On PC, the complete Planet Zoo checklist is 38 Steam achievements. The fastest reliable approach is to clear introductory and career milestones first, then use a carefully managed long-running zoo for breeding, welfare, research, education and conservation goals, open the required Franchise zoos for geography achievements, and finish the full career medal ladder on both standard and hard difficulty. Console Edition uses a separate trophy list, so console players should not treat the 38 Steam entries as their checklist.
Scope: which Planet Zoo list applies to you?
Steam currently lists 38 achievements for the PC version of Planet Zoo. The game is a single-player simulation developed and published by Frontier Developments and released on November 5, 2019. Steam presents the base game and add-on packs as purchases, but achievement eligibility is determined by each achievement’s condition, not by a generic rule about every game mode or every piece of downloadable content.
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Frontier publishes a separate achievement and trophy list for Planet Zoo: Console Edition. Names, counts and requirements can differ, so this walkthrough is specifically the Steam/PC checklist. If you play on PlayStation or Xbox, use Frontier’s Console Edition list instead of assuming that these 38 entries transfer directly.
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The 38 Steam achievements
Use Steam’s live achievement page as the final authority if an in-game description or an older guide appears different. The table preserves the current official names and conditions; “not stated” means the published condition does not specify a mode.
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| # | Achievement | Official condition | Mode named in condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Welcome to Planet Zoo | Create your avatar and place them on the globe. | Not stated |
| 2 | Welcome to the Family | Adopt your first animal. | Not stated |
| 3 | Trainer | Fully train a member of staff. | Not stated |
| 4 | A superstar comes along | Have an animal reach a 5 star Animal Rating. | Not stated |
| 5 | Bronze Award | Gain a bronze award in career mode. | Career |
| 6 | Oh My! | Have a Lion, a Tiger and a Bear in your Zoo at any one time. | Not stated |
| 7 | Silver Award | Gain a silver award in career mode. | Career |
| 8 | Say Goodbye | Release your first animal. | Not stated |
| 9 | Gold Award | Gain a gold award in career mode. | Career |
| 10 | Life finds a way | Have your first baby animal born in your zoo. | Not stated |
| 11 | Enriched | Place 25 different Enrichment Items. | Not stated |
| 12 | Franchise Zoo | Open your first Franchise zoo. | Franchise |
| 13 | Baby Boom | Have 73 baby animals born. | Not stated |
| 14 | Animal Research | Complete the research on one animal in Franchise mode. | Franchise |
| 15 | Redecorating | Enable all enrichment items in an exhibit. | Not stated |
| 16 | This one’s a Keeper | Have at least three Keepers, each with a different work zone, in a Sandbox, Franchise or Challenge zoo. | Sandbox, Franchise or Challenge |
| 17 | Wow, that’s a lot! | Build a habitat with 30 animals in it that all have welfare over 75%. | Not stated |
| 18 | Ghost | Have an albino breed. | Not stated |
| 19 | Zoologist | Complete the Zoopedia. | Not stated |
| 20 | Loaner | Repay $50,000 in loans. | Not stated |
| 21 | Tour Guide | Build 1km of a tracked ride. | Not stated |
| 22 | Barrier Builder | Build 10km of barrier. | Not stated |
| 23 | Nerd | Achieve an Education Rating of 5 Stars in a Franchise zoo. | Franchise |
| 24 | Circle of Life | Have a Juvenile Lion be born in a Zoo containing at least 10 species. | Not stated |
| 25 | Rebuilding | Release 20 critically endangered animals to the wild. | Not stated |
| 26 | Community | Take part in a community challenge. | Not stated |
| 27 | Natural Selection | Have an animal in your zoo with a genetic makeup of over 90% in all categories. | Not stated |
| 28 | An Elephant Never Forgets | Adopt the retiring Indian Elephants in Scenario 7. | Scenario 7 |
| 29 | Career Complete | Complete all career levels to a bronze standard. | Career |
| 30 | The Elephant in the Room | Have two different breeds of Elephant born in your Zoo. | Not stated |
| 31 | Silver Career | Complete all career levels to a silver standard. | Career |
| 32 | Gold Career | Complete all career levels to a gold standard. | Career |
| 33 | Diversity | Open a zoo in every biome. | Not stated |
| 34 | Global Zoo | Open 25 Franchise zoos. | Franchise |
| 35 | Planet Zoo | Open a zoo on every continent. | Not stated |
| 36 | Hard – Career Complete | Complete all career levels to a bronze standard on hard difficulty. | Hard Career |
| 37 | Hard – Silver Career | Complete all career levels to a silver standard on hard difficulty. | Hard Career |
| 38 | Hard – Gold Career | Complete all career levels to a gold standard on hard difficulty. | Hard Career |
Best order for a first completion
1. Start with the tutorial-like milestones
Create your avatar and place it on the globe, adopt an animal, train a staff member to completion and work through an early career scenario. These actions teach the core interfaces while moving several low-effort achievements forward. Keep an eye on the career medal objectives before leaving a scenario; an award is credited for the stated medal, not for simply opening or finishing a level.
Allow a breeding pair to remain in a suitable habitat while you learn the management systems. The first birth can occur naturally during early play. When an animal reaches the required rating, avoid selling or releasing it before the achievement registers. The same caution applies to the lion, tiger and bear combination: all three must be present in the zoo at the same time.
2. Open a Franchise zoo early
Open a Franchise zoo as soon as you are comfortable with the basic controls. This unlocks the mode needed for the first Franchise-specific achievements and gives you a persistent home for research, education, breeding and conservation work. Use the animal research panel to assign scientists and let a complete research project finish; partial progress is not enough for Animal Research.
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Build one long-running zoo for overlapping goals
Starting a new zoo for every target creates unnecessary work. A stable Sandbox, Franchise or Challenge zoo can host the keeper work-zone setup, the 30-animal welfare habitat, enrichment placement, staff training, breeding projects, loan repayment and conservation releases. Mode eligibility still belongs to each individual achievement: never assume that a goal marked Franchise in the table will unlock in Sandbox, or that an achievement with no mode named is restricted to one mode.
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Staff, work zones and enrichment
Hire or assign three Keepers and give each one a different work zone. Make the zones clearly distinct, assign the appropriate habitats or facilities, and confirm that each Keeper is actually linked to a zone rather than merely employed. This one’s a Keeper lists Sandbox, Franchise and Challenge as valid environments, so you can use whichever of those makes the setup easiest.
For Enriched, place 25 different enrichment items rather than 25 copies of one item. The item catalogue and filters help you identify alternatives. Redecorating is a separate check: select one exhibit and enable every enrichment item required by the achievement in that exhibit. “Placed somewhere in the zoo” is not the same as “enabled in an exhibit,” so inspect the exhibit’s enrichment controls after installation.
Thirty animals with safe welfare
For Wow, that’s a lot!, plan the habitat around welfare before filling it. Choose a species combination that the habitat can support, expand space and shelter, provide enough food and water access, and monitor cleanliness, stress and social needs. Add animals gradually and pause to correct any red welfare indicator. The achievement evaluates the animals together, so one neglected individual can prevent the threshold from being met.
Loans, barriers and rides
Loaner is cumulative repayment, not merely taking out a loan. Borrow only what your cash flow can support, then make repayments through the finance interface until the required total is reached. Keep operating reserves for staff wages and veterinary emergencies; a forced sale can set back breeding and welfare plans.
Barrier Builder counts constructed barrier length. Lay out habitats with deliberate, usable runs rather than placing short decorative segments that do not form a functioning enclosure. Tour Guide similarly counts the length of a tracked ride, so place stations, connect the track into a working route and extend it until the distance shown by the ride tools reaches the requirement. Validate the ride and barrier network before investing in scenery.
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Plan breeding and conservation together
Births, genetics and the albino target
Keep a written or spreadsheet log of births, species, parents and genetic statistics. Baby Boom is a large cumulative target, while Natural Selection requires one animal to exceed 90 percent in every listed genetic category; those are different checks. Selectively breed high-quality animals, avoid releasing or trading your best candidates, and inspect the genetics panel before deciding that an offspring qualifies.
Ghost depends on producing an albino animal. Because the result is not guaranteed by ordinary breeding, maintain multiple compatible breeding lines and keep trying while you pursue the larger birth total. Record the successful animal and leave it in a zoo until Steam confirms the achievement.
Ten species and the juvenile lion
For Circle of Life, establish the required species collection first, then maintain a healthy lion breeding pair. Count species actually present in the zoo, not animals merely listed in storage or a trade centre. Wait for a lion juvenile to be born after the collection is in place; a juvenile born before the zoo reaches the species requirement does not retroactively satisfy the condition.
Two elephant breeds
The Elephant in the Room asks for two different elephant breeds born in your zoo. Identify the available breeds in the animal market, acquire compatible parents for each line, and keep the breeding records separate. Adoption alone is insufficient because the condition checks births. Plan space, food and long maturation times before committing to both lines.
Critically endangered releases
Rebuilding is a release-to-the-wild target for critically endangered animals. Use conservation credits and breeding records to acquire suitable stock, improve welfare and population management, then release qualifying animals through the animal-management interface. Release only animals that meet the required conservation status; an endangered or vulnerable classification does not substitute for critically endangered. Track completed releases so you do not confuse births, transfers or sales with releases.
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Zoopedia completion
Zoologist requires the Zoopedia to be complete. The published condition does not settle whether downloadable-content animals are required, and the answer can depend on the live game’s implementation. Check your current Zoopedia progress in-game before buying any add-on solely for this achievement. Fill missing entries methodically and verify that an entry is marked complete rather than assuming that owning one animal automatically completes every research or knowledge field.
Geography: biomes, continents and 25 Franchise zoos
Diversity, Global Zoo and Planet Zoo are easiest when treated as one travel plan. Keep a checklist of the biomes and continents you have already used, and create each new Franchise zoo with the next missing combination. Global Zoo counts 25 Franchise zoos, so a single zoo moved between locations does not replace the need to open the required number of distinct Franchise zoos.
The exact operational sequence—whether you open empty zoos, add a minimal habitat first, or build a full attraction—is a planning choice rather than a separate official rule. Use a low-cost template with a path, entrance, essential staff and one manageable habitat, then save and verify that the zoo appears in your Franchise list. Work through all required locations before investing heavily in decoration. Keep the continent and biome checklists side by side to avoid reaching 25 zoos while leaving one region unvisited.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Career medals and the hard-mode set
Standard career ladder
Bronze Award, Silver Award and Gold Award are individual career-level milestones. Career Complete, Silver Career and Gold Career are campaign-wide requirements: every career level must reach the named standard. Use the career screen to record the medal for each level rather than relying on memory or an overall campaign impression. If one scenario is below the target, the corresponding campaign achievement will remain locked even when most other levels are complete.
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Hard career achievements
Hard – Career Complete, Hard – Silver Career and Hard – Gold Career mirror the three campaign-wide standards on hard difficulty. Select the hard setting when starting or replaying the applicable career levels, then track each level’s medal independently. Do not assume that a gold result on normal difficulty contributes to the hard campaign set. Budget more time for staffing, cash flow, animal welfare and objective recovery, and save before major changes so a failed approach can be retried without rebuilding the entire level.
Scenario 7’s retiring elephants
An Elephant Never Forgets is tied specifically to Scenario 7. Load that scenario, follow its progression until the retiring Indian Elephants become available, and adopt them through the scenario’s intended interaction. A different elephant acquisition in another mode does not satisfy this scenario-specific trigger.
Community and online-dependent progress
Community requires participation in a community challenge. Open the community-challenge interface, read the active event’s contribution rules, and complete an eligible action while connected to the service. Event schedules and server availability can change, so an unavailable challenge is a timing or connectivity issue rather than evidence that the achievement has been removed. Confirm that your contribution is recorded before closing the game.
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Steam community guides may suggest that every achievement unlocks only in Career and Franchise, but that blanket statement conflicts with the official wording for This one’s a Keeper, which explicitly includes Sandbox, Franchise and Challenge. Follow the mode named by each Steam condition instead of applying an unofficial global rule.
Common reasons an achievement does not unlock
- Wrong platform list: Steam’s 38 entries are not the Console Edition trophy checklist.
- Wrong mode: Animal Research and Nerd explicitly require Franchise; This one’s a Keeper accepts the three modes named in its condition.
- Threshold reached by the wrong event: an adopted elephant is not an elephant born in your zoo, and a traded animal is not a release to the wild.
- Timing error: Circle of Life checks the zoo’s species count when the juvenile lion is born, while Oh My! checks that all three named animals coexist at one time.
- Incomplete setup: three Keepers need three different work zones, and Redecorating needs all required enrichment enabled in one exhibit.
- Campaign bookkeeping: campaign-wide medal achievements require every career level at the stated standard, including the hard versions for the hard set.
- Service delay: community progress and Steam unlocks can take a short time to synchronize. Return to the achievement list after the qualifying action and avoid immediately repeating destructive changes.
A practical completion checklist
- Complete avatar placement, first adoption, staff training, an early career award, first birth and first release.
- Open a Franchise zoo and begin animal research and education work there.
- Build the long-running zoo: separate Keeper work zones, enrichment variety, one high-welfare large habitat, breeding space and conservation facilities.
- Track the albino, genetic, lion-and-ten-species, elephant-breed, birth-count and critically endangered release goals in one log.
- Open Franchise zoos across every missing biome and continent while progressing toward 25 total.
- Finish Scenario 7’s elephant objective and complete the standard career medal ladder.
- Participate in a live community challenge.
- Replay every career level on hard difficulty and verify bronze, silver and gold campaign-wide achievements separately.
Steam’s own live checklist should be your final audit. It is the authoritative place to confirm the current wording, while the in-game career, Franchise, Zoopedia and community panels show which individual tasks remain. Following the condition for each achievement—rather than relying on broad mode claims from older guides—prevents most wasted runs.
Quick Recap
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