Starting your first zoo | Planet Zoo Console Edition Beginner Guide 

Haha me too, since 4 days, but u will get better and better😊

Thank you and I'm glad it was helpful!

I try and speak from the place I was when I first started, so hope it was helpful! It's really difficult to explain everything all at once, so hoping I didn't miss anything important. Was trying to convey the basics to get up and running

@@PlasticSwans it really helped me not to get lost. This is a good start 👍

Good luck!

@@PlasticSwans I’m on sandbox and I’m just getting a feel for the game so if I mess up no big deal. While I was playing I noticed one of my animals is inbreeding so I packed it up and traded it before it can do anything. How would you recommend keeping that from happening? Because for me I did this with the lions, as soon as the old male lion died I got a new one and the old lion 2 cubs traded one and traded one of its mates so there’s only one offspring with the old lions genetics. But that’s just me

Thanks, hope it's been helpful!

Biggest problems I had starting out was understanding how to make the barriers and the pathing. Everything else sort of just clicked

Great tip! I keep the the staff buildings behind habitats, and place the gates leading directly to the buildings, guest paths at the front

@@PlasticSwans is there any way to increase the odds of certain animals appearing in the market? I’m really struggling to obtain African dogs and pronghorns

Unfortunately no@@MagicMonkey96 You're reliant on other players in Franchise Mode wanting to breed those animals in franchise mode, or in challenge, it's just the 4 that are presented. There's 'peaks and troughs' in player numbers, so sometimes it's just a big wait for DLC animals. I remember having struggles with a load of them!

@@PlasticSwans luckily once you’ve got your first zoo done you can run your own breeding programs right? Just have a pair on standby for species you might want

Yes! Apologies, I didn't want to spend ages talking about the hot keys in a beginner tutorial and waste time since some will be using keyboard, and some will be using controllers. The - and = keys make the barrier larger and smaller

@@PlasticSwans perfect that’s good to know. I’m completely new to planet zoo and this type of game in general so I’m running through the career mode before jumping into franchise. I don’t play on PC at all and I gave the controller about an hour before I gave up and bought a keyboard! Sooo much easier to learn on

Typically 5 to 6 enclosures for mine, depending how many animals are in there. A big enclosure I'd have less habitats per work zone, smaller enclosures with less than 5 animals in, you can get away with more

Have you got or do you plan on doing a video about like what to do with the baby's? From some of your other vids I think you keep the good ones in trade centre and just let's the original ones get old?? Are Animals in trade centre just frozen in time?

@PlasticSwans and why the hell is my glass not lining up with the null barriers?!?! This game going to be a love hate relationship I can tell 🤣🤣

I'm not sure on this one! I couldn't see anything myself. I've 'refreshed' the animals (after purchasing one) by switching over to the animal management tab, then going back to the market

Nope, animals are 'stuck in a time warp' whilst in the trade center and won't age

I've read this is a known bug and Frontier are busy fixing that, expect a hot fix for it soon!

Make sure you have your setting set to meters and not feet in the main setting. For some reason if you set it to feet instead of meters it will make it where you can't adjust the width and it will always be max. Hope this helps

All staff buildings have an 'area of negative influence' around them. If you go into the heat maps (I show in the video where they are), and click on the negative influence tab, it'll show as big red circles where the facilities are overlapping with guests walking through it. You'll need to move the staff facilities back a little from the guest path so they're not walking through the red circle.

The aardvarks are great, only 2 of them and don't cost a lot to look after. Biggest issue is they're a shy species and can get overwhelmed by the guests when you don't have many habitats to space guests out. I merely chose them because they were first in the zoopedia menu!

There is! You can do this in Sandbox Mode, start up a sandbox zoo and it'll automatically have money turned off. You can also turn off a bunch of other options, like animal welfare, power and water etc.

​@@PlasticSwans I thank you for the feedback and the video. In your opinion - where is it more convenient to play the game on the PC or console PS5?

Donation boxes are under the facilities tab

You're right, temperature range isn't on the zoopedia! I suspect that may be an oversight so hopefully it'll be added in an update

I haven't made it that far yet in terms of zoo size, but when I do, I'll see what's going on and if there's any fixes. Worth bearing in mind so soon after release there might be performance issues that will get resolved through hot fixes

When I’m trying to place then there ever so slight out of a line even when on the grid, unless I manually move it but it’s never perfectly aligned

They automatically place for me in line, as they're all part of the same building group. Are you setting them up in the same group or as separate groups?

Would be a bit tricky, you'd have to select it all and make it into a blueprint, then place the blueprint where you want it. The paths unfortunately won't blueprint, so you'd have to put them all back in. This would also only work for sandbox mode, unless you're very rich because the guest spawners cost a lot to place.

@@PlasticSwans thank you so much!

have you checked for gaps? So maybe there's a small gap in the barrier? If not, I'd suggest deleting one section of the barrier and putting it back in, in case the game was having a moment. Also check the paths, and make sure they're connected up properly. Same deal though, if it is maybe take some out and then reconnect. They're the only reasons I've had issues with adding animals to a habitat previously.

Make sure you put a gate on the enclosure, I always have to go back after finding an animal I want and put one because I forget

😂😂😂😂😂

I would estimate a year at least

@@PlasticSwans no way what? I was waiting for this game since release and now I have to wait a year!?!?!? Man I’m dying inside….

@@Sean-ws5veWell it’s a brand new game on console, they aren’t just gonna lower it a week after release, just save some money and put it to the side, well worth the $60

Have you set up the right staff buildings? If you've purchased animals then you have a trade center, but if the vet/mechanic aren't researching, do you have the research buildings they need for that? Also worth checking that the staff buildings have power - they're non-functional if there's no power to the buildings

@@PlasticSwans yes, yes and yes. Im a first time player on console, so I’m learning that the mechanics are a bit different than the game play I see on steam. But I’ve had to scrap my franchise and I’m building on sandbox just so I can learn to build right now. I feel it is best for me at the moment. I’m not ready for franchise. I keep messing it up. I still can’t get my hires to do what I need to do on sandbox. Animals keep dying because the vets won’t visit. I have 2 vets. The pathing to the habitats and exhibits. Extra vet building that power runs to. I’m not actually sure. I will just have to keep figuring it out ☺️ just the right amount of frustrating to keep me busy.

Can't it be both?

You do yes! You can change the setting for money so that you are limited if so inclined, but a plus point for sandbox is no limit on cash

I think it might be early access for creators

Early access review - it's out today for general release though!

This is console, and it's worth helping out new players joining to the Planet Zoo community. I will be actively playing a lot more console for a while

Fun fact: The console versions support full mouse and keyboard input : D

Yeah I understand some don't like my voice, but I'm kind of stuck with it 😂

That’s a bit rude. I hope you have wonderful dulcet tones if you’re nitpicking about someone’s accent or dialect.

I know right! They may as well of not even bothered.

Which is specifically why this is a tutorial in the gameplay, not the controls. If it was controller controls, I wouldn't have any insight. Re gameplay, I've 4500 hours worth of insight, which some find helpful

That's because console controls are rubbish, just plug in mouse and keyboard problem solved and also 10 times easier to play with mouse and keyboard

It is, just with keyboard and mouse 🙂

You’re wrong 😂😂

The dev team FAQ lists mouse and keyboard as supported on Xbox Series and PS5 @@IwanTimmermans

any chance you know the button combo on xbox controller to open the global market?@@PlasticSwans

It is 😂 console we can use keyboard and mouse. 😂😂😂