Planet Zoo 2 research: the 4 types, what each unlocks and how to start

How to start research

1. Build a Research Centre from the Facilities tab of the Browser. It needs power and must be reachable on the path network. A Small one seats one researcher; a Large one has work stations for six.
2. Open the Research tab in the Browser and choose an area: Species, Enrichment, Education or Disease.
3. Browse the topics to see what each one unlocks and what it needs first, such as having the animal in your zoo.
4. Select a member of staff from Available Staff, then the topic.
5. Follow progress in the Active Research alert, the Research menu or the researcher's info panel. You can pause the research at any time to give that person another job.

When a topic is done, the game tells you what it unlocked. If the topic has another tier, your Vet starts on it straight away. Steam has two research achievements: Student, for fully researching one species, and Professor, for fully researching 80.

Who does research, and when

Vets and Keepers both research. Frontier's Staff guide says Vets take on research when they are not doing other jobs, and alternate between the Research Centre and the habitat of the animal they are studying. For species research, staff spend part of their time watching the animals at the habitat or exhibit and the rest in the Research Centre.

Care comes first. Staff put feeding, treatment and other animal care ahead of research, so a short-staffed zoo researches slowly. Hiring more staff, or a Large Research Centre with six work stations, gives research more hands.

Species research: education, release groups and Thriving

Species research unlocks four things. It can teach you the species' Education topic, let you form its Release Groups, boost its fertility and reveal its Thriving requirements. Thriving animals can live longer, guests donate more for each Thriving species, and each one raises the Animal Husbandry part of your Zoo Reputation.

Release Groups are where research meets Wildlife Reserves: Frontier's reserve guide says you may have to research a species in a zoo before its release group options appear. The minimum habitat each species needs while you study it is in our animal requirements calculator.

Research in Wildlife Reserves

Some species research can only be finished in the wild. Research Networks in a Wildlife Reserve open Research Gates and unlock the higher levels of species research, and a correctly set-up network also raises the reserve's Biodiversity Rating. Everything starts at the Research Outpost, the reserve's base; you need one before you can create release groups there.

• Observation Platforms form a network across the reserve. Keep their coverage from overlapping, which keeps the impact on animals low.
• Acoustic Monitors record the animals. The network is valid once the monitors cover enough of the ecosystem.
• Camera Traps photograph animals passing by. Each one has to capture a set number of behaviours, such as grazing and foraging; trees and other objects help you place them.

Research Rating is one of the two parts of a reserve's Biodiversity Rating, and outside Career a higher Biodiversity Rating raises your accreditation tier, which in turn unlocks new types of Research Network. Our accreditation guide covers what raises the tier. Which species each reserve accepts is in our Wildlife Reserves guide.

Education research and Guest Education

Each species has several Education topics. Guests are fully educated about a species once they have learned five of its topics, and the Guest Education part of Zoo Reputation looks at whether you have placed most of the topics for your animals. Education research and species research unlock those topics, so research feeds straight into your reputation.

Research fixes since launch

Update 1.0.4 (14 October 2026) made the Research menus easier to navigate. It also stopped blueprints that contain locked enrichment items from appearing before you complete the research that unlocks them. Every later fix, and what Frontier is still working on, is in our Planet Zoo 2 patch notes.

Common questions

How do you do research in Planet Zoo 2?

Build a Research Centre (Facilities tab of the Browser) with power and a path to it, open the Research tab in the Browser, pick an area (Species, Enrichment, Education or Disease), pick a topic, then choose a member of staff to work on it.

Who does research in Planet Zoo 2?

Vets and Keepers. Frontier's Staff guide says Vets research when they are not doing other jobs, alternating between the Research Centre and the animals' habitats. Staff put tasks such as feeding and treatment ahead of research.

Does research carry over between zoos?

Yes. Frontier says research you complete counts across your whole Planet Hub, so every zoo and Wildlife Reserve in your Hub benefits from it.

Why is my research not progressing?

Check that the Research Centre has power and can be reached on the path network, that the researcher is not busy with care tasks, which come first, and that the topic's requirements are met (some need the animal to be housed in your zoo). Some species research also needs a Research Network in a Wildlife Reserve.

How do you unlock Thriving requirements?

Research the species. Frontier says Thriving requirements are discovered through species research, which for some species means releasing them and studying them in the wild.