Sotoyama
No chest on record here · 5 landmarks both sources agree on · 15 mascots
Region facts below are second-hand, sourced inline. Never re-checked in game. Why that matters.
Snow that never leaves
Snow country — icy mountain roads.
VGC’s advice for Sotoyama is about grip rather than navigation — bring a car that holds the road, snow tyres help — and it notes that some collectibles are tucked away on the skiing trails rather than beside the roads.
Gamereactor found that Sotoyama’s last PR Stunt star is not really Sotoyama’s: it belongs to the map-wide Trailblazer event, which unlocks with Legend Island status.
The lightest collectible load on the map
15 mascots, themed on Omurice, out of 200 across the map. No barn find is listed for this region.
Game8 — mascot checklist · Game8 — barn finds · VGC — mascot guide
5 named places both lists put in Sotoyama
- Sotoyama Ski Resort
- Snow Monster Forest
- Lake Nukabira
- Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route
- Norikura Skyline
Game8 lists an Okuibuki Car Meet in Sotoyama. mapmaster.io lists an Okuibuk Parking Lot in Takashiro instead. One of the two has it in the wrong region, or they are two different places with confusingly similar names — we cannot tell from the outside.
Sotoyama is 外山地域 in a Japanese client
外山地域は、マップ北部に位置する山岳アルペンエリア。年間を通して雪に覆われている。
Two sources, and Japanese search suggests it alongside 宝探し. 地域一覧.
No chest has been set in Sotoyama
Sotoyama has the fewest mascots of any region — 15, where most have 20 or 25 — and only five agreed landmarks, three of which are roads rather than places. The Japanese description says the region is under snow the whole year round, which matters more here than the terrain word does: in a region that changes with the season, an old photo clue can stop matching. In one that never changes, it keeps matching.
Nothing has been set here in the weeks we have logged. Given how little of Sotoyama sits at road level — pistes, an alpine route, a lake — a chest here would reward knowing the ski runs more than knowing the map.
The archive has the 6 we do have.
Asked about Sotoyama
Is Sotoyama the snow region, or is that Hokubu?
Both are snow. Sotoyama is the alpine one — ski resort, alpine route, a lake — and the Japanese source describes it as covered in snow year round. Hokubu is northern farmland that happens to be under snow, with the flower fields and your estate in it.
Why are there fewer collectibles here?
We do not know why, only that there are: 15 mascots against a 200 total, the lowest of the nine regions that have any. If the count reflects drivable area, Sotoyama is a small region; that is a guess and we are labelling it as one.
What would make a hunt here awkward?
The ski trails. VGC found collectibles up them, which means the searchable area is not just the road network — and a photo taken on a trail has no road in it to orient from.
Where the snow and the Trailblazer lead
Hokubu
The other snow region, and the one that has actually hosted a hunt — the Series 3 Winter chest sat by a car park in the flower fields, which is the sort of open ground Sotoyama does not have much of.
Takashiro
The region that may or may not own the Okuibuki entry above. It also runs to mountain roads, but the two lists agree on eight of its landmarks against Sotoyama’s five.
Legend Island
Sotoyama’s last PR Stunt star routes through the Trailblazer event, which needs Legend Island status — so the two regions are linked by progression even though they share no terrain.
Chest not showing up?
Snow hides chests badly and hides everything else well. Before assuming the chest failed to spawn, the guide covers the three separate things FH6 calls treasure.