The Galar region is home to the 8th Generation of Pokemon. This region seems to take heavy inspiration from the United Kingdom, primarily England. The region features a railroad system that connects towns, and plenty of scenic land seems to exist between them.
See the full Galar region map below (click or tap the map to expand it!) and keep scrolling to see our breakdown of the map’s areas. Visit the Galar Region Interactive Map for an even closer look of the map.
Official names for towns, (most) routes, roads, and other locations in Pokemon Sword and Shield have not been announced. For this map analysis, we’ve broken down each part by major settlements on the map.
Route 1 and Hometown[edit]
Based on the trailer, it looks like the southern most settlement on the Galar region map will be the start of your adventure.
This could potentially be the biggest hometown we’ve seen yet. The lake on the north side of the town looks like it could be surfable, too.
The player home is the house in the southwest corner with the yellow roof. Across the bridge from the player’s home looks to be a Pokemon school of some sort.
Beyond that is Route 1, the only named Route we received from the Pokemon Sword and Shield announcement trailer.
Here we see some residential buildings, a train station that could likely be used for Fast Travel, some sort of shops, and potentially a Pokemon Center in the back.
The Pokemon Center is only shown in the screenshot above from the trailer, but not on the map. The region’s Pokemon Professor’s home and lab seems to be in this area as well.
Below are some screenshots of the area from the announcement trailer:
Lakes and Train[edit]
This is the emptiest part of the map, but there are still a few things to pick apart here. The ruined watchtower, for instance, could be an interesting detour for this area. There’s also a long stretch of railroad tracks that further indicate the importance of trains connecting this region.
There’s also what looks like a train station nestled in the souther part of this watery plain, though it’s not accompanied by train tracks going through the area. They could connect to the Route 1 train station.
It Could Be a Mine[edit]
It’s usually not long before you find yourself underground in a Pokemon game, and based on the announcement trailer, it looks like there will be some more underground adventures to be had, possibly in this area:
To the west of the industrial town is this little path leading to the mountain. Train tracks also go into the mountain, but the tracks’ opening is rather unlike the others seen on the south part of the map. Paired with the screenshot from the announcement trailer, it seems the tracks here were or currently are being used for industrial purposes.
The building next to the tracks could be some sort of processing facility for what’s mined from the mountain.
Industrial Town[edit]
Just to the east of the area above is this large, industrial town:
Not much has been revealed about this steamy town, but it was where we were introduced to the Gen 8 Starter Pokemon in the reveal trailer.
Mysterious Countryside Town, Stonehenge, and the Grass Gym[edit]
One of the towns that’s been shown off most from the Galar region is this bright countryside village. It not only has what appears to be the Grass Gym, but also Galar’s version of mysterious structures and images found in England’s countryside.
As shown on the map and the trailer screenshots, Stonehenge-like pillars can be seen throughout this village. Galar’s version of Stonehenge have runes carved into them.
Then, on the west side of the village is a hill with Galar’s version of a chalk hill figure found in England. The real life landmarks depict giants wielding weapons. Galar’s region features some sort of figure (potentially a Pokemon since it seems to have a tail) emitting some sort of ability and is surrounded by smaller figures.
Then, just outside of the village is one lone building with some sort of sign above its door:
Given the space it has behind it, there’s a chance this could be Galar’s Pokemon Daycare or maybe some sort of club.
Water Gym[edit]
There’s always a lighthouse – and almost always a water gym! This next area has another railroad track running alongside it. There’s also a sailboat on the water. Could trainers get to use it at some point to explore something in the east?
The area to the west of the odd railroad looks like it’ll be explorable based on this shot from the reveal trailer that features the leafless trees shown on the map:
A Gym in the Mountains[edit]
This next area has quite a few interesting points, but let’s talk about the first: what kind of gym is that in the mountains? Though it is set in a snowy location, the dark grey symbol above the gym’s doors indicate that it’s likely a Steel gym.
Southeast of the chilly town is a route through the water that leads to the town with the purple buildings. This area was shown in the reveal trailer:
Then, finally, if you look to the southwest you’ll see a strange, almost maze-like structure.
The medieval walls make it look like it belongs to the massive town just to the west. It could be some sort of challenge area.
Big Gothic Town[edit]
This next town seems to be one of the biggest in Galar and definitely one of the most dramatic in its architecture. The town’s gothic design – complete with what looks like an internal mote – seems to have a dragon theme. The main middle structure’s long towers look somewhat like wings, and the crown at the top of the building seems to have some sort of platform inside it.
There are also the actual dragon heads on the top of the tower on the left and another smack dab in the middle of the wall.
The design is of this town is generally menacing, which makes its walls all around the city rather noticeable. The industrial town to the south and the northern most town also have walls. Could they have been in some sort of conflict at one point? The natural rock wall between this town and the snowy north is also peculiar.
Dugtrio Shrine[edit]
Dugtrio are confirmed for Galar! Probably! It seems that they did something important in this region, because this next town has a whole wall dedicated to the Pokemon.
There’s also a gym here, and it looks to be a Rock gym based on the light brown coloring of the sign above its door.
Past the gym seems to be some sort of colorful door or ancient mural of cogs or flowers and possibly a shield. Either way, it seems to be damaged based on the darker coloring around its edges.
Luminous Mushrooms and a Gym[edit]
Behind the rocky town is another hidden deep within a forest. It seems to be illuminated by mushrooms. The gym here has a purple symbol above its door, indicating it could be a Poison gym, which would make sense considering the luminous mushrooms.
The Pokemon Sword and Shield reveal trailer shows a foggy forrest that looks like it could be the one around the mushroom town.
Snowy Area[edit]
The snowy area is odd not only because it’s empty aside from a train station, but also because of the geography. It’s oddly walled in by man-made walls and seemingly naturally occurring ones. It’s also interesting that the train station doesn’t completely connect the two towns and instead stops halfway through the area.
It’s Pretty Much London[edit]
The northernmost city in Galar has strikingly similar landmarks to the real life London. Of all the cities in Galar, it seems to boast the most modern design and technology.
This city is split from its entrance by a river and has several large buildings, which indicates that this is likely trainers’ last stop on the way to becoming Champion of Galar. The gym here doesn’t have a specific color over its door, but it does have a grander design. We’ve included a screenshot from the reveal trainer that could be from this special gym:
Did you see anything interesting on the Galar map? Let us know in the comments or feel free to add it to this page by signing into your IGN account and clicking “Edit” in the Page Tools tab.
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