Planet Zoo 2 money guide: how to make cash and Conservation Credits

Money in Planet Zoo 2 is a bit confusing at first because there are two kinds, and the game doesn’t make a big deal of telling you which one does what. Get that sorted and the rest is mostly a few things to set up, plus a few places where cash leaks out without you noticing.

Cash and Conservation Credits

Cash is the everyday money. It builds things and pays your staff, and it comes in from tickets, donation bins, shops, restaurants and loans, and also from selling animals you don’t need (I’ll get to that near the end, it’s a bit tucked away). Conservation Credits, CC from here on, are the other kind. They mostly buy animals, and you get them by releasing animals or finishing conservation projects. In Franchise mode you can sell animals to other players for credits too.

Credits can’t pay wages, which is easy to forget. A zoo that’s bleeding cash gets no help from CC, and a full bank balance won’t buy an animal that’s priced in credits either. Two separate piles, basically. (Sandbox gives you unlimited funds, so none of this matters there.)

Starting a new zoo

Cash is really tight at the start, and sitting in the red while you build is normal. It only becomes a worry if it carries on for a long time. What I’d do is keep everything small and cheap:

• Small habitats, just big enough that the animals are content. You can rebuild them bigger later.
• Vending machines instead of shops, because they cost far less and you can swap them out once you’ve got the money.
• Only the staff buildings you really need: a Keeper Hut, a Vet Surgery, the Trade Centre, maybe a Staff Room. Quarantine can wait.
• Animals that are cheap to feed. Every Zoopedia card lists the Periodic Food Expenses, so check it before you buy. African Penguins, warthogs, meerkats and aardvarks don’t cost much to keep. Lions and tigers do, so wait on those.
• An education sign and a donation bin at every habitat, right from the first one. I’ll explain why below.
• A loan if you need it. Sitting and waiting for the balance to climb back is slow.

(Which animals cost cash depends on how you start. In Franchise people mention Wild Boar and Red Deer, and boar happen to breed very quickly, so that’s no hardship. The breeding guide has more.)

Ticket price

Ticket price should fit your zoo, meaning its size, its quality and the zoo points you’ve earned. Guests will pay more to get into a nicer zoo, but if they think they’re being overcharged they simply turn around and don’t come in. That’s why starting high is a mistake, even though it’s tempting.

Wait until guests are turning up steadily and the animals have a bit of appeal, then put the price up one step and leave it a while. Look at guest numbers and happiness again. If the gate empties or everyone’s grumpy, drop it back. There’s also an option to let the game follow your zoo’s appeal for you, which is handy, though I’d still peek at it now and then. Rare, big, colourful animals draw more guests, by the way, and you can sort the Trade Centre list by Appeal to see which.

Donation bins

Donation bins are about the nearest thing to free money here. They cost almost nothing, and guests give more once they’ve learnt something about the animal they’re looking at, so the sign goes down first and the bin next to it. Your education rating feeds straight into donation income, in fact. Signs are the basics, educator talks count for more than a sign does, and researching an animal gives you more to put on the board. Change the topics every so often so people see something new (a speaker nearby helps as well).

The view matters too. If guests can see the animal properly they’re more likely to give, and they give more, so put bins on the paths by the busiest viewing spots and not tucked round a corner. Higher appeal animals bring bigger donations, and Thriving animals bring up to 20% more. Three or four per habitat is plenty, with a few extra at your big attractions.

After patch 1.0.4 one player on Steam said their donation bins had stopped paying anything at all. I only found the one report, but if yours go quiet, check the animal is actually visible from the bin, then save and reload.

Shops, food and souvenirs

Food and drink sell for about double what the ingredients cost, souvenirs for about four times the materials, and happy guests might pay a little extra. Adoption packs have no material cost whatsoever, so all of that is profit. So souvenirs and adoption packs are the good margins, but hungry, thirsty guests are miserable shoppers, so don’t price food and drink so high that nobody uses the vending machines, kiosks and restaurants.

Put shops on busy paths. A shop at a dead end rarely makes its money back, and if one’s losing, move it or delete it.

Then ATMs. Every guest comes in with a fixed amount and leaves when it’s gone, so an ATM lets them take more out and stay longer. Put them near food, gift shops and busy exhibit paths. You can charge a fee for using one, but push it up and the guests get unhappy, and unhappy guests go home anyway. Educator-led tours add a bit of income too.

Marketing

Marketing is set up for individual animals, under Management, Finances, Marketing. While a campaign runs that animal is more appealing, so more guests come, and tickets, shops and donations all benefit. Bronze, Silver and Gold campaigns cost more as the boost gets bigger, and you unlock extra slots as your Accreditation Tier rises. It also makes up 15% of your zoo’s reputation. Use it on your most popular animal, and check the price first so you still have wages in the bank.

Loans

A loan gives you a flat lump of cash straight away, and what you owe grows by a fixed percentage each year. You can hold one loan per provider, and which ones you’re offered depends on the scenario. Repayments come out each season at high, medium or low, and you can pay the whole thing off whenever you like without a penalty. Interest is charged on what’s left, so paying faster saves money. Patch 1.0.4 lowered the interest on the low level loans. Fine to take one early when you’re short, then clear it when you can.

Where the money leaks

Wages are where most of it goes. Hire the keepers, mechanics and caretakers you need and no more, and trim if the headcount has crept up without you noticing. Animal food is the next one, which is why I mentioned Periodic Food Expenses earlier. Lots of animals cost more than you’d think as well: more space, dirtier habitats, more disease, more work for staff. Generators are cheaper than solar or wind early on, so go cheap and upgrade later, and recycling bins cost next to nothing. Look at each shop’s profit screen occasionally too.

There’s also a Steam thread I’m including because it’s strange: balances suddenly dropping by millions after habitat repair costs spiked for no obvious reason. Some people said a full restart brought the money back, others said it never did. If yours falls off a cliff, look at repair costs and reload before you touch anything else.

Earning Conservation Credits

Releasing animals is the main way. Rarer, more endangered animals pay more, and so do ones in their prime with good genes. A quick release works without a reserve, or you can send animals to a Wildlife Reserve in a Release Group, which needs the species researched first. Reserve releases are tracked, quick ones aren’t.

Conservation projects are in the Planet Hub (the globe icon). Each one lists what it needs and what it pays, which can be credits, cash, animals or Release Groups, and those last two show up under Gifts in Animal Trading. The staff you assign go off to work in the field and leave the zoo for a while, so read the reward and what it’ll cost you before accepting, and go for ones you can finish with animals you already own.

In Franchise you can list animals on the market for credits, but a listing only pays when another player buys it. They have to be healthy, stable adults, so no juveniles, pregnant, elderly, sick or injured animals, and rare colours like albino or leucistic go for a premium. Community Challenges pay credits as well, and so does greeting a visiting player’s avatar, though only a little. Offline, a good reputation and well educated guests earn you credits.

The market is slow right now, to be fair. Players on Steam talk about listings sitting there all day unsold even when the price is tiny, and most of the player base is new so hardly anyone has credits to spend. Patch 1.0.4 gave it more starting volume. A few people suggest reserves and conservation projects instead, especially early on.

(There’s an achievement for earning 10,000 CC if you’re after those. They’re all in the achievements guide.)

Cash animals or credit animals

My advice is to buy the cash animals first and keep your credits for rarer ones later, since credits are the scarce thing. Breeding your own is the cheapest way to get animals to release. Species locked behind your Accreditation Tier can’t be bought at all, however rich you are. And animals in Animal Storage don’t age, so you can park them there until a habitat’s ready.

Spare animals can be turned into money. At a Trade Centre, Quick Trade sells an adult for Cash in any mode, Quick Release gives you credits instead, and Rehome costs a fee so skip that one. The animal has to be a healthy, stable adult, so not a juvenile, and not pregnant, elderly, sick or injured.

Oh, and the thing about credits I should have said earlier: Franchise and offline keep separate totals, so nothing carries over between them. Inside Franchise your credits are shared by all your zoos, but Cash isn’t.

Breeding as income

A bred animal costs you nothing, can be released for credits, and in Franchise can go on the market. Contraception stops the habitat filling up with relatives. The quickest breeders are in our breeding guide.

(If an animal keeps getting ill or unhappy, the habitat requirements table will show what’s missing. More Planet Zoo 2 guides are on the hub.)