Pokémon Indigo Disk's Map Size Compared To Teal Mask DLC & Paldea Region (2024)

Summary

The Indigo Disk DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet introduces a new map set in the Unova region, but is limited to the Blueberry Academy.
The Terarium, the primary playable area in The Indigo Disk DLC, is larger than Kitakami from The Teal Mask, but still much smaller than the overall size of Paldea in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.
The Indigo Disk DLC makes good use of its space by featuring distinct biomes, such as polar, coastal, savanna, and canyon, in a comparatively small area.

The new The Indigo Disk DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet adds a whole new map to the game, but it can be difficult to figure out just how big that area is without playing through the whole experience. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet took the series to an open-world design for the first time in history, and the expansions for the games are continuing down that path with new environments that highlight exploration. In many ways, this makes sense as the perfect evolution of Pokémon's longstanding sense of discovery, even if some bugs and graphical limitations can make the execution feel a bit underwhelming.

The Indigo Disk is the second half of a two-part DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet called The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, following the release of The Teal Mask in September 2023. The Teal Mask was a generally engaging addition to the games, but it was also a fairly slight experience overall, leaving fans anticipating The Indigo Disk as a way to hopefully deliver on all the expansion's promise. It delivers on these expectations in some obvious ways, like offering stronger trainers and more challenging fights than anything in The Teal Mask, but an increase in scale is also necessary to really bring things home.

One New Legendary Pokémon In Indigo Disk DLC Was Hiding All Along

It seems like one of the new Legendary Pokémon in the Indigo Disk has been hiding in the base games, Scarlet and Violet, for over a year.

The Indigo Disk Map Is Bigger Than The Teal Mask

Pokémon Indigo Disk's Map Size Compared To Teal Mask DLC & Paldea Region (2)

After The Teal Mask left Paldea behind for Kitakami, The Indigo Disk DLC bounces over to Unova to explore the new location of Blueberry Academy. This unique school features an underwater campus, home to the impressively large Terarium that houses four different biomes to explore, along with some general academic facilities. Although this facility is man-made, it seems to outstrip the size of The Teal Mask's map overall, making for a generally substantial new Pokémon Scarlet and Violet DLC area.

That being said, the Terarium isn't necessarily a vastly larger space than Kitakami. Screen Rant's reviewer for The Indigo Disk estimates the Terarium to be roughly 25% larger than Kitakami based on their time with the game, comprising a substantial evolution that isn't necessarily transformative. Within that space, however, The Indigo Disk does pack in more content overall. It's easy to spend several more hours completing the main story of The Indigo Disk than in The Teal Mask, and a more extensive post-game can bump those numbers up quite a bit for dedicated trainers.

Paldea Is Still Much Larger Than The Indigo Disk DLC

Even if The Indigo Disk packs in a larger map than The Teal Mask did, it still pales in comparison to the size of Paldea in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. It can be difficult to determine the exact size while playing Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, as the in-game maps aren't displayed at identical scales, but it's easy to say that neither Kitakami nor the Terarium hold a candle to Paldea's overall landmass. Accounting for the crater at its center and the water at its borders as well, Paldea contains a surplus of playable area that puts it well in advance of what has been traditionally expected of Pokémon regions.

Flight unlocked in The Indigo Disk can be used in Paldea, so finishing the DLC before cleaning up unfinished side content in Paldea can be a good idea.

Taking only the actual landmass into account and ignoring the outer bounds of the map, a reasonable estimate might place Paldea as five times bigger than the Terarium, and the actual math is likely to skew more heavily in Paldea's favor than it is to back up the Terarium's claim to fame. This isn't a bad thing, as DLC wouldn't generally be expected to compare in size to the base game, and The Indigo Disk's map is still a solid addition. If Paldea does get bested anytime soon, however, it's going to take a new Pokémon game to do it.

The Indigo Disk DLC's Biomes Make Good Use Of Space

Pokémon Indigo Disk's Map Size Compared To Teal Mask DLC & Paldea Region (3)

The Indigo Disk doesn't feel like a slouch when it comes to environmental variety thanks to the Terarium's artificial nature, which compartmentalizes the space into very distinct areas. Tracing a path clockwise from the top left of The Indigo Disk map, it features polar, coastal, savanna, and canyon biomes. Except for the savanna, these all have plenty of verticality, which can also make traversal take longer and enhance the feeling of exploring a large area even in a reasonably compact space.

Pokémon Scarlet & Violet's Indigo Disk DLC doubles the number of version exclusives compared to The Teal Mask, and it's helpful to know the full list.

The clear divides between each biome are a stark reminder that the Terarium is man-made, which does create a somewhat unusual feel compared to the Pokémon standard of natural environments that transition somewhat more gracefully. On the whole, however, it's an elegant solution to having a strong variety of wild Pokémon in a single DLC without some feeling out of place, especially in terms of justifying the inclusion of Pokémon with very distinct regional flavor. It also makes it hard to get bored with any one environment, as something radically different is never too far away.

The map size of The Indigo Disk ultimately makes sense for the latter half of The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, and any disappointments the expansion might contain probably won't have to do with the space that the Terarium itself takes up. Hopefully, Pokémon will continue to refine the open-world formula and environments in future games, although the immediate future of the franchise isn't yet clear. A bit bigger than Kitakami and a lot smaller than Paldea, the Terarium of The Indigo Disk is a reasonably substantial addition to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet overall.