys included, marina by marina.