starting

// planning your zoo

Aside from running through the tutorial and doing the basic quests, here is my getting started guide for new players. I am by no means an expert, but as I've learned I've jotted down some thoughts.

1. Follow the tutorial quests!

   Seriously, they will help get you started. They'll walk you through the basics of animals, enclosures, building, and more.

2. But don't let them set your pace

   Soon you'll find that the quests come in at a faster pace than you can easily get to them. This is the perfect point to stop focusing on them, and instead explore around and learn as you go. A lot of people get stressed or overwhelmed at this point, but there is no time limit for any quests.

3. There is no time limit for anything

   If notifications and alerts are pouring in, that's okay. Your zoo isn't going to be shut down. Let's Build a Zoo is an extremely forgiving game. Tackle any food or water issues first, and pace yourself with the rest of it.

4. Choose your morality wisely

   Generally speaking, you have to pick either positive or negative morality because you only have one "morality" meter. This is usually fine - but it means that if you are trying to play as a negative morality zoo, you're closed off from the population regulator. This is a huge bummer because that's the most powerful tool for a relaxing gameplay situation. So even if you're tempted toward the dark side, I'd highly recommend you pick positive morality for a first (or more chill) playthrough.

5. Expand slowly

   Plenty of other people talk about this in articles but it can't be emphasized. The game loves to throw alerts and notifications at you, and you'll be tempted to build a zillion enclosures and trade for a zillion new animals very quickly. This makes the game a bit hard and less relaxing. You can never miss a trade, even if your trade animal dies of old age. You can always clone any animal you've previously owned with your CRISPR machine later to make the trade when you're ready.

6. House animals together to save time and space early on

   As long as there aren't any big red icons, you're safe to put animals wherever you want. You can put them together or in the "wrong" enclosure, and as long as the icons aren't red, you're good to go! It's very easy to move animals out of an enclosure later on.

7. You can easily redecorate

   Everything can be moved around, and most things can be deleted and you'll get money back. Animals will need a temporary enclosure, but that's not too bad. I started my park without thinking at all how it would look, and then decided to completely overhaul my park and redecorate later. No big deal!

8. Don't buy land too early

   Your park rating will unfortunately go down with empty enclosures or big empty space with nothing in it. Also, annoyingly, people will walk around empty space without paths too. You can block them off with plants and use the bulldozer tool later, but it's probably better to buy land and build enclosures only as needed.

9. Don't forget to buy buses

   I forgot to do this and was very confused why I was capping out at only 400 visitors to my park. You will need to expand your buses to capture more visitors, so save up and invest in the most expensive buses you can, and clear away old, low-capacity buses.

10. Relax

    Animals can't escape, disasters don't happen, and generally your park will continue running smoothly. You can safely ignore alerts about enrichment, quests, new animals, whatever. Just relax and have fun!