Zoo Tycoon 2 Tips and Help
by Joe Tracy, Publisher of NEWSdial.com

General Tips:
Make sure all of your animal exhibits have donation boxes. Donation boxes are a major form of income in Zoo Tycoon 2.

Add an educator and some educator podiums to your zoo. Put the podiums close to the donation boxes. Having an educator increases the amount of the donations given by your guests.

Before building that next zoo exhibit, open your quick stats and see which animal the guests want to most see. By placing the animal guests most want to see as your next exhibit, you will increase both guest happiness and donations (if you remember to place a donation box at that exhibit).

Always use the zookeeper recommendations (click on the animal, then click on the Zookeeper icon) when working with any specific animal. This makes it extremely easy to make sure your animal is getting exactly what it needs to make it more happy.

Every once in awhile assume the role of zookeeper (go into first person Zoo Guest mode) and walk around the animal exhibits grooming your animals, changing water/food, cleaning up after them. This takes some of the pressure off your zookeepers and instantly increases the happiness of all your animals, which helps increase the happiness and donations of guests.

Because your animals happiness has an impact on guest happiness and guest donations, it's vital you pay attention to their needs. Know what all the icons mean. For example, if you see a blue dot icon appear in their "thoughts" - that's a ball symbolizing they want to play. Also, like with humans, animals need companions. Make sure you have at least one male and one female of each animal. Guests will show additional excitement when a baby is born.

If your zookeeper isn't paying enough attention to his exhibits, then consider building exhibits one right next to each other (i.e. three exhibits). Then create the zookeeper entrance only between the exhibits (so that the zookeeper can't exit to the main path). Now he/she has to stay in the exhibits and work. There's no penalty for doing this.

You can get money from adding recycle bins to your zoo, but you must empty them in Zoo Guest Mode as the Maintenance workers won't.

A good way to raise your zoo rating is by releasing animals into the wild. Release at least 10 into the wild during the course of your game. Also, a good way to raise your animal rating is by having at least 15 different animal species, each with a mate, in your zoo.

Fun Things:
While in Zoo Guest Mode, you walk through your park by holding down the left mouse button. To double the speed you walk, also push the Arrow Up button on your keyboard at the same time.

You can walk around the outside of the wall that surrounds your zoo! Simply go through the park entrance and stick close to the wall. You'll be able to walk all the way around the outside of your park.

Pick up a guest and place them outside of your zoo. You'll see that guest repay to enter and continue his/her experience!

You can mix environments in your exhibit! Ever thought of having penguins and kangaroos in the same exhibit? Just make half of the exhibit appropriate to one animal and the other half appropriate to the other. Make sure each has appropriate food, etc. and both species will be able to happily coexist in the same exhibit!

» Zoo Tycoon 2 Review
» Zoo Tycoon 2: Endangered Species Review
» Zoo Tycoon 2: Endangered Species Tips and Strategies

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