How to lock and unlock the map screen in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

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In a wide open map like Paldea in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, you need to understand the map and know where you are going. Unfortunately, by default, the map will rotate with the way you are looking and can be really confusing if you are not paying attention to the directions you are looking. Here is how you can lock and unlock the map in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

Related: How many Pokemon are in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet? Answered

How to turn off rotating map directions in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

By default, the first time that you open the map in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet with Y, you will be viewing the map while it rotates. The colors around your cursor are important to remember if you like this way of viewing it. Here are the colors and the directions they represent:

  • Green – North
  • Blue – East
  • Red – South
  • Yellow – West

If you do not like the way this is set up, all you need to do is press the right stick while looking at the map, and the game will automatically change the directions so north is up at all times and lock it in this position until you press in the right stick on this page again. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be a way at the time of this writing to apply this to the mini-map when you are walking around, only the larger map that comes up when you push Y.

Hopefully, there is an update implemented that lets us lock the mini-map because the rotating default map can be really confusing to people who are not paying attention to the rotating colors. When most people look towards the upper part of a map, they think north, so we believe that should have been the default, but apparently, Game Freak disagreed.