What metagame clues does GeoTips teach for GeoGuessr?

Updated

GeoTips teaches three core metagame clues for narrowing down a location in GeoGuessr: Google Street View camera generation, the Street View car itself, and the direction of the sun. These are clues that come from the Street View coverage rather than the landscape, and GeoTips lists them for each country on its world map. They are most useful for eliminating regions quickly before you start reading signs, plates, or terrain.

Camera generation

GeoTips states there are four generations of Google Street View cameras, and that the generation can help you narrow down which country you are in. The site links to a dedicated "Camera Types Explanation" page with examples for each type.

The practical use is that coverage in a given country was often captured in a specific era, so the camera quality you see on screen acts as a filter. If the imagery looks like an older generation, you can deprioritize countries whose coverage was shot later.

The Street View car

The car that captured the imagery differs by country, and GeoTips treats this as a second metagame clue. According to the site, some cars have distinctive bars or a roof rack, some look unusual, and even completely ordinary cars can appear in different colors.

This is a visual check you can run in the first seconds of a round: look for the car hood, roof, or any visible rig before scanning the environment.

Sun direction

GeoTips describes the sun as particularly useful for narrowing down the hemisphere when you are unsure. The method:

  1. Use the in-game compass on the left. The red end of the needle points north.
  2. Work out whether the sun is to the north or south of your position.
  3. If the sun is in the north, you are in the southern hemisphere. If it is in the south, you are in the northern hemisphere.

GeoTips also flags the limits of this clue: it can be unreliable at the equator, when the sun appears in the middle, or when the sun is low.

How these clues fit together

GeoTips presents these metagame clues as the first thing to check when a round starts, before moving on to surroundings and non-Street-View details. The site organizes country-specific versions of these clues behind clickable regions on its world map, so the intended workflow is:

  • Scan for camera generation, car features, and sun position.
  • Use those to cut the map down to a plausible region.
  • Open that region's page on GeoTips for the country-level clues.

The site also notes that its world map is updated often, with Canada, Kazakhstan, and India listed as the most recently updated maps at the time of the page text.