Tips (Original Zoo Edition)

[Honor]

I still feel super new to the zoo (level 10), and would love to hear as much general advice as you can give me (and everyone). So, I thought I would start a zoo-only edition of the super popular thread in the general forum.

So, what is your best advice for someone who is just opening or considering opening the zoo? What do you wish you knew when you started?

I'll contribute a few that I've learned already!

**Waiting to open the zoo. I was about level 58, and done with community buildings (for now). More specifically I waited until I was able to buy my third foundry. I tried building a community building a few days ago for kicks, but it really messed up my zoo game. Wait if you can!

**Don't collect coins/points until you have a replacement product to put in the basket. This way you'll always have the notification bubble above the zoo to remind you of empty baskets.

[Cobalt Banana]

Try to work your two best hot items as a minimum each day.
Split Raja between ore for the mine and that if possible.

[Graylady]

Use your zoo to relieve your barn. Sell products in the shops instead of the barn. Even if the product is not Hot, it will pay some hearts. And selling in the zoo give XP with the coins, while from the barn you get only coins.

[Graylady]

Think before upgrading your shops.

Do you fill regularly ALL your baskets with the Hot product? Then buy another basket.

If you find yourself just filling 2 or 3 baskets with the Hot product, increase the hearts return which apply to everything sold in the shop.

[Garvamatic]

Prioritize the shops over the animals. The animals are cute and complete families do pay in experience and Tcash, but only after lots of building materials and lots of gems, so first build and tune up the shops as fast as you can since they will be a major source of gems and supplies. Order of importance in upgrades I would suggest is popularity, then baskets, eventually coins and faster selling times.

Whenever you have any easy to get saleable product such as corn or milk, just keep refilling those baskets all day long. It's slow, but you will get rewards for your efforts. If you get a day where all your hot items are high value, that's a good day to use the zoo popularity booster and raja in conjunction to rake in some popularity.

Realize you will level up more slowly than you do in town, it is what it is, don't stress out.

Township: Pixelsticks
Level 106
Zoo level 35

[Catsalive]

Prioritize the shops over the animals... so first build and tune up the shops as fast as you can since they will be a major source of gems and supplies.

Excellent advice. Wish I’d read this when I was starting up my zoo.

When I was just starting I loaded the fast products whether they were hot or not. When I was watching tv I just loaded corn & carrots every 15 minutes. Slow, but it helped get my shops to a more useful level. I opted to get more baskets first so I could load more carrots & corn

[Veganville]

Excellent tips already.

Wait or don't wait, but when you hit a point in the game where (a) you get a new building every other level instead of every level and (b) the amount of materials needed for a building increase substantially, you may find yourself putting more time into the zoo. Finishing an enclosure clears a lot of space in the barn.

You're going to want lots of room to grow so expand land as soon as you collect the materials. Zoo expansions are affordable.

Buy any hot product that shows up in your market boxes because profit is guaranteed. It's probably wise to buy anything that appears in your zoo shop menus, because it could be hot tomorrow or the next day. (It's random, and it's not personal, so don't get mad if it's yogurt at one shop and frozen yogurt at another shop.)

Hot items change at midnight in your time zone, and the full menus change once a week. As long as the item was hot when you loaded it into the basket, you'll get that hot price when you collect. So load up as many hot items as you can before you go to bed, e.g. items with long production times that you can replace overnight. Same for island products: load them up into the baskets, send boats for more overnight.

Also keep an eye out for the hot zoo regatta task when you've got an easy product. You can knock out 2-3 in a day.

Agree on pumping through massive amounts of quick/easy products whether they are hot or not. By 'easy' I include corn, carrots, strawberries, milk, cream, bread, maybe milkshakes. If it takes longer than 20 minutes to manufacture, however, it's probably not worth it, and harder to keep up with.

[Laurel Cove]

Thanks Honor for starting this thread and others for their contributions. All great ideas and several I hadn't thought of. I've been playing Township for a few years now and I'm still learning!

[Kasallee]

You will get very bored very quickly because now you need to expand more land! Enhance your zoo as you go. Add trees and decor which you will move a hundred times as you go, but might as well make it pretty while you work. It is a long process which it seems most get mad at. Just get mad about it! I moaned and complained for at least 20 levels before I really felt it! Get inspired with your zoo! It can be amazing! #KSMCP3

[Steveschin]

You will get very bored very quickly because now you need to expand more land! Enhance your zoo as you go. Add trees and decor which you will move a hundred times as you go, but might as well make it pretty while you work. It is a long process which it seems most get mad at. Just get mad about it! I moaned and complained for at least 20 levels before I really felt it! Get inspired with your zoo! It can be amazing! #KSMCP3

I was bored the other night and started playing around with my zoo. Before I realized it I had spent over 400,000 coins. Those baobab and jacarana trees are expensive.

I don't really have a tip. Im still at the early stage so I haven't really learned anything yet. I guess I would just say that if you are going to open your zoo it will really eat into your town development if you are serious about it. It takes a lot of gems which will hurt your power ups ( or whatever they call them) and any enclosures after the first few will really eat into your building materials and land expansion.

Bottom line is something has to give. If you really want to be serious about building your zoo be prapared for your town development to slow down, perhaps considerably.