Building and operating the perfect zoo in Zoo Park Story will be extremely easy after you’re done reading our Zoo Park Story tips and tricks for managing your virtual zoo and getting the most out of it.
I am a huge fan of all the games created by Kairosoft and Zoo Park Story is right up my alley. What’s not to like about building and and ensuring the success of an amazing zoo?
Of course, the challenge itself is not easy – but I am here to help! Below, I will share a complete strategy guide to Zoo Park Story, filled with tips and tricks to help you get the most out of the game (and fast too!)
Let’s start!
Zoo Park Story: The Basics (for Beginners)
If you have played other Kairosoft games, like Dream House Days for example, you’ll feel right at home playing Zoo Park Story.
If not, you’ll easily be able to learn this sim’s mechanics. Basically, you start your adventure with just a trip of animals: a guinea pig, a capybara, and a… chicken. (Yes, people love seeing chicken at the zoo, ha!)
But I digress.
Your main goal is to make more money and use the said coin to expand your zoo, bring in more animals and keep them all happy – as well as your visitors.
Every visitor that comes into your zoo will contribute some coins to your treasury, both from the entrance fee as well as various other services you will start providing as your zoo grows.
Probably the most important thing to master early on (and we’ll talk about this more in depth in this Zoo Park Story Guide) is micromanaging outside of the operating hours.
Your zoo’s operating hours are between 9AM and 8PM. Once the gates close, it’s time for your animals to rest, and a portion of your earnings will cover maintenance like cleaning and feeding.
It’s also the time when you should focus on administrative tasks, like moving animals around, building new stuff and such. Get this done correctly and you will never run into any problems in the game!
Of course, there are more advanced mechanics that we’ll discuss below (like the happiness of your animals, the increasing difficulty of your challenges, managing finances and getting more animals for your zoo and more).
10 Best Zoo Park Story Tips & Tricks
Now that we’ve got the basics, covered, let’s check out the main Zoo Park Story tips and tricks below!
1. Learn to optimize your space
Optimizing the limited space you have available and micromanaging it flawlessly is one of the most important elements you must master in the game.
To keep things as simple as possible, aim to create square or rectangular animal pens for all your animals, making sure you never over-build. Sure, nobody loves to see animals crammed up in a small area, but it’s a game and you have to optimize for profits.
Find the right size balance though: you need to have a large enough pen for all their needs though. So think this over, think it well and also consider future expansions to keep everything running smoothly and easily.
And don’t forget that the surroundings matter too: if you cram in too many decorations, the zoo’s visitors might not be able to interact with your animals at all. Too few and you won’t get the extra bonuses.
So always consider all of these – decorations, initial size of your animal pen & expansion plans when you start building.
Related reading: If you’re more into a less active, Idle type of game, make sure to check out my AFK Football tips and tricks too.
2. The Power of Combos in Zoo Park Story
Let’s get a bit more in depth about those bonuses and combos you can get for strategically placing your pens, decorations and ammenities.
Some buildings and items go well together, giving you boosts of various types. Grouping animal pens and decorations together based on synergies will give you a boost that will increase the happiness of your animals, which is essential for your zoo’s well being.
You will also get more money from the visitors if you manage to ramp up these combos, as well as more Animal Points.
There are many things to consider here, as well as strategies to try, and the table below showing all the possible combos will sure come in handy.
To make it easier to follow, I’ve listed the combos alphabetically. IMPORTANT: For the combos listing more than 3 items, you can mix ANY three elements of those listed (animals, decorations and/or shops).
| Combo | Requirements to get |
| Anteater | Anteater, Anthill |
| Beak | Platypus, Shoebill, Toucan |
| Bearred Panda | Bear, Polar Bear, Panda |
| Big Bird | Ostrich, Peacock, Shoebill |
| Black and White | Penguin, Panda, Tapir |
| Cairo | Cairo House, Gold Chimpanzee Statue |
| Carnivore | Hyena, Lion, Meerkat, Polar Bear, Tiger |
| Cat | Lion, Meerkat, Tiger |
| Chap Chap | Fountain, Hippopotamus |
| Coffee Shop | Coffee Shop, Street Lamp |
| Farm | Chicken, Horse, Pig, Sheep |
| Flat | Crocodile, Platypus, Tsuchinoko |
| Flying Bird | Duck, Flamingo, Toucan |
| Food Wagon | Crepe Wagon, Curry Wagon |
| Freshly Picked | Banana Tree, Gorilla |
| Full of Elephants | Curry Wagon, Elephant |
| Garbage Disposal | Trash Can, Vending Machine |
| Giraffe | Giraffe, Shrub Giraffe, Souvenir Shop |
| Good Night | Armadillo, Koala, Tapir |
| Hood | Hot Dog Shop, Rice Ball Shop, Snack Stand |
| Horse | Horse, Shrub Horse |
| Hygiene | Hand-Wash Area, Toilet |
| I Like Baths | Bear, Capybara, Japanese Macaque |
| Intimidation | Anteater, Peacock, Red Panda |
| Kindness | Animal Audio, Information Office, Zoo Map |
| King | Lion, Rocky Place |
| Koala | Eucalyptus Tree, Koala |
| Large Animal | Bison, Elephant, Giraffe, Rhinoceros |
| Long Legs | Flamingo, Giraffe, Ostrich |
| Lookalike | Kangaroo, Photo Stand-In |
| Marsupial | Kangaroo, Koala |
| Miniature Animal | Guinea Pig, Meerkat, Rabbit, Squirrel |
| Monkey | Gorilla, Japanese Macaque |
| On the Tree | Japanese Macaque, Koala, Red Panda, Squirrel |
| Panda | Bamboo Grove, Panda |
| Pink | Azalea, Cherry Blossoms, Flamingo |
| Polar Bear | Ice Block, Ice Cream Shop, Polar Bear |
| Pyon Pyon | Kangaroo, Penguin, Rabbit |
| R&R | Bench, Tulip, Vending Machine |
| Rabbit | Rabbit, Shrub Rabbit |
| Reptiles | Crocodile, Giant Tortoise, Snake |
| Rodent | Capybara, Guinea Pig, Squirrel |
| Restaurant | Bamboo Grove, Pine Tree Rice Ball Shop |
| Sand Dunes | Camel, Column Cactus, Flower Cactus |
| Shimashima | Tiger, Zebra |
| Spring | Bench, Japanese Cherry Blossoms |
| Strong | Bear, Bison, Lion, Tiger |
| Sweets | Crepe Wagon, Ice Cream Shop |
| Tale | Bear, Japanese Macaque, Tortoise |
| Tall | Baobab Tree, Giraffe |
| Tsunotsuno | Bison, Elephant, Rhinoceros |
| UMA | Chupacabra, Sky Fish, Tsuchinoko |
| Ursine | Bear, Forest |
| Vacation Style | Hibiscus, Palm Tree, Toucan |
| Water Place | Fountain, Hand-Wash Area |
| White Animal | Polar Bear, Rabbit, Sheep |
As you can see, there are quite a few combos that you can go for. Plan ahead and experiment, as some are much easier to get (especially early on) than others.
3. More varied animals means more guests (and money)
Variety is essential when it comes to real life zoos, so it makes sense to see this being true in Zoo Park Story too.
In this game though, different types of animals might bring in completely new visitor types for your zoo. The more exotic and rare animals will draw in people who are ready to pay more to see them.
As a result, it means that you always have to think about large numbers of animals (as in diverse). And group them together as well as you can in order to make do with the limited space we’ve already talked about.
4. Increase friendship levels
Increasing the friendliness level of all your animals is something you should focus on if you want your zoo to operate flawlessly.
Since not all animals are friendly from the get-go, you will have to give them gifts and fulfill wishes to make them happy (and friendly).
This, in return, will result in more visitors and more money in the long run, so it’s very important.
5. Focus on completing animal features
Getting more animals and improving their friendship level is not useful just for the direct extra income, but for unlocking and completing features too.
When your Zoo hits rank 3 (you reach 3 stars), you unlock this new feature of… features.
A new NPC will appear in the game – Franklin Feline – and he will ask you to complete various features consisting of three animals that match the requirements (like Fluffly Animals, Felines and so on).
You won’t know exactly what three animals to match, but the names are giving you a huge hint. Complete these features for boosting your zoo’s popularity, resulting in more visitors and income.
6. Time your upgrades well
As your zoo grows and you have to build, rebuild and most likely relocate animals, you have to start being a bit more careful on when you do this.
I touched on this already above when I shared the basics for the game, but I want to get a bit more in depth now.
To put it short, you should always work on the administrative tasks of your zoo outside of operating hours (so between 8PM and 9AM). This is when you should move things around in order to reduce any potential disruptions with your visitors to a minimum.
7. Getting new animals
Getting new animals in Zoo Park Story is done via exploration, which is a minigame in which you need to choose one of three options that bring the said new animal closer to the finish line aka your zoo.
I wasn’t able to find a strategy that works well every time, so what I usually do – and recommend you to do is to always use the option of offering food on the spot (Give Treat)
This is the least taxing long term, as the first option increases the amount you will pay for that animal from that moment on, while the latter uses precious APs (instead, if you have plenty of these, use it a lot!)
You usually have time to see what the animals likes and what is the best approach: try an option and if they don’t like it, you can try something else. Rinse and repeat until you get that animal to expand your Zoo’s population.
8. Even more animals!
Of course, mating is an option for expanding your Zoo’s population as well. This does require you to spent Animal Points, but you gained them for this reason!
Couples are extremely fun to watch in the game, and are the key for new and cute animal pets in your zoo.
9. Keep advertising to make your zoo popular
Running campaigns is another great way to boost your earnings and make your zoo more popular. Make sure to constantly advertise your zoo.
However, don’t go overboard – and pay special attention to external things, like bad weather. You don’t want to run a marketing campaign when it’s pouring outside!
10. Get more AP
Last but not least, we should address the extremely important aspect of Animal Points. These are extremely important and probably the hardest resource (or is it currency?) to get in the game.
You get more by clicking the icon whenever it pops up above your animal pets’ heads. So make sure to keep scrolling around the zoo, tend for the needs of your animals and collect those APs which can later be used to get more animals and other goodies.
Final words
Now you know all the tips and tricks you need in order to get the most out of Kairosoft’s Zoo Park Story. If you have additional strategies and tips that you’d like to share with fellow players, don’t hesitate to let us all know by commenting below!