For early chest cleanup, use the mapped towns and dungeons below. For later exploration, check which transport and story routes you have unlocked first. The two tasks need different references: an early-area chest map cannot establish the location of every retail-game reward.
The MeowDB map tracker explicitly covers the demo. It contains 15 area entries, with maps for 10 of them. Those figures describe that tool's coverage, not the total number of areas in the full game. Later route examples here come from IGN's retail Vision locations guide.
Pick the early area you are clearing
These counts are the chests listed by MeowDB's demo tracker. Match the named entry to the part of the area you are exploring; a repeated name can identify a separate map rather than a duplicate to discard.
| Area entry | Listed chests | How to use the reference |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial District | 3 | Town cleanup; separate from the castle dungeon |
| Earth Shrine (1) | 6 | First of two separately mapped shrine entries |
| Earth Shrine (2) | 2 | Check this entry as well before calling the shrine complete |
| Grandport Harbor | 2 | Harbor map, not every location around Grandport |
| Grandshelt Castle dungeon | 8 | Dungeon entry; the town entry has no map in this tracker |
| Kolobos Ruins | 4 | Follow the ruins layout rather than the overworld approach |
| Siren's Tower | 6 | Use the tower map alongside its vertical routes |
| Felicitas | 4 | Town chest cleanup |
| Mitra | 5 | Town chest cleanup |
| Kol | 2 | Town chest cleanup before taking a longer route |
Open the tracker for its individual chest markers. Its Field and Grandshelt Royal Capital entries do not all have map images, so an entry appearing in the list is not proof that a detailed layout exists for it.
Earth Shrine has two entries
Treat Earth Shrine (1) and Earth Shrine (2) as separate checks. Completing the six listed chests in the first entry does not account for the two listed in the second. Keep the area label alongside your own checklist instead of writing only “Earth Shrine complete.”
MeowDB’s Earth Shrine (1) layout. Chest markers are overlaid by the external tracker and are not baked into this base image.
Keep visits and chest completion separate
The tracker distinguishes visiting an area from recording collected chests. Marking a location visited does not automatically finish its chest list. It stores progress in the browser and offers optional sign-in synchronization on that external site; those are features of MeowDB's tool.
If you change browsers or clear local site data, check your saved tracking state before relying on it. For a simple offline record, note the exact area entry and which markers remain. A remembered visit is less useful than an identified missing chest.
Use transport gates for the larger world
The retail location guide shows why a destination can appear nearby yet require more story progress. These are selected navigation checkpoints, not a complete chapter walkthrough or an instruction to fight every optional encounter immediately.
| Progress or access | Useful route example | What to check first |
|---|---|---|
| Early Chapter 1 exploration | Warrior of Light's sanctum lies north of Kol | Follow the relevant sanctum route rather than searching inside Kol |
| Chocobo access | Cloud's route goes south across the bridges from Kol, west toward Grandport, then around the northern desert toward the western beach | The route is longer than a straight line across the visible landscape |
| Chapter 2 travel | Zidane's sanctum is reached after Mt. Thunderclap toward the Dwarven Forge, across two bridges and west of the sign | Use the described path junctions to distinguish the nearby region |
| Chapter 3 around Olderion | Tidus's route passes bridges and a waterfall toward the Secluded Dwelling | Follow the ground route and the named landmarks |
| Chapter 4 exploration | Shantotto's sanctum is east of Mozul Station | Confirm you are searching the correct region and side of the station |
| Chapter 5 airship access | Clive's sanctum is on a patch southwest of Mitra reached by airship | Earlier knowledge of the location does not give earlier access |
IGN also places the route to Sephiroth at the ocean whirlpool between the Grandshelt continent and Grandport, reached with the airship. Reaching that optional encounter and being ready to win it are separate conditions. The guide recommends a later, stronger party for its battle; do not treat the first available flight as a mandatory boss deadline.
For the complete roster, requirements and exceptions, continue with the Vision unlock guide. This page uses a few destinations to explain navigation, rather than duplicating every unlock row.
Decide what you are actually missing
- An early chest: select the exact town or dungeon map, then compare uncollected markers.
- A Tablet Shard: use the reward-specific route; a general chest total does not identify the shard or its prerequisites.
- A Vision sanctum: check the unlock condition and transport route before searching the nearest town.
- A place you cannot reach yet: compare its access requirement with your current story progress before spending time circling the same barrier.
The available early maps and the later route descriptions complement each other, but they do not form a verified full-game interactive world map. No complete retail chest count or unverified coordinates are assigned here.