How to Make Money in Planet Zoo

Make a buck from your business, to keep it running!

Planet Zoo is a great game when it comes to running your perfect, ideal zoo. But to keep it up and running correctly, you need money — and it’s not always easy to come by, especially if you’re a thrifty spender.

Fortunately, we have a few tips that will assist you in keeping your revenue flowing, so you won’t run the risk of bankruptcy and have to start over from scratch. They may require a little bit of patience, but in the long run, you’ll be rolling in the cash and eventually make your zoo a more prominent, better place. And isn’t that what success is all about?

How to Make Money in Planet Zoo

Getting Started

First off, you’re going to get $40,000 to get your zoo off the ground. You may be tempted to go after more extravagant exhibits to bring in the visitors, but hold off on that. You can eventually get them to your zoo once you have more money to play around with. For now, start small.

Even though the likes of ostriches and tortoises don’t sound like substantial cash draws, they’re incredibly easy to maintain; and they won’t hurt your bottom dollar by putting them in your exhibits. In turn, you’ll still get cash from visitors, as well as some helpful Conservation Credits. The more you accumulate, the more exotic animals you can bring in.

Speaking of Credits, don’t go nuts spending those first. Try your cash when it comes to purchasing animals. The reason for this is because you’ll need the Credits a little later on to get the larger draws. Again, sticking with smaller animals is the better way to go. Then, as you get more revenue, you can start getting better ones.

Also, don’t worry about trading right away, since you can’t do that anyway. Instead, try to focus on something you can do with breeding. The younger animals can get traded. That does sound a little monstrous. But it’s all about keeping that business flowing, and this is an ideal step.

Side Businesses

With zoos, one would think that food and drink locations would draw in some good revenue. But they have their own costs to consider, and you’ll only make a meager amount compared to the two other things you should focus on in Planet Zoo — donation boxes and gift shops.

While it doesn’t sound like donation boxes will be profitable at first, if you have a zoo that’s adequate and filled with variety, people will give money. This is at no cost to you, and you don’t have to worry about reimbursing expenses. By all means, still put in place to eat. But make the donation boxes a little more frequent, like on walking paths. Don’t put them too close together, to avoid looking like a shill. But do spread them out evenly enough that people notice where they are.

Also, gift shops are profitable. You may have to keep them up and running efficiently, but you a good amount of cash selling goods. Having a couple of them doesn’t hurt, but, again, don’t get greedy. And don’t put them in the place of your toilet — it helps to have those around when people need them.

Ask the Community For Guidance

Finally, if you find these ideas making you a bit nervous, don’t be. There’s another excellent feature worth checking out in the Steam Workshop. It’s here that you can see various blueprints by other users, which should give you some idea of how to properly design a zoo.

Not all of them are practical, mind you — and some are just generally bad ideas. But do some looking around, and you might see the path to success ahead of you.

Mind your cash correctly, buy the animals that matter, save your Credits for when they count, and lean on those Donation Boxes and Gift Shops. Do all this, and you’ll have the zoo of your dreams, and with a reasonable profit!

Planet Zoo is available now. Check out the trailer below to see it in action!