Research is an important part of Planet Zoo 2; it helps improve animal welfare, increase fertility, unlock enrichment items, educate guests, and protect your animals against diseases. There are four areas of Planet Zoo 2 research to work through: Species, Enrichment, Education, and Disease.

Each offers different benefits, and some are much quicker to complete than others, but they’re all completed in the same way.

How to Start Research in Planet Zoo 2

To begin researching, you’ll need at least one vet and a Research Center. Open the Research menu, choose one of the four categories, select which vet you want to assign research to, and then choose what you want them to research. That’s all you need to do. You can also see further information about each option by clicking on it.

Within your Franchise, research is shared between zoos, so you won’t need to unlock everything again each time you open another zoo. Sandbox doesn’t include the option for research, although Research Centers are still available to build for no reason, unless of course you want to make a custom staff area with more buildings. You will automatically have access to all the enrichment and education options from the beginning.

Species Research

Species research covers every animal currently living in your zoo, including smaller exhibit animals. Selecting an animal shows its research progression and what each level will unlock. These rewards vary between species but include Thriving Requirements, fertility improvements, fact sheets, and the ability to release groups into Wildlife Reserves.

Getting your animals to 100% welfare isn’t the end of improving their home within the zoo. Thriving Requirements give you additional goals to help your animals thrive, which you can unlock through species research, in stages.

Unlike Thriving Requirements, fertility research isn’t essential for animals to reproduce. Your animals can still breed without completing it, but researching fertility increases their chances of successful conception.

Although most guest education has its own research category, species research can also unlock an educational reward, a Fact Sheet, which can be displayed on habitat education boards. This provides guests with more information than the basic nameplate available initially.

Some species can be released into Wildlife Reserves without additional research, but others require you to unlock Release Groups first, through research.

The order of these rewards varies between animals. Most species have between three and six research levels, with smaller exhibit and aquatic species often having fewer stages than larger habitat animals.

What Are Research Gates in Planet Zoo 2?

Some animals have a Research Gate partway through their research progression. When your vet reaches one, they won’t be able to continue researching that species until you’ve completed an additional requirement.

These requirements are usually connected to Wildlife Reserves. You can open the animal’s research profile and check the Research Gate to see exactly what you need to do.

Not every species has one; some animals can be researched fully without interruption. However, if your vet reaches a gate, they’ll remain assigned to that species even though they can’t make further progress, so I’d recommend reassigning them to something else while you complete the required task.

Enrichment Research: Unlocking More Toys and Feeders

You’ll have access to a few enrichment items without completing any research, but unlocking the full selection requires enrichment research. This category is divided into 22 categories: 10 types of food enrichment and 12 types of toy enrichment. Open each category to see the items you’ll unlock and which animals can use them.

Unlike species research, you don’t need to work through several levels for each category. Completing the research unlocks the associated items, which can then be purchased and used throughout your Franchise.

Education Research: Unlocking More Ways to Educate Guests

Anyone familiar with the original Planet Zoo will know that research has always played a part in improving guest education. However, Planet Zoo 2 takes this further. There are seven education research categories in total; Interactive Education Stations must be researched before you can purchase and place them in your zoo at all, with the other categories providing additional information for existing educational items.

Education boards, speakers, and conservation boards can be purchased from the beginning; however, the information available to display or play through them is limited. Researching the relevant categories unlocks more educational content, allowing you to offer guests a wider range of information about your animals, their behavior, and conservation.

Disease Research: Improving Immunity and Treatment

Disease research helps protect your animals against the various illnesses they can develop. There are 52 diseases to research, each with three levels: Advanced Diagnosis, Advanced Treatment, and Advanced Pharmacology.

Opening a disease’s research profile shows its danger level and which animals can be affected, helping you decide which diseases to prioritize. Research reduces the likelihood of animals catching diseases, shortens their recovery time, and delays death from critical illnesses, giving your vets more time to treat them.

Each research level improves these benefits further, making your animals increasingly resistant to the disease and giving them a better chance of surviving if they become infected. Any disease currently affecting your zoo will appear at the front of the research list, marked as an active disease.

How to Research Faster in Planet Zoo 2

There are two sizes of Research Center available in Planet Zoo 2. The smaller building accommodates one researching vet at a time, while the larger Research Center has room for six.

Vets researching a species split their time between the Research Center and the animal they’re studying, so if the building is too far from the habitat, they’ll spend more time walking around and less time actually researching.

They also have other duties to attend to, meaning research won’t necessarily progress constantly. You can adjust their responsibilities if you’d prefer them to concentrate on research, although you’ll need to make sure other vets are available to look after your animals.

Training your vets also helps them work more efficiently, so it’s worth investing in their skills.

I had hoped to get a nice screenshot of my vets hard at work in the Research Center; unfortunately, mine just stood around like lemons, smiling at the wall. The research got done anyway, though, so I suppose that’s what counts.