The Grassrivers — Rockstar Games's fictionalised analogue of the Florida Everglades — is one of the most distinctive non-urban environments confirmed for the state of Leonida in Grand Theft Auto VI (Wilson, 2025; Wikipedia, 2026a). A vast subtropical wetland of sawgrass prairies, cypress sloughs, mangrove fringes and slow-moving sheetflow, it is geographically modelled on a real ecosystem that sustains itself almost entirely on atmospheric water and which historically extended over more than 4,000 square miles of the southern Florida peninsula (Wikipedia, 2026b). For Rockstar, the appeal of such a setting is obvious: it provides an off-grid wilderness analogous in design function to the forests, mountains and plains of Red Dead Redemption 2, but transposed into a tropical, present-day American context. This report examines how the hunting and fishing mechanics pioneered in Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2) are likely to be carried over into the Grassrivers, what specifically Floridian wildlife will replace the bison, elk and pronghorn of the 1899 frontier, and how the systems may evolve in light of the 2020s setting.
In Red Dead Redemption 2, hunting is not a minigame but a deep simulation layered into the open world. Animals provide food, income and crafting materials, and the choice of weapon and shot placement directly determine the quality and value of meat and pelt; carcasses can be skinned in the field or carried on the horse, but rot over time, decrease in value and attract predators (Wikipedia, 2026c). The system rewards patience and discipline: a clean small-calibre kill on a perfect specimen yields a "pristine" pelt suitable for the trapper's most desirable garments, whereas a shotgun blast ruins the hide entirely. Fishing operates as a parallel system, with different baits, lures and rod tensions tuned to species ranging from bluegill and bass to legendary fish. Hunting is intertwined with survival mechanics — eating, sleeping and core regeneration — and with economic ones, since carcasses can be sold to butchers, traders and the trapper for cash or crafted equipment (Wikipedia, 2026c). The result is a vertically integrated wilderness loop: track, kill, butcher, transport, sell or craft.
Rockstar has confirmed Grassrivers as a "wetlands" region within Leonida and a key non-urban destination in GTA VI (Wilson, 2025). The terrain naturally supports a comparable hunting and fishing loop, but the species and locomotion involved are radically different from the Western frontier. In place of horses, the player will rely on airboats — a vehicle type already shown in promotional material — to traverse the sheetflow, plus kayaks, swamp buggies and pickup trucks where solid ground permits (Wilson, 2025). Where Arthur Morgan tracked elk through pine forest, the GTA VI protagonists Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos are expected to stalk Floridian wildlife across sawgrass prairies, cypress domes and mangrove edges (Wikipedia, 2026a; Wikipedia, 2026b).
The Everglades supports one of the most distinctive faunal assemblages in North America, and the Grassrivers will almost certainly reflect this. Plausible terrestrial and amphibious quarry includes the American alligator, which nests in dense sawgrass and is an iconic Everglades predator; the American crocodile, which inhabits the mangrove fringes and Florida Bay analogue; white-tailed deer; wild boar; raccoon; bobcat; and, as a rare apex encounter, the endangered Florida panther (Wikipedia, 2026b). Birdlife — wading species such as great blue herons, roseate spoonbills, anhingas and the wood stork — could populate the wetlands in a manner analogous to how RDR2 used herons, pelicans and songbirds for atmosphere and small-game hunting (Wikipedia, 2026b; Wikipedia, 2026c). A satirical, present-day twist already strongly hinted at is the inclusion of the Burmese python, an invasive species that has devastated Everglades mammal populations and which Florida regulates through state-sanctioned removal contests; the "Florida Man" cultural framing that GTA VI explicitly parodies (Wikipedia, 2026a) makes a python-hunting side activity all but inevitable.
For fishing, the Grassrivers offers a different palette to RDR2's largely freshwater Northern catalogue. Largemouth bass, bluegill, Florida gar, bowfin and catfish populate the freshwater interior, while the brackish and estuarine fringes near a Florida Bay analogue would plausibly support tarpon, snook, redfish and bonefish — species that, in reality, anchor a multi-billion-dollar sport-fishing economy in southern Florida. Given Rockstar's documented commitment to underwater exploration in the neighbouring Leonida Keys, including "giant turtles and other fauna" (Wilson, 2025), it is reasonable to expect that spearfishing and bowfishing — both legal and culturally prominent in Florida — will sit alongside conventional rod-and-reel fishing.
Several RDR2 mechanics map onto the Grassrivers with minimal alteration: shot placement determining pelt or meat quality, carcass decay over time, predator attraction to gut piles, weapon selection (bow versus rifle versus shotgun) trading off cleanliness against stopping power, and a trapper-style vendor converting raw materials into craftable gear (Wikipedia, 2026c). Other elements demand modernisation. The 1899 honour system, with its frontier moralism, is replaced in GTA VI by a 2020s satirical frame in which poaching protected species — alligators out of season, panthers, manatees — would plausibly trigger Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission analogues rather than U.S. Marshals (Wikipedia, 2026a). Drone surveillance, body-cam-equipped game wardens and social-media "snitch" mechanics are all plausible 2020s extensions of the RDR2 bounty system. Fishing licences, bag limits and slot limits — central to real Florida sport fishing — provide ready material for the series's well-established satire of bureaucratic regulation.
The real Everglades is an ecosystem in chronic crisis, having lost roughly half its original extent to agricultural drainage and urban sprawl, and now subject to one of the most expensive restoration projects in environmental history (Wikipedia, 2026b). Invasive pythons, sugarcane runoff into Lake Okeechobee, and saltwater intrusion driven by sea-level rise are all live political controversies. Rockstar's tradition of layering environmental satire over its open worlds — the petroleum politics of RDR2, the corporate environmentalism of GTA V's Los Santos — suggests the Grassrivers will function not merely as a hunting playground but as a vehicle for commentary on Floridian land use, climate vulnerability and the kitsch of swamp tourism. Hunting and fishing missions are an obvious delivery mechanism for that satire: a python-bounty side hustle, an illegal alligator-skin trade, or a corrupt eco-tour operator could each ground RDR2's wilderness systems in a recognisably 2020s political context.
The Grassrivers represents the clearest opportunity yet for Rockstar to transplant the deep wilderness simulation of Red Dead Redemption 2 into a modern setting. The underlying loop — track, kill or catch, butcher or land, transport, sell or craft — is preserved, but the species, vehicles, vendors and regulatory satire are all rebuilt around present-day southern Florida. Alligators replace bears, airboats replace horses, tarpon replace steelhead trout, and a Fish and Wildlife Commission analogue replaces the U.S. Marshals. If executed with the density Rockstar achieved in 1899's Lemoyne bayous, the Grassrivers could become the defining wilderness environment of the 2020s open-world era, and a centrepiece of GTA VI's claim to have built not just a city but a living state.
Wikipedia (2026a) Grand Theft Auto VI. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_VI (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Wikipedia (2026b) Everglades. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everglades (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Wikipedia (2026c) Red Dead Redemption 2. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dead_Redemption_2 (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Wilson, I. (2025) 'Every GTA 6 location revealed so far', GamesRadar+, 6 May. Available at: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/grand-theft-auto/gta-6-locations/ (Accessed: 14 May 2026).