Starting out a new save can be tricky when it comes to managing finances in any simulation game, but getting filthy rich in Planet Zoo should be a HUGE priority, and to do that, you’ll need to invest your initial $40,000 (if playing Franchise Mode) wisely.
However, alongside juggling your finances, you’ll need to manage your conservation credits, animals, guest happiness and staff.
Remember that conservation credits are their own separate currency and in the below guide, we’ll just be discussing cash! Read our guide on how to earn conservation credits here.
Anyway, here are some effective ways of how to make money in Planet Zoo. We’ll update this article with new tips and tricks regularly.
Reduce Your Costs
Remember, the way to have more money and boost profits is by lowering costs and increasing revenue.
Don’t suddenly go all out spending at the start of your game save, expanding into multiple areas of your zoo for no reason. Whilst your zoo will most likely look fantastic, your finances wont.
You’re going to need to get the basics in place to begin with so that you have something to work with…
Here’s a list of things you’ll need to focus on first, ensuring they’re working efficiently, because if they’re not, they’ll cost you big bucks down the line…
- Vets – guests don’t enjoy seeing animals sick are are less likely to donate if they do. Get at least one vet to start with.
- Keepers – the cogs in the zoo machine. Don’t buy too many keepers, increase slowly where required.
- Power Generators – the zoo gate acts as a power generator to start with so you don’t need to spend money on power at all in the early life of your zoo.
- Start with animals that are easy to maintain – these should be cheap animals that don’t take up too much room. The tortoise is a guest favourite and fits the bill.
Staff Costs
Don’t hire any more staff than what’s required. Keep an eye on the pressure your staff are under, and only hire more once they’re feeling overwhelmed with the amount of work they have to do.
You don’t want to be employing people that just stand around twiddling their thumbs right?
Try and stick to 1 keeper per 3 enclosures to begin with to maximize your efficiency with staff costs. This will be more than enough when getting started.
Increase Your Revenue
Once your costs are in order it’s time to rake in the cash.
Donation Boxes
Look around your zoo and find places along your paths where guests are crowded together to observe an animal. Place donation boxes in these locations so that guests don’t have to walk far. We want to make this as convenient as possible to keep guests happy as well as get as many donations as possible.
The more your animals are looked after with higher welfare, the higher the donation your guests will provide. Lets face it, no-one ones to donate to an unworthy cause.
You can improve your animal welfare by doing plenty of research to ensure your animals are living in state of the art facilities, as well as being taken care of by your incredible staff.
Guests will also donate more if they can see the animals up close eating from a feeding station or when standing closer to the viewing areas. They’ll often do this when there is an exciting enrichment toy or feeding station placed in close proximity of the viewing area.
Vendors
Whatever you do, don’t create a sprawling shopping mall when starting your Planet Zoo save. You’re only going to end up with high ongoing costs that destroy your profit.
Hold back on plotting lots of food and drink vendors when you have less than 4 enclosures. Guests come and go very quickly in the early stages of a zoo’s life leaving vendors without much custom.
Ensure you are monitoring the amount of sales each vendor is making, and as time goes by judge how much demand their is to justify adding more vendors. Vendors have an ongoing running cost so we want to keep this as low as possible. Some users have found that building no drink or food shops saves lots of money to begin with without affecting guest happiness, and should only be built when your zoo is attracting at least 300 guests.
Entrance Fees
The first chance of getting any revenue from a visitor is via the entrance. To begin with, there won’t be much to see or do within your zoo, so its best to keep prices low until you begin picking up the pace with adding animal variety for example. As your rating increases, visitors will be willing to pay more to get in, so slowly adjust your entrance fee until you begin receiving complaints about the price or feel you’re at the limit before guests get angry. Upon receiving complaints, lower the price slightly until you can satisfy all of your visitors.
The aim is to push for profit, the more visitors you have the more donations your zoo will receive. Vendors will also increase their revenue too due to more purchases.
Finding the right balance in the entry fee is a factor you should always be considering as more visitors means more revenue.
Listen To Guest Feedback
As time goes on, your visitors will provide you with feedback that will allow you to change the way in which your zoo operates. Fulfilling the desires of these visitors will help improve their satisfaction, thus improving the chances of your guests spending more money.
Remember that the guest feedback is in reality what the game engine is feeding back about your zoo, so make sure you pay attention. If there’s a particular theme within your guest’s comments that you find yourself disagreeing with, you may want to reconsider that the game engine may be trying to tell you something.
Don’t ignore the game engine, as ultimately the game engine decides how much revenue you’re going to get from guests.
Happy guests will spend longer in your zoo. The longer you can keep visitors inside your zoo, the more money they will spend as they’ll need to eat and drink.
Other Tips
- Security & Caretakers – To avoid your guests becoming angry at vandalism and litter, ask these staff to patrol busy areas of your zoo.
- Educational Speakers – In Planet Zoo, your guests love to learn about the animals they’re visiting. When you plot an educational speaker, heatmaps will highlight the areas that guests can stand in to begin learning. If these areas overlap, guests will become annoyed.
- Solar Panels – Renewable energy doesn’t cost any maintenance, plus your guests don’t become annoyed at seeing solar panels like they would staff buildings that are unhidden.
- Animal Water Requirements – When an animal needs a water source, save money by building deep areas and adding water rather than wide shallow areas. Just ensure there is enough slope in the terrain for them to be able to get out.
As mentioned above, we will be adding lots more tips as we continue to play the game. We can’t wait to share more exciting ways to make money in Planet Zoo.
Read more Planet Zoo guides: