Diagram of the five Planet Zoo 2 Franchise accreditation tiers as steps, with what each tier needs and how many animals it adds — Diagram: drawn by planetzoo2animals.com from official data, not a game screenshot

Game modes

Planet Zoo 2 Franchise Mode: How It Works and Tips

Franchise is the online mode of Planet Zoo 2: a network of zoos and Wildlife Reserves that share Conservation Credits, with animals you trade with other players. A new Franchise starts at accreditation tier 1 with 32 animals to buy and 300 credits. Pick a biome below to see what your first zoo can hold.

Last updated October 21, 2026Game version: Update 1.0.5 (October 16, 2026)

What your Franchise zoo can buy

The animals of each Zoopedia biome you can buy in Trading at each Franchise accreditation tier. The count on each biome is for the tier you pick.

Frontier plans to move more species into the lower Franchise tiers and lower the requirements of tiers 3 to 5 in its next update. These lists are Update 1.0.5; we will update them the day the change ships.

Biome

Your Franchise accreditation tier

Grassland at tier 1: 18 animals

Every new Franchise starts at tier 1. By then you can buy 32 animals in all; these are the ones the Zoopedia lists for Grassland.

Terrestrial habitat (13)

Aardvark
Bactrian Camel
Black Wildebeest
Blue Wildebeest
Cape Buffalo
Common Ostrich
Common Warthog
Meerkat
Nyala
Plains Zebra
Springbok
Thomson's Gazelle
Wild Boar

Flying habitat (aviary) (1)

Toco Toucan

Exhibit (4)

Cloudless Sulphur
Common Bluetongue
Giant Tiger Land Snail
Yellow Anaconda

How Franchise mode works

You run several zoos and Wildlife Reserves in different parts of the world and move between them from the Planet Hub.
Conservation Credits are shared by every zoo in the Franchise; cash is not, so each zoo keeps its own money.
You buy and sell habitat animals with other players in Animal Trading.
Community Challenges let you add to conservation efforts shared with every other Franchise player.
Franchise is online only and needs a Frontier account.

How to start a Franchise

Choose Franchise on the main menu and sign in with your Frontier account, or create one.
Select Start New Franchise and set its name, banner colour and sticker.
Pick the biome and continent of your first zoo and give the zoo a name.

That is all it takes: the zoo appears in your Planet Hub and you can join Community Challenges straight away. Later zoos and Wildlife Reserves are created from the Planet Hub too; a new zoo costs 100 Conservation Credits out of the 300 you start with.

Franchise accreditation tiers

Accreditation decides which animals you can buy. In Franchise it rises with the Reputation stars of your zoos and the Biodiversity Rating stars of your Wildlife Reserves, and it is separate from Career: a Career save never raises your Franchise tier.

Tier	What it needs	Animals it adds	Animals you can buy
Tier 1	Every new Franchise	32	32
Tier 2	A zoo with 3 Reputation stars	33	65
Tier 3	2 zoos with 3 Reputation stars, and a Wildlife Reserve with 3 Biodiversity Rating stars	31	96
Tier 4	2 zoos with 4 Reputation stars, and 2 Wildlife Reserves with 4 Biodiversity Rating stars	30	126
Tier 5	2 zoos with 5 Reputation stars, and 3 Wildlife Reserves with 5 Biodiversity Rating stars	10	136

The Planet Zoo 2 accreditation tiers page lists every animal's tier in Franchise and in Career, with the marketing and other unlocks each tier brings.

Trading animals with other players

In Franchise, animals you no longer need can earn Conservation Credits. Send the animal to Storage at your Trade Centre, then list it in Trading at a price you set: another player can adopt it for that many credits while the listing runs, and if nobody does, it comes back to your Storage. Quick Release is faster and also pays credits. Only healthy, stable adults can be traded, so juveniles, gestating, elderly, sick and injured animals stay put. How else to earn credits is on our Planet Zoo 2 Conservation Credits guide.

Frontier has added more animals to the first Franchise trading market since launch, and Update 1.0.5 balanced the market and new births better between males and females.

AI-edited view: Open land and paths before building a habitat — Open land with paths, ready for a first habitat. AI-edited game image: Planet Zoo 2 © Frontier Developments View full size

Tips for a new Franchise

Plan the first zoo around tier 1 animals. 32 animals are on sale at the start, 18 of them listed for the Grassland biome, while none are listed for Tundra. There is no big cat at first: the Lion is a tier 5 animal in Franchise.
Get one zoo to 3 Reputation stars. That alone reaches tier 2 and adds 33 more animals.
Keep 100 credits for a second zoo. Tier 3 needs 2 zoos with 3 Reputation stars, and a Wildlife Reserve with 3 Biodiversity Rating stars, so you will need two zoos before long.
Open a Wildlife Reserve early. A reserve's Biodiversity Rating rises as you restore its Ecosystems, release animals and build a Research Network, and every tier from 3 on asks for Biodiversity stars. The Planet Zoo 2 Wildlife Reserves guide explains releasing, and the release groups finder shows which reserve takes each animal.
Sell what you do not need. Surplus animals listed in Trading or quick released turn into credits for the animals you want.
Save the big names for tier 5. The African Savannah Elephant, Asian Elephant, Giant Panda, Great Hammerhead, Lion, Ocean Sunfish, Sumatran Orangutan, Western Chimpanzee, Western Lowland Gorilla and White-Backed Vulture are the ten tier 5 animals in Franchise.

Before you buy, the Planet Zoo 2 habitat planner checks the space, temperature and barrier a group of animals needs.

Franchise fixes and known issues

Update 1.0.4 (14 October) made Franchise more stable, put more animals in the first trading market and fixed the credit reward shown for release groups.
Update 1.0.5 (16 October) made Franchise zoos load more reliably and fixed what Wildlife Reserves cost in credits.
Frontier's list for the next update, from 20 October, fixes a crash when releasing animals into Franchise Wildlife Reserves and credits from exhibit animals not being kept after a reload, and changes Franchise accreditation as noted above.

Every official update is summed up on our Planet Zoo 2 updates page.

Planet Zoo 2 Franchise mode questions

What is Franchise mode in Planet Zoo 2?

An online mode where you build a network of zoos and Wildlife Reserves around the world that share Conservation Credits, trade animals with other players and take part in Community Challenges. Each zoo keeps its own cash.

Can you play Planet Zoo 2 Franchise mode offline?

No. Frontier says you must be online to play Franchise, and you sign in with a Frontier account. When Frontier runs server maintenance, Franchise is unavailable until it ends.

How do you unlock animals in Franchise mode?

Through accreditation. A new Franchise starts at tier 1 with 32 animals in Trading. Tier 2 needs a zoo with 3 Reputation stars; from tier 3 on you also need Wildlife Reserves with Biodiversity Rating stars. Tier 5 needs 2 zoos with 5 Reputation stars, and 3 Wildlife Reserves with 5 Biodiversity Rating stars.

Does Career progress count in Franchise?

No. Frontier says accreditation is separate in each game mode: progress in Career does not raise your Franchise tier, and you do not need to play Career first.

How many Conservation Credits do you start Franchise with?

300. Creating another zoo in the Planet Hub costs 100 of them, and the balance is shared by every zoo in your Franchise.

Sources

Checked against the official pages on October 21, 2026. How Franchise works, trading and the fixes are official. Accreditation tiers, the starting credits and the cost of a new zoo were checked against released-game footage. Official information can change.