Ultimate Planet Zoo Cheat Sheet

Planet Zoo is a simulation PC game where you get to build and manage your own zoo! This is a cheat sheet for beginners and pros alike.

I love the game but remembering all of the controls is near impossible when you're just getting started. Why? Well because there are pages and pages of them! So, I created this webpage as the ultimate Planet Zoo Cheat Sheet for newbies and veterans alike. 

Keyboard Shortcuts:

LMB (Left Mouse Button)
MMB (Middle Mouse Button)

Basic Controls  Key(s)
Undo Ctrl + Z
Redo Ctrl + Y
Select LMB
Cancel Esc
Delete Object Del
Controls Help Menu F1
Move Object M
Rotate Object Z
Advance Movement X
Copy Object Ctrl + D
Pause Time P
Edit Grouped Objects R
Move the Camera Mouse
Rotate Camera MMB
Camera Zoom Scroll Wheel
Camera Zoom In Page Up
Camera Zoom Out Page Down
Change Speed O
Raise Camera E
Lower Camera Q
Raise Road U
Lower Road J
Hide the HUD F12
Lower Road F12
Menu Shortcuts Key(s)
Save Menu F5
Load Menu F9
Zoo Management 1
Animal Trading 2
Exhibit Trading F2
Open Facilities 6
Open Heat Maps H
Open Terrain 0

You can find a much more extensive list of controls in the game but I figured these may be the ones that you use the most.

Start Small Using Exhibit Animals

Planet Zoo Exhibit Animal Goliath Spider
(Image Credit: TheBusyDadNetwork.com)

When it's time to build your own zoo from scratch or increase the number of different species in a zoo, this is the best thing to do. Yeah. It would be fun to build your own habitats or use the the larger or endangered animals first. But that's the wrong thing to do when you're just starting out. Why? 

  • You'll blow through your money. Those types of animals require more resources to purchase and maintain. Also, you have limited conservation funds so you usually can't afford those bigger animals anyway.
  • Exhibit animals are so much easier to maintain and to setup. Just purchase/adopt the animal, then send it to your zoo and exhibit all from one menu. You don't have to spend the time and money on building then habitat then addressing the right habitat needs for each animal.

Share Habitats with Friendly Animals

PlanetZoo combined habitats
(Image Credit: TheBusyDadNetwork.com)

Creating habitats to be shared by compatible species is by far one of the more realistic elements of the game. In the game it's called interspecies enrichment. And it's a saving grace when you have limited space to create larger/many habitats in a zoo. There are many challenges where you have to have a certain number of different species in the zoo and this is the perfect way to do it. 

Check the "Zoopedia" to see which animals are comaptible. Then build a habitat big enough to comfortably house as my of the compatible species as possible. This also means that:

  1. The habitat will be more resource demanding; money, keepers, better quality food, etc.
  2. When one animal gets a disease, it's now a ticking virus time bomb. Ha! If you don't get a vet to research a fix for it quickly, it can spread to  the rest of the animals in that exhibit!
  3. Males of different species can compete for dominance.

Beware of Male Animal Dominance

Planet Zoo Giraffes
(Image Credit: TheBusyDadNetwork.com)

This is a problem that I had to figure out on my own. If the ratio of male to female animals in the same habitat is not proportionate then they may start to compete for dominance.

To avoid this, look up that species in the Zoopedia and check the male to female numbers. It will tell you exactly how many males and females you should have in the same habitat.

I just found that this can happen among different male species in the same habitat too. For me, it was between a giraffe and a springbok. I fixed this by releasing the older male sprinboks to the wild or trading them. I also reduced the overall number of springboks in that habitat.

Game Resources:

Boomark this page for the latest changes.

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Game Art

Details

  • Release Date

    05 November 2019
  • Publisher

    Frontier Developments plc

System Requirements


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