Planet Zoo 2 Franchise mode: credits, trading and accreditation

How to start a Franchise zoo

1. Select the Franchise button and enter your Frontier account details. Without an account you have to sign up first.
2. Select Start New Franchise and confirm the franchise name, banner colour and sticker.
3. Pick a biome and a continent for the first zoo and name it.

Your franchise can now take part in Community Challenges. More zoos and Wildlife Reserves are added from the Planet Hub, which you open from the world icon.

Conservation Credits and cash

Conservation Credits (CC) pay for adopting animals. In Franchise mode they are shared by every zoo in your franchise, but cash is not: each zoo has its own. CC earned in Franchise mode cannot be used in the offline modes, and the other way round.

Update 1.0.6 (23 October) fixed habitat roof repairs that sometimes cost so much that a zoo's losses grew fast. As part of that fix, Frontier is resetting any player zoo with negative cash to $0.

Frontier lists these ways to earn CC:

• Releasing a release group into a Wildlife Reserve, or quick releasing an animal. Animals with a higher interest rating, in their prime and with high-rated genes earn more.
• In Franchise mode only: trading animals with other players, and contributing to Community Challenges.
• Conservation Projects, which most often pay out in CC and sometimes in animals or release groups (claim those under Gifts in Animal Trading).

Trading animals with other players

You need a working Trade Centre in the zoo you are in to use Animal Trading. Adopting an animal costs CC or cash, and it goes into Animal Storage, which every zoo in your franchise shares. Storage has a limit, and a higher accreditation tier raises it.

To sell, send the animal to the Trade Centre and list it. Other players can adopt it for CC at the price you set while the listing runs. If nobody adopts it before the listing ends, it returns to your storage. Only healthy, stable adults can be traded: not juvenile, gestating, elderly, sick or injured animals. In any mode you can also Quick Trade an animal for cash, Quick Release it for CC, or rehome it for a fee. In Franchise mode, Update 1.0.6 stopped quick-traded animals turning up in your storage and habitat animals sometimes losing the Quick Release option.

The market also gets animals from Frontier's own zoos, sold for cash. Frontier says it has added more animals to the market since launch, and update 1.0.5 offers a better mix of males and females there.

Accreditation in Franchise mode

A higher accreditation tier gives you new species in Animal Trading, better marketing, new types of Research Network and more animal storage. For marketing, a higher tier unlocks more campaign slots, up to 9 campaigns, and decides which campaign tiers (Bronze, Silver or Gold) you can pick; higher campaign tiers cost more and raise an animal's appeal more.

In Franchise mode the tier rises when your zoos have a high Zoo Reputation and your Wildlife Reserves a high Biodiversity Rating. Accreditation is kept separately for each mode, so finishing Career scenarios does not raise it. On 14 October Frontier said it was looking into player feedback on the accreditation requirements, and Update 1.0.6 (23 October) lowered them:

• Tier 3 now needs a 2-star Wildlife Reserve instead of a 3-star one.
• Tier 4 now needs 3-star Wildlife Reserves instead of 4-star ones.
• Tier 5 needs one fewer zoo and Wildlife Reserve than the 2 zoos and 3 reserves it needed before.

The same update moved some animals to a different tier, so that the tier better matches how common or easy to keep they are. Most of them are easy-to-keep exhibit animals and fish, and the first tier now has more variety.

Wildlife Reserves in a franchise

Franchise mode lets you set up Wildlife Reserves to release animals into. A release group earns CC, and a reserve's Biodiversity Rating counts towards your accreditation. Update 1.0.5 fixed Wildlife Reserves costing the wrong amount of CC in Franchise mode, and 1.0.6 fixed a crash when releasing animals into franchise Wildlife Reserves. Each species page in Frontier's Zoopedia lists the reserves it can be released into.

Franchise mode problems and fixes

In its 1.0.5 post, Frontier apologised for the stability problems some players have had in Franchise mode. Update 1.0.4 fixed several causes of instability and made more animals available for trading at the start; 1.0.5 made franchise zoos load more reliably, especially new and flat ones, and gave players longer to log in before a server time-out. In the 1.0.5 notes Frontier listed Franchise stability, save stability and not losing CC among its high-priority areas. Update 1.0.6 (23 October) keeps the CC that exhibit animals earn after a reload. It also fixed the autosave timer, which reset whenever you entered the Planet Hub and so stopped autosaves.

The same day, Hotfix 1.0.7 fixed choosing Resume on a franchise save, which showed a connection error and then stopped the game loading any mode. Frontier says those saves were not lost and asks players not to delete their saves folder. If you cannot get 1.0.7 yet, restart the game and enter the mode from its own button in the main menu instead of Resume. Every fix is in our Planet Zoo 2 patch notes.

If you cannot connect, note that Frontier says a VPN can cause connection problems in Franchise mode. A username with a blocked word inside it can also show a server connection error. Frontier emailed every affected player on 22 October from noreply@mailer.frontier.co.uk, and since 1.0.6 the sign-up and link-account screens no longer accept a display name that contains profanity. Its 1.0.5 notes asked affected players to raise a support ticket. Report other problems on the Planet Zoo 2 Issue Tracker.

Planet Zoo 2 has no co-op mode; our multiplayer guide sets out what the game offers online. For the habitats your traded animals need, the animal requirements calculator gives each species' minimum.

Common questions

Do you need to be online for Franchise mode?

Yes. Frontier says you must be online to play Franchise mode, and you sign in with a Frontier account, or create one, when you start.

Is Franchise mode multiplayer?

Not in the sense of playing together. Frontier's FAQ says Planet Zoo 2 has no multiplayer. In Franchise mode other players can adopt animals you list in Animal Trading, and you can contribute to Community Challenges.

Are Conservation Credits shared between Franchise and Sandbox?

No. Frontier says Conservation Credits are not shared between Franchise mode and the offline modes. Within one franchise, every zoo shares the same Conservation Credits, but each zoo keeps its own cash.

Does Career progress raise my Franchise accreditation?

No. Frontier says accreditation is separate for each game mode. In Franchise mode the tier rises with Zoo Reputation and Wildlife Reserve Biodiversity Rating.

Why can't I connect to Franchise mode?

Frontier has been fixing Franchise server problems since launch. Hotfix 1.0.7 (23 October) fixed a connection error when you choose Resume on a franchise save. Frontier names two other causes: a VPN, and a username with a blocked word inside it, which can show a server connection error. It emailed every player with an affected username on 22 October.

Which animals can you trade?

Healthy, stable adults. Frontier's guide says animals cannot be traded while juvenile, gestating, elderly, sick or injured. Update 1.0.4 fixed listing juvenile shoals for trading in Franchise mode.