Anno 1800 is set in a fictional universe, though it is heavily inspired by reality. Only some specific parts of the game world can be explored and experienced directly, these being the regions where the campaign, sandbox mode, or scenarios take place. Other locations are visible only from afar on the world map or are mentioned in dialogues and texts throughout the game. There are also several places which can be a destination of the expeditions, though it is impossible to explore them. It is possible to learn only about a ship's journey via various text-based events.
World Map[]
The world map shows only a part of the world where all of the action of the game is focused on. Unlocked regions, the ships traveling between them, locations of the scenarios and destinations of the available expeditions are all shown on the world map. Using the map you can switch between regions, locate ships travelling between them, check out available expeditions and select and start scenarios.
Regions[]
In the campaign and sandbox modes there are five distinct regions located within four different biomes:
- Temperate forest - present in two regions:
The Old World as part of the Anno 1800 base game, and Cape Trelawney as part of Sunken Treasures DLC. - Tropical jungle - present in one region: The New World as part of the Anno 1800 base game.
- Dry savannas - present in one region: Enbesa as part of the Land of Lions DLC.
- Tundra and taiga mix - present in one region: The Arctic as part of The Passage DLC.
Each biome has different types of population, buildings, production chains, available fertilies and resources and in some cases also unique gameplay features, along with possessing distinctive look and feel due to the climate, flora and fauna. Most of the fertilities and resources are unique to one climate and it is necessary to transport the goods produced between regions for the proper development of a player's company. It can be achieved by using trade routes or sending ships to other regions manually.
Every region consists of several islands with an ocean between them. Most of the islands can be owned by the players and competitors, some belong to pirates or neutral traders, and some are too small to be settled by anyone. The size of the regions, choice and arrangement of islands, their fertilities, resources and room available for construction can all be randomised and are based on the settings chosen upon starting a new game.
Old World[]
- See also: The Old World
Old World is the first playable region available and should be the region where most of your population is located. It is based mostly on the 19th century Europe.
Population in the Old World is divided into five tiers (or more with DLCs): 
Farmers, 
Workers, 
Artisans, 
Engineers, 
Investors, and optionally also 
Scholars (with the Land of Lions DLC) and 
Tourists (with the Tourist Season DLC). Goods produced in the Old World focus mainly on industrialisation, most of them require heavy industry and mined resources such as 
Iron, 
Coal, 
Copper or 
Zinc. Only a few require crop or animal farms and their products like 
Grain or 
Pigs.
Besides the expanding players (either AI or human) some neutral traders and pirates can also be located in the Old World. Each of them settles a separate special island. Sir Archibald Blake is always present in the Old World while the presence of Madame Kahina, Eli Bleakworth and Anne Harlow is optional.
New World[]
- See also: The New World
New World is the second playable region, available after completing a special discovery expedition, after advancing to the Artisans tier.
Population in the New World is divided into two tiers (or more with DLC): 
Jornaleros and 
Obreros, and optionally also 
Artistas (with the New World Rising DLC). New World production focuses on farming and its main role is to support the Old World population with goods such as 
Cotton Fabric, 
Rum, 
Coffee, 
Gold Ore, 
Caoutchouc, 
Oil, 
Pearls, 
Cigars and 
Chocolate.
Depending on the initial game settings, besides the expanding players (either AI or human), neutral trader Isabel Sarmento and pirate Jean La Fortune can be located in this region.
With New World Rising DLC the New World region is larger and has more islands, including a continental island.
Cape Trelawney[]
- See also: Cape Trelawney
Cape Trelawney is a playable region available with the Sunken Treasures DLC after reaching 700 Artisans and completing a special expedition. The region is very similar to the Old World as it belongs to the same climate/biome. What makes it different is its continental island which allows to create a huge city.
Besides the expanding players (either AI or human), a neutral trader Old Nate is always present in Cape Trelawney. Neutral traders and pirates from Old World cannot access Cape Trelawney region.
Enbesa[]
- See also: Enbesa
Enbesa is a playable region available with the Land of Lions DLC after advancing to a population of at least 100 Artisans and completing a special discovery expedition.
The population in Enbesa is divided into two tiers: 
Shepherds and 
Elders. Production in Enbesa focuses heavily on agricultural products such as 
Linseed, 
Teff and 
Indigo, with the need to irrigate dry land to make it fertile. Enbesan goods are vital for the new Scholars resident tier that lives in the temperate regions and allows to conduct Research.
Enbesa is also home to the ambitious Emperor Ketema and his associated main story quests, along with three separate 'story islands', each with its own storyline and unique rewards.
The Arctic[]
- See also: The Arctic
The Arctic is a playable region available with The Passage DLC after advancing to the Engineers tier and completing a special discovery expedition.
The population in the Arctic is divided into two tiers: 
Explorers and 
Technicians. Production focuses on animal-based products such as 
Caribou Meat, 
Seal Skin or 
Whale Oil. Additionally, the region is abundant in Gold Ore, 
Furs and 
Gas, the latter being very useful for the construction of airships and after being transported to Old World also for generating electricity via a 
Gas-Fired Power Plant.
Besides the expanding players (either AI or human), a neutral trader Qumaq is always present in the region.
Expeditions[]
- See also: Expeditions
Once Artisans move into one of your cities in the Old World, the expedition feature becomes unlocked, allowing to discover more regions or to travel to other parts of the world to look for valuable items. The first expedition is always a discovery expedition and completing it rewards with the 
The New World being unlocked. After completing it other types of expeditions become unlocked, such as pirate hunts or zoological expeditions. They are a great source of all types of items, either acquired as final expedition rewards or during randomised events. All expeditions are marked on the world map in different locations and climate zones, which along with the expedition type determine possible rewards pool.
Some of the DLCs include additional discovery expeditions, which are unlocked at certain population levels, and they lead to having access to more regions the player can settle in. In single player those expeditions have unique events and some of the discovery expeditions allow to choose which path the ship should follow.
World generation[]
The world map and the placement of the regions, scenarios and expeditions destinations are all fixed and always the same. However, every playable region in campaign and sandbox in Anno 1800 is randomly generated based on difficulty settings and a special map number known as the seed or the map seed. All islands in the game are hand-made, the world generator chooses a particular number of islands, selects them from appropriate pools of islands, decides which fertilities and resources are present on islands and arranges them into the maps of the regions. Among all the settings available when creating a new game only the settings in two of the tabs have an impact on how all the regions would look like: the world tab and the faction customisation tab.
The world settings a player can select when creating a new game
The following settings in the world tab are important:
- Random Seed - a number which determines how the generator will create all the regions. Using the same seed number while keeping all of the other important settings the same allows to create exactly the same game world. It is possible to check the seed number of an already existing game, it is displayed on the left side of the menu that allows to select which savegame from a profile to load.
- Starting World Size - determines how big the Old World and New World are going to be. If the world size is bigger then the region gets bigger, more islands can fit in and it will take more time for ships to travel between the borders of the region.
- Large - max. 22 islands in Old World, max. 14 islands in New World
- Medium - max. 16 islands in Old World, max. 12 islands in New World
- Small - max. 16 islands in Old World, max. 10 islands in New World
- Island Size - determines the general size of the islands present in the Old World.
- Mainly Large/Mainly Medium/Mainly Small
- Island Difficulty - determines which islands are more likely to be selected by the world generator for the Old World region. Normal setting means that there will be more islands which offer a lot of space to build, fewer of them will have rivers. Hard settings means that there will be more islands which offer less space, have rivers or more mountains.
- Normal/Hard
- Fertility - determines how many fertilities the islands in every region would possess
- Plenty - Old World, Cape Trelawney, Enbesa: 4 fertilities; New World: 6 fertilities; Arctic: 5 fertilities (medium islands) and 4 fertilities (small islands)
- Medium - Old World, Cape Trelawney, Enbesa: 3 fertilities; New World: 5 fertilities; Arctic: 4 fertilities
- Sparse - Old World, Cape Trelawney, Enbesa: 2 fertilities; New World: 4 fertilities; Arctic: 4 fertilities (medium islands) and 3 fertilities (small islands)
- Mineral Deposits - determines how many mineral deposits are available
- Plenty/Medium/Sparse
- Map Type - determines how the islands are arranged in the Old World
- Archipelago
- Atoll
- Island arc
- Corners
- Snowflake
The faction customisation tab allows to enable or disable a few of the neutral traders and pirates in Old World and New World regions. If a trader or pirate is enabled, one of the small islands gets replaced by an island that belongs to a specific character. If they are disabled, a small island is placed instead, allowing the players and competitors to settle on it.
Additionally, the New World generation is affected by two DLCs: Empire of the Skies DLC and New World Rising DLC. Empire of the Skies does not change the region as a whole, islands are selected and placed in the same way and have the same fertilities, regardless of the presence of this DLC. The only change it introduces is the addition of more resources and their deposits: bauxite and helium. New World Rising, however, does expand the region: it is bigger than it would be with the DLC deactivated, and therefore all the islands are selected and placed differently. It also adds more fertilities: herbs and orchid, and more resources and their deposits: bauxite, iron and minerals. While Empire of the Skies affects resources of the islands, the distribution of the base game resources remains the same (clay, oil, gold). The addition of this DLC affects only the distribution of the DLC resources (bauxite, helium, iron and minerals).
The settings selected when starting a new game have the biggest impact on Old World and New World regions, slightly smaller impact on Cape Trelawney and a very small impact on The Arctic and Enbesa. The regions that require DLCs always have the same amount of islands regardless of the settings: Cape Trelawney has 15 islands (Crown Falls included), The Arctic has 8 regular islands and 4 plateau islands, Enbesa has 13 islands (Taborime included). Additionally, in case of Enbesa and the Arctic the islands available in those regions are always the same - the pool of islands has the same number of island models as the number of islands that get placed in those regions. Those islands can only be rotated, placed in different locations and might have different fertilities.