I'd say drop the marketing costs untill you churn a nice profit again. Also, 4 keepers/vets/mechanics seem a bit much for so few habitats/exhibits. I'd say fire 1-2 of each.
Can you raise your entrance fee without people complaining?
Put donation buckets EVERYWHERE. Also make sure there are ATMs so that guests aren't limited to spending the money they came in with. You only need one vet- those are expensive. Also, 123 animals across 8 species? That's an average of 15 animals per species. That's a lot! Surely there are some you could either sell or stick in storage so you don't have to feed them?
Thank you, i figured it out. When i first started my zoo i was using donation buckets. Then along the line, I forgotđ. Some of the 123 animals are in the trade center and are babiesđ.
Don't feed animals grade 3 food. Look at your finances and look what is sucking most of your money. It's most likely staff wages or animal food. And then I'd put cheap animals into the zoo where people donate a lot. Capyabaras and platypus always seem to do the trick in my game. Put up a lot of eduction speakers, boards and donation boxes.
Don't put in lions, they are so expensive to feed.
Sell off older animals (not infertile) to make room and get a bit of cash. Also butterfly's are great at producing offspring that you can sell.
To add to this: Carnivores are also very expensive to feed. I noticed that you have bears in an enclosure. Check their costs and compare it to one of your herbivores. Depending on how many 'expensive' meals are being served, you might want to lose some animals to save on feeding costs.
In addition to the other comments: Try to buy snails and let them breed. If you sell them, you will earn a good amount of money.
That saved my zoo once very well.
Just to add onto your comment (because i 100% second this), you can have the exhibit autosell excess animals so you donât have to look at it ever, itâll do it fir you. You just gotta turn it on and adjust your preferences, thatâs it!
I thought they are only transferred to the trade center. You still need to sell them manually.
But yes, you can control the maximum number of animals in the exhibit automatically.
I don't like the function because I prefer to improve the genes. Better genetic material brings more money. :)
Thatâs the standerd setting but you can change it in the same menu if you look carefully. Thanks for bringing that to my attention cause apperently i had forgotten to change it in my gila monster exhibit haha
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Iâd scrap the marketing, itâs not essential and if you put a habitat camera in each habitat that gives a marketing boost for a much cheaper amount (and just a one-off payment). Then staff costs could be reduced, Iâd get rid of the security guard, youâll just need to check your crime tab every few months to make sure you replace any broken items but otherwise it just means the odd guest will get pickpocketed - I only add marketing and security once Iâm making a profit.
Depending on the layout and number of habitats you can probably drop a couple of the vets and mechanics as well. I usually have one of each for every 4-6 habitats I add as my zoos are no massively spaced out. Iâd be ruthless and slash it to one of each for now as you can always add them again if you start having problems.
10 vendors for 6 shops is quite generous, did you have a problem with shops being left empty a lot? If youâre able to post any pictures of the layout of the zoo it may be that you can be more efficient with workzones or staff facilities instead of adding staff.
Usually if youâre at this point in Year 20 it means you have expanded too fast. It was my usual mistake at the beginning as I was so keen to get new animals in and tended to keep the game paused a lot. Now I usually start with a couple of exhibits, run fast while I build up money, add a small habitat animal, run fast again until I have a positive income and then look at adding shops and a second habitat.
Someone has already mentioned food costs - have a look at the animal food tab to see what youâre paying each time they are fed and consider putting your highest food price animal into your trade Center for a bit and âclosingâ that habitat (I usually remove the habitat door as it stop the barrier deteriorating until Iâm ready to use it again but if itâs a straightforward one with expensive barriers you might want to delete it to get the money back).
While youâre saving money, you can also do without a quarantine building (you donât lose any money by deleting it and re-adding later). I tend to leave off the workshop and research building in the beginning as well but if this is your first franchise you may be doing necessary research. Staff buildings are quite expensive to add so remember the essentials are the trade center, staff room and keeper hut (plus vet once you have habitat animals). The other 3 buildings arenât essential although the game will show an alert until you add them.
In times of need, I create a walk through butterfly exhibit. You get an absolute ton of them in there, and set it to auto sell any extras. Makes quite a bit of fast money.
Looking at your stats you may need to tone down your marketing budget, and maybe lower animal food costs, as they both seem too high to me. As well as this, if you don't have workzones set up, have a look into them. By setting up workzones you may be able to cut down on the number of staff you have employed.
get rid of those power costs! place zoo entrances connected to paths and cover them up with a blueprint of a building (I tend to use the new world one that has like the trees on all four sides). I saw it on here, and at first i put them underground but guests were spawning at them and getting stuck. it didn't matter if i moved them to the actual path, they would continue to scream and shout about being stuck... made one of my zoos unplayable for awhile!
Also, charge $1 for ATM and toilets. I always do that until I'm profitable. and i up food, drink and merch costs 50¢ to $1 for each product. if you have vending machines get rid of them, I have not figured out how to make them profitable until my zoo is jam packed full of people.
I've logged 200 hours, and played in two different bursts about a year apart. I struggled so much the first round (about 80 hours) but this time I'm getting the hang of it and I haven't bankrupted a single zoo this time around.
You can also decrease staff wages some without them quitting.
Eta: do you have your exhibits filled with fertile animals that give birth frequently? set it to manage population and sell for cash until you are profitable!
I agree with dropping Vets especially. You likely only need 1-2. And if you add some security cameras, you can likely get away with only 1 security guard.
Placing staff rooms close to shops will allow for fewer vendors and more open shop time.
Make sure your zoo isn't all carnivores eating expensive meat. Fast breeding exhibit bugs with the management turned on to sell the offspring is a fantastic way to make money.
One major thing that saved my first failing franchise early on was cutting staff wages temporarily. I would tick them down until the first thumbs down and let it sit there for a while. Then focus on cutting other costs like food quality, unnecessary shops that aren't profitable, and expensive animals to care for like bears and lions. Then added in animals that breed very fast like peafowls for baby attraction rates and high breeding exhibit species for extra cash.
Super helpful marketing tip! Instead of paying for marketing campaigns, by adding one habitat camera to five different habitats you can get up to 1.25 stars worth of marketing for barely any cost
Your staff seem to be the biggest problem, fire them all, get 2 keepers, 1 vet, 1 mechanic, 7 vendors, no security or educators (you donât need them yet) And DO NOT TRAIN THEM (it costs a lot and does little to improve performance.
Put all your animals on grade 1 food. You might want to put those bears in the trade center for now (large carnivores cost the most to feed)
Get rid of your marketing, for so a small zoo itâs not necessary at the moment (I donât start marketing until I have a good mil) if you want to increase your market score use habitat webcams instead
Make sure your putting donation bins and education down and focus on your guests needs (happy and educated guests spend more)
Add in some more exhibits they draw in guests and can be sold for some quick cash often
How much are you spending on purchases? Two years ago you arenât to have gone down really far then back up and now down again but your expenses donât seem to be changing at all. I think youâre just placing down too much decor around your zoo, until you get a good amount of money the only thing you should be placing is shops, staff facilities, barriers, benches, bins, donation bins, education boards and speakers, and whatever items are needed to make animals happy. No decorations, no plants, no walls on buildings. Thatâs all for later
I am also on console and started my first franchise zoo recently.Â
Began with 2 exhibits, restroom, pipshot water, and an info booth. Exhibit species were Poison Frog, Danube Crested Newt, and Goliath Beetle.Â
When I started to get some income, I built a Red crowned Crane habitat and added a Bernie Bakes counter. By this point still 1 of each staff, no educators.Â
More income, walkthrough Capybara habitat. Added 1 keeper and caretaker, plus a gift shop, and another water and food counter.Â
Ran that for awhile, then decided it was time and I had enough funds for carnivores.Â
Added spectacled caiman, another info booth, by this point I have restrooms and atms dotted around. Even a few vending machines in areas away from the counters.Â
Added Asian small clawed otters. Some more staff, like 1 each besides security.Â
Added Dhole for the community challenge.Â
Then added a monorail. Â Once all of that was handling well I added Giant Pandas once I was over $100,000.
And also added California Sea Lions the other day. Â
Iâm currently over $250,0000 - never took out a loan, and never used marketing. Unnecessary in my opinion when starting out. Guest flood my zoo without it so I donât bother.Â
Iâm around year 40, quarter of a million dollars, 3 exhibits still, 7 habitats, probably over 100 animals as the Capyâs breed like crazy. At one point I had over 40 lol.Â
Set your exhibit to auto sell lowest appeal for cash, that will be a good boost.Â
Release animals you donât need for money and CC to keep expanding.Â
Never bothered with custom CC prices, never bothered with charging for bathroom or ATM. Monorail is still set to a dollar and Iâm making money just by opening the game.Â
At the moment I have around 5 keepers, caretakers, 2 security, 3 educators, 3 vets, and 3 mechanics and not slowing the money at all. All animals are at grade 3 food now, even carnivores.Â
My advice would be to pare back, do you have habitats that are very close and share a keeper hut? Then have one keeper and one caretaker for those 2 habitats until you think you can afford more. Fire unnecessary staff.Â
Reduce herd animals so the food cost is controlled.Â
I was definitely worried I would go bust quickly, but starting with exhibits and one habitat with very minimal staff until I started seeing a profit - only then did I start slowly expanding.Â
Good luck, Iâm sure you can turn it around if you are patient and determined!Â
I'd say drop the marketing costs untill you churn a nice profit again. Also, 4 keepers/vets/mechanics seem a bit much for so few habitats/exhibits. I'd say fire 1-2 of each. Can you raise your entrance fee without people complaining?
Put donation buckets EVERYWHERE. Also make sure there are ATMs so that guests aren't limited to spending the money they came in with. You only need one vet- those are expensive. Also, 123 animals across 8 species? That's an average of 15 animals per species. That's a lot! Surely there are some you could either sell or stick in storage so you don't have to feed them?
Thank you, i figured it out. When i first started my zoo i was using donation buckets. Then along the line, I forgotđ. Some of the 123 animals are in the trade center and are babiesđ.
Don't feed animals grade 3 food. Look at your finances and look what is sucking most of your money. It's most likely staff wages or animal food. And then I'd put cheap animals into the zoo where people donate a lot. Capyabaras and platypus always seem to do the trick in my game. Put up a lot of eduction speakers, boards and donation boxes. Don't put in lions, they are so expensive to feed. Sell off older animals (not infertile) to make room and get a bit of cash. Also butterfly's are great at producing offspring that you can sell.
To add to this: Carnivores are also very expensive to feed. I noticed that you have bears in an enclosure. Check their costs and compare it to one of your herbivores. Depending on how many 'expensive' meals are being served, you might want to lose some animals to save on feeding costs.
THERE ARE PLATYPUS IN THIS GAME?!?!
In addition to the other comments: Try to buy snails and let them breed. If you sell them, you will earn a good amount of money. That saved my zoo once very well.
Just to add onto your comment (because i 100% second this), you can have the exhibit autosell excess animals so you donât have to look at it ever, itâll do it fir you. You just gotta turn it on and adjust your preferences, thatâs it!
I thought they are only transferred to the trade center. You still need to sell them manually. But yes, you can control the maximum number of animals in the exhibit automatically. I don't like the function because I prefer to improve the genes. Better genetic material brings more money. :)
Thatâs the standerd setting but you can change it in the same menu if you look carefully. Thanks for bringing that to my attention cause apperently i had forgotten to change it in my gila monster exhibit haha
Thanks for such a wonderful reply! TheGratitudeBot has been reading millions of comments in the past few weeks, and youâve just made the list of some of the most grateful redditors this week! Thanks for making Reddit a wonderful place to be :)
Good bot
Thank you, CompetitionNo5211, for voting on TheGratitudeBot. This bot wants to find the best and worst bots on Reddit. [You can view results here](https://botrank.pastimes.eu/). *** ^(Even if I don't reply to your comment, I'm still listening for votes. Check the webpage to see if your vote registered!)
Iâd scrap the marketing, itâs not essential and if you put a habitat camera in each habitat that gives a marketing boost for a much cheaper amount (and just a one-off payment). Then staff costs could be reduced, Iâd get rid of the security guard, youâll just need to check your crime tab every few months to make sure you replace any broken items but otherwise it just means the odd guest will get pickpocketed - I only add marketing and security once Iâm making a profit. Depending on the layout and number of habitats you can probably drop a couple of the vets and mechanics as well. I usually have one of each for every 4-6 habitats I add as my zoos are no massively spaced out. Iâd be ruthless and slash it to one of each for now as you can always add them again if you start having problems. 10 vendors for 6 shops is quite generous, did you have a problem with shops being left empty a lot? If youâre able to post any pictures of the layout of the zoo it may be that you can be more efficient with workzones or staff facilities instead of adding staff. Usually if youâre at this point in Year 20 it means you have expanded too fast. It was my usual mistake at the beginning as I was so keen to get new animals in and tended to keep the game paused a lot. Now I usually start with a couple of exhibits, run fast while I build up money, add a small habitat animal, run fast again until I have a positive income and then look at adding shops and a second habitat. Someone has already mentioned food costs - have a look at the animal food tab to see what youâre paying each time they are fed and consider putting your highest food price animal into your trade Center for a bit and âclosingâ that habitat (I usually remove the habitat door as it stop the barrier deteriorating until Iâm ready to use it again but if itâs a straightforward one with expensive barriers you might want to delete it to get the money back). While youâre saving money, you can also do without a quarantine building (you donât lose any money by deleting it and re-adding later). I tend to leave off the workshop and research building in the beginning as well but if this is your first franchise you may be doing necessary research. Staff buildings are quite expensive to add so remember the essentials are the trade center, staff room and keeper hut (plus vet once you have habitat animals). The other 3 buildings arenât essential although the game will show an alert until you add them.
In times of need, I create a walk through butterfly exhibit. You get an absolute ton of them in there, and set it to auto sell any extras. Makes quite a bit of fast money. Looking at your stats you may need to tone down your marketing budget, and maybe lower animal food costs, as they both seem too high to me. As well as this, if you don't have workzones set up, have a look into them. By setting up workzones you may be able to cut down on the number of staff you have employed.
Damn I take a break for a few months and now we got butterflies?!
Mass layoffs. Food budget cuts
get rid of those power costs! place zoo entrances connected to paths and cover them up with a blueprint of a building (I tend to use the new world one that has like the trees on all four sides). I saw it on here, and at first i put them underground but guests were spawning at them and getting stuck. it didn't matter if i moved them to the actual path, they would continue to scream and shout about being stuck... made one of my zoos unplayable for awhile! Also, charge $1 for ATM and toilets. I always do that until I'm profitable. and i up food, drink and merch costs 50¢ to $1 for each product. if you have vending machines get rid of them, I have not figured out how to make them profitable until my zoo is jam packed full of people. I've logged 200 hours, and played in two different bursts about a year apart. I struggled so much the first round (about 80 hours) but this time I'm getting the hang of it and I haven't bankrupted a single zoo this time around. You can also decrease staff wages some without them quitting. Eta: do you have your exhibits filled with fertile animals that give birth frequently? set it to manage population and sell for cash until you are profitable!
I agree with dropping Vets especially. You likely only need 1-2. And if you add some security cameras, you can likely get away with only 1 security guard. Placing staff rooms close to shops will allow for fewer vendors and more open shop time. Make sure your zoo isn't all carnivores eating expensive meat. Fast breeding exhibit bugs with the management turned on to sell the offspring is a fantastic way to make money.
One major thing that saved my first failing franchise early on was cutting staff wages temporarily. I would tick them down until the first thumbs down and let it sit there for a while. Then focus on cutting other costs like food quality, unnecessary shops that aren't profitable, and expensive animals to care for like bears and lions. Then added in animals that breed very fast like peafowls for baby attraction rates and high breeding exhibit species for extra cash.
Donations at every exhibit, slightly increase prices at any high demand storefronts, vending machines, and ATMs
Super helpful marketing tip! Instead of paying for marketing campaigns, by adding one habitat camera to five different habitats you can get up to 1.25 stars worth of marketing for barely any cost
Your staff seem to be the biggest problem, fire them all, get 2 keepers, 1 vet, 1 mechanic, 7 vendors, no security or educators (you donât need them yet) And DO NOT TRAIN THEM (it costs a lot and does little to improve performance. Put all your animals on grade 1 food. You might want to put those bears in the trade center for now (large carnivores cost the most to feed) Get rid of your marketing, for so a small zoo itâs not necessary at the moment (I donât start marketing until I have a good mil) if you want to increase your market score use habitat webcams instead Make sure your putting donation bins and education down and focus on your guests needs (happy and educated guests spend more) Add in some more exhibits they draw in guests and can be sold for some quick cash often How much are you spending on purchases? Two years ago you arenât to have gone down really far then back up and now down again but your expenses donât seem to be changing at all. I think youâre just placing down too much decor around your zoo, until you get a good amount of money the only thing you should be placing is shops, staff facilities, barriers, benches, bins, donation bins, education boards and speakers, and whatever items are needed to make animals happy. No decorations, no plants, no walls on buildings. Thatâs all for later
I am also on console and started my first franchise zoo recently. Began with 2 exhibits, restroom, pipshot water, and an info booth. Exhibit species were Poison Frog, Danube Crested Newt, and Goliath Beetle. When I started to get some income, I built a Red crowned Crane habitat and added a Bernie Bakes counter. By this point still 1 of each staff, no educators. More income, walkthrough Capybara habitat. Added 1 keeper and caretaker, plus a gift shop, and another water and food counter. Ran that for awhile, then decided it was time and I had enough funds for carnivores. Added spectacled caiman, another info booth, by this point I have restrooms and atms dotted around. Even a few vending machines in areas away from the counters. Added Asian small clawed otters. Some more staff, like 1 each besides security. Added Dhole for the community challenge. Then added a monorail.  Once all of that was handling well I added Giant Pandas once I was over $100,000. And also added California Sea Lions the other day.  Iâm currently over $250,0000 - never took out a loan, and never used marketing. Unnecessary in my opinion when starting out. Guest flood my zoo without it so I donât bother. Iâm around year 40, quarter of a million dollars, 3 exhibits still, 7 habitats, probably over 100 animals as the Capyâs breed like crazy. At one point I had over 40 lol. Set your exhibit to auto sell lowest appeal for cash, that will be a good boost. Release animals you donât need for money and CC to keep expanding. Never bothered with custom CC prices, never bothered with charging for bathroom or ATM. Monorail is still set to a dollar and Iâm making money just by opening the game. At the moment I have around 5 keepers, caretakers, 2 security, 3 educators, 3 vets, and 3 mechanics and not slowing the money at all. All animals are at grade 3 food now, even carnivores. My advice would be to pare back, do you have habitats that are very close and share a keeper hut? Then have one keeper and one caretaker for those 2 habitats until you think you can afford more. Fire unnecessary staff. Reduce herd animals so the food cost is controlled. I was definitely worried I would go bust quickly, but starting with exhibits and one habitat with very minimal staff until I started seeing a profit - only then did I start slowly expanding. Good luck, Iâm sure you can turn it around if you are patient and determined!Â
Get an exhibit in with a quick reproducing animals (I love titan beetles) and set it to auto manage population and sell off surpluses.