Grassrivers

Welcome to the Wetlands. The untamable jewel of Leonida's crown. You never know what lies beneath the surface of this primordial expanse. The gators may be the most famous attraction, but there are far deadlier predators and weirder discoveries among the mangroves.

Rockstar Games, official Newswire copy (rewritten to match our em-dash-free style)

The Grassrivers is Leonida’s largest wilderness biome, stretching across the southern third of the state between Vice-Dale and the Leonida Keys. The region is built on the same model as the real Florida Everglades, with mangrove tunnels, sawgrass prairies, hammock islands, and airboat trails. Wildlife is the headline attraction, with alligators, snakes, raccoons, bobcats, and herons all confirmed by Rockstar’s official wildlife chart, and manatees now seen in the water alongside an airboat in the Extended Look. Rob Nelson has described the Everglades as one of the areas chosen deliberately for what it adds that the city cannot. The Grassrivers is also the most likely setting for hidden missions, toxic waste plots, and offbeat secondary characters such as swamp hermits and back-country meth chemists, in the tradition of GTA V’s Sandy Shores and Trevor’s Trailer.

The Extended Look and the screenshots released with it confirm the airboat. Jason drives one through the shallow swamp, an airboat trip doubles as a date activity for the couple, and one screenshot shows police on airboats, so the wetlands have their own waterborne patrols. Another screenshot is set at what appears to be signed as the Sunrise RV Park, a run-down camp of rusted oil barrels, propane tanks, folding chairs, a camouflage truck, old boats and fishing nets, dogs, and older boats hoisted up on stilts in the background. Almost everyone in the shot is armed, one man crawls on the ground beside an alligator, a caged enclosure sits at the edge of the camp, and a live gator with its jaws tied is hung up and used as a punching bag while onlookers laugh. Brian’s Boat Works and Marina plane, first seen in an early trailer, is parked at the camp apparently unloading product. The Extended Look otherwise spent little time here, with only brief shots of the region making the cut.

The September 2022 leaked build also mentioned a skunk ape, described as the cousin of Bigfoot living in the Grassrivers swamp. A Bigfoot-like profile picture visible in a streamer chat during the Extended Look has been read by some fans as a nod to it. That connection is unconfirmed and Rockstar has not acknowledged the leaked material. In the August 2026 leak a light aircraft is flown over the Grassrivers before landing at a remote airfield.

Grassrivers is drawn from the Florida Everglades. The real Everglades is a slow-moving sheet of freshwater flowing through sawgrass marsh, mangrove maze, and hardwood hammocks, the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States.