Planet Zoo 2 bugs, known issues and fixes

Most common issues at a glance

Planet Zoo 2 launched on October 13, 2026 and got two patches in its first week. In the 1.0.5 notes Frontier admitted that "general game stability has been below what we would expect".

Animals boxed too often

When an animal is moved, a Caretaker or Vet puts it in a crate and carries it to the destination, where it unboxes by itself. This needs a Trade Centre connected to the main path network.

Since launch, crates show up far too often: players describe up to 4 animals boxed at once in a single aquarium, and birds and fish boxed for no reason. One zebra died because a keeper held it in a crate for too long.

Frontier acknowledges this. The ongoing issues list in the 1.0.4 and 1.0.5 notes says: "Animals are being boxed more frequently than usual, including when migrating in wild areas".

What has been fixed so far:

• 1.0.4: animals are automatically boxed less often, and boxed animals in the Great Rift Valley opening cinematic,
• 1.0.5: boxed animals when loading Sumatra Reserve, and fish stuck outside the aquarium after moving a habitat.

Players disagree on whether it is better: one says that since 1.0.5 birds and fish are boxed non-stop, another that the patch removed the game-breaking bugs for them. Sportskeeda suggests replacing enrichment feeders and reshaping the terrain around the habitat (not confirmed by Frontier). More on aquariums in our aquariums and fish guide.

Keepers not feeding animals

Symptom: Keepers walk in circles or stand by the Keeper Hut, food is not restocked, and the game says keepers can't get to the habitats. One player says feeding fails in Franchise but works in Sandbox. Frontier does not mention this bug in the 1.0.4 or 1.0.5 notes, and the cause is unknown.

According to the official guide, a keeper needs a Keeper Hut near the habitat or aquarium to prepare food and restores energy in a Staff Room. Staff in a Work Zone use the buildings in their own zone.

What to check (player tips, not confirmed by Frontier):

1. Whether the Keeper Hut and Staff Room have power and show as "functional".
2. Whether the habitat has the right food container.
3. Create a new Work Zone with only the habitats, a Staff Room and a Keeper Hut. Some players had luck with the opposite: removing all zones.
4. If nothing works, report it on the Issue Tracker (link below).

Quarantine and the Trade Centre

An animal bought in the Trade Centre stays on "Moving to Quarantine" or keeps returning to the Trade Centre. Players suspect a missing route: the quarantine or the Trade Centre looks connected to the path, but is not. Frontier has not confirmed this and it is not in the patch notes.

Player tips (not confirmed by Frontier):

1. Exit to the main menu and load the game again.
2. Move the quarantine building so it is definitely reachable.
3. Delete the path to the Trade Centre and lay it again.

Releasing animals to reserves

The "Finalize Release Group" button does nothing, or the release cinematic ends and the animals stay. Players suggest checking every animal: pregnancy, illness or injury block the group, and if even one trait of an animal is below 25 the group won't form, and the game does not always tell you. For one player a mixed group would not release, while a solo male and a matriarchal group did.

Patch 1.0.5 fixed the wrong CC cost of Wildlife Reserves, but not the "Finalize" problem itself. Read more in our Wildlife Reserves and accreditation and Conservation Credits guides.

Crashes and stuttering after patch 1.0.5

Sources disagree here. Frontier says 1.0.4 and 1.0.5 brought "various performance and stability improvements", and 1.0.5 added better texture streaming and fixed several crashes, including with the Ecosystem Brush in Tanzania Reserve and with multiple commands on one key. Some players, however, report 2–3 second freezes since 1.0.5 when placing objects, sculpting terrain and moving the camera. Others say 1.0.5 removed their crashes. There is no aggregate data, and Frontier has not confirmed a performance regression.

If the game won't launch or keeps crashing, Frontier Support recommends:

1. Verify the game files on Steam and update your graphics drivers and Windows.
2. Disable overlays and recording (Steam, Discord, GeForce Experience, Xbox Game Bar, OBS).
3. Add the game to your antivirus exceptions, use full screen and lower the graphics settings.
4. When it crashes, click "Submit" in the report window.

Player tips (not confirmed by Frontier): turn off your VPN, and if the camera freezes after leaving the animal market, use the WASD keys instead of the mouse wheel. A PS5 player lowered the maximum guest count to 1000 and the crashes stopped, but that is a single report. The game uses Denuvo Anti-Tamper; nobody has shown that it causes the crashes.

Franchise: servers, saves and missing CC

Only Franchise needs an internet connection, so when the servers act up you still have Career and Sandbox, which work offline. Frontier confirms:

• after launch the servers were still being added, which could cause connection errors and too few animals on the market,
• 1.0.5 increased server capacity and the number of animals in Animal Trading, and extended the login window,
• a VPN can cause connection issues, particularly in Franchise,
• a username with a banned word inside it gets blocked by the profanity filter, and the game shows this as a connection error; the fix is a ticket to Frontier support.

Progress is the bigger worry. Players report thousands of CC vanishing after a Trade Centre transaction and zoos rolled back after visiting a reserve, in one case 40 hours of work. Frontier lists "save stability, and negating the loss of CC" among its priorities, but has not said it is fixed. Until it is, save manually and often.

Performance: 30 FPS, the CPU and the console limit

Frontier promises above 30 FPS on Medium settings with the minimum specs and 30 FPS on High with the recommended specs. Minimum is an Intel i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB RAM and an RTX 2060 (6 GB); recommended is an i7-10700K or Ryzen 7 5800X and an RTX 3070 (8 GB). The game takes 40 GB and an SSD is recommended.

In a big zoo the bottleneck is the CPU: the more animals and guests, the higher the processor load. You can tell when changing the graphics settings does not change your frame rate.

On PS5 and Xbox Series X|S the game has a complexity meter, a build limit that keeps it running smoothly. Patch 1.0.5 also removed a false complexity warning in zoos at 100%. Details in our Planet Zoo 2 on PS5 and Xbox guide.

How to report a bug

Report bugs you can reproduce on the Frontier Issue Tracker. Account and login problems go to Frontier support. When reporting a PC crash, attach a DxDiag file and your Steam64ID.

Patches since launch

In the 1.0.5 notes Frontier announced a permanent "under investigation" list of issues for the following week. On October 18, 2026 it was not up yet. Boxed console editions reach stores on October 20, 2026, so after installing from disc check that the game has downloaded the update. We will update this article after every new patch, and our beginner's guide covers your first steps in the game.