Planet Zoo 2 comes in a standard edition and a Deluxe Edition. The Deluxe Edition adds five extra animals. This page covers what they are, how to keep them, and how they work with Franchise mode.
The five Deluxe animals
| Animal | Type | Where it lives in your zoo |
|---|---|---|
| Golden eagle | Bird of prey | Aviary |
| Golden lion tamarin | Small monkey | Indoor house or netted habitat |
| Great hammerhead shark | Big shark | Large aquarium |
| Axolotl | Amphibian | Exhibit tank |
| Blue-and-gold fusilier | Reef fish (shoal) | Reef aquarium |
If you only have the standard edition you won't see these in the market. Pre-order bonus content is separate: if you pre-ordered the standard edition you keep that bonus, but you don't get the Deluxe animals.
Do Deluxe animals need accreditation?
Not any more. At launch they were locked behind accreditation tiers like every other animal; the great hammerhead, for example, needed tier 5 in Franchise mode. A patch removed that, so Deluxe owners can now use all five straight away in any mode.
Players are split on this. On one hand, you paid for these animals, so it's fair to want to use them. On the other, putting a hammerhead shark in a brand-new Franchise zoo skips the whole "prove your zoo can handle it" idea. Either way, Sandbox mode has always had every animal unlocked.
Looking after each Deluxe animal
Golden eagle
A favourite with aviary builders. Quick facts:
- It's the most widespread eagle in the world, found across most of the northern hemisphere, from Asia and Europe to North America and North Africa.
- Its wingspan is over 2 m, and females are bigger than males.
- In a hunting dive it reaches roughly 240–320 km/h.
- In western Mongolia, Kazakh hunters have trained golden eagles for centuries. Most release their eagles back into the wild after about ten years, and the tradition is recognised by UNESCO.
In game, one eagle needs about 400 m² of land and a pair about 600 m², with grade 2 netting at least 1 m high and a temperature of 13–30 °C. Give it sand and soil, a small pond, lots of perches, cup nests on ledges and a hidden spot away from guests. The full care sheet is on the Golden Eagle page.
Golden lion tamarin
A tiny, very active monkey. In the wild there were once fewer than 200 left; conservation work has brought that up to several thousand.
- A pair needs about 70 m² of floor, 20 m² of climbing space and 4 m² of shelter.
- They need a roof over the habitat because they climb. Use the habitat roof tool, the same one you use for aviaries.
- Only habitat items count as climbable. Decorative scenery, even a big tree trunk, doesn't.
- They breed in autumn and winter. Males bring fruit to females as a courtship gift.
- They get on fine with toucans and make a great pair in a South America house.
See Golden Lion Tamarin.
Great hammerhead shark
A big, fairly solitary shark that doesn't mix well with a lot of other big fish. Builders often give it its own deep tank next to a busier reef tank, linked by a tunnel so the two feel like one ocean. Plan lots of deep water and check your filtration capacity before you buy it. See the Aquarium guide.
Axolotl
An exhibit animal, so it lives in an exhibit box or tube rather than a full habitat. Some zoo builders use axolotls for conservation storylines, releasing them through conservation projects. See Exhibits.
Blue-and-gold fusilier
A bright shoal fish that's easy to mix into Indo-Pacific reef tanks. It's comfortable from 21–31 °C, so it fits almost any reef temperature, lives about 14 years (around 6 as a juvenile, 8 as an adult) and is listed as least concern in the wild. Males do spiralling courtship swims towards the surface.
What about future DLC?
The base game is a little thin on South American animals, so many players expect regional animal packs. If future DLC animals also skip accreditation, there's a risk that buying packs makes the tier system feel pointless, because why work up to tier 5 for a lion when a DLC animal is available straight away? We'll see how it's handled.