How to start a career
The career follows FEN (Fauna and Ecosystems Network). You join as its new Conservation Coordinator. You're guided by FEN Chairman Eric Ashford and by Alys, the Zoo Operations Manager, and the villain is the Envalza corporation.
- In the main menu, choose Career, then Start New Career +.
- Read the welcome letter from Eric Ashford.
- Pick the first location in Chapter 1 and click Travel to Wildlife Reserve.
When you start a level, you pick a difficulty: Easy, Medium or Hard. According to Metro, the game also asks whether you already know Planet Zoo and adjusts the tutorial to match. GameWatcher calls the career a "jumbo-sized tutorial". If you're new to the game, read our beginner's guide.
All 18 scenarios
Scenario and location names are as they appear in the English version of the game. The data comes from the fan wiki (wikily.gg).
| Ch. | Scenario | Location | Biome | Starting money | Unlock |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Wild At Heart | Earning Your Stripes | Great Rift Valley Reserve (reserve) | Grassland, Africa | Unlimited | from the start |
| 1 | Spreading Your Wings | East Africa | Grassland, Africa | $20,000 | Bronze in Great Rift Valley |
| 2 Paws on the Path | All A-Fjord | Nordic Fjords | Taiga, Europe | $25,000 | Silver in Great Rift Valley, Accreditation Tier 2 |
| 2 | Otterly Lush | South East Wales | Temperate, Europe | $30,000 | Bronze in Nordic Fjords |
| 2 | Grizzly Details | New England | Temperate, North America | -$2,000 plus a $10,000 loan | Bronze in South East Wales |
| 2 | Deer, Oh Deer | Scottish Highlands (reserve) | Taiga, Europe | Unlimited | Bronze in South East Wales |
| 2 | A Penny Learned | South Africa | Grassland, Africa | $20,000 | Bronze in South East Wales |
| 3 Claws and Effect | Mine Your Business | Sumatra Reserve (reserve) | Tropical, Asia | Unlimited | 7 Bronze + 1 Silver (disputed, see below), Accreditation Tier 3 |
| 3 | Creature Comforts | Java | Tropical, Asia | $10,000 | Bronze in Sumatra |
| 3 | Trot To Go | Rural France | Temperate, Europe | $10,000 | Bronze in Sumatra |
| 3 | Parakeet Paradise | Mountain Forests | Temperate, Asia | $10,000 | Bronze in Sumatra |
| 3 | Howls It Going? | Sweden Reserve (reserve) | Taiga, Europe | Unlimited | Silver in Sumatra and 11 Bronze medals |
| 4 FENtastic Opportunity | Mola Money, Mola Problems | Maluku Islands | Tropical, Asia | $15,000 | Bronze in Sweden, Accreditation Tier 4 |
| 4 | Not Much To Sea | Channel Islands | Temperate, Europe | $45,000 | Bronze in Maluku |
| 4 | Dragon, Ball, Zoo | Singapore | Tropical, Asia | $45,000 | Bronze in Maluku |
| 4 | No Ifs, No Putts | Poland Reserve (reserve) | Temperate, Europe | Unlimited | Bronze in Maluku |
| 4 | From A To Ski | Swiss Alps | Taiga, Europe | $45,000 | Bronze in Maluku |
| 4 | Take Pride | Tanzania Reserve (reserve) | Grassland, Africa | Unlimited | Bronze in Maluku |
Scenarios unlocked by the same medal can be played in any order. Bronze in South East Wales opens New England, Scottish Highlands and South Africa at once, and Bronze in Maluku opens the last five locations. How reserves work is covered in our Wildlife Reserves guide.
Medals and Career accreditation
Medals aren't just for show. Some objectives in a scenario stay locked until you have enough medals across the whole career. In Great Rift Valley, Silver needs at least 2 Career medals and Gold at least 5, so you'll come back to the first reserve later anyway.
Medals also raise your Career Accreditation Tier, which gives you new species in Trading, better Marketing and more animal storage:
| Tier | Medals required (per the wiki) | What it unlocks in the career |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 2 Bronze + 1 Silver | Nordic Fjords |
| 3 | 7 Bronze + 1 Silver | Sumatra Reserve |
| 4 | 12 Bronze + 2 Silver | Maluku Islands |
| 5 | 18 Bronze + 2 Silver | the highest Career tier |
You don't need any Gold for the highest tier. Frontier confirmed that Career and Franchise accreditation are separate: progress in one mode doesn't raise the other. Details in our accreditation and Conservation Credits guide.
Gold medal objectives at a glance
The split of objectives into Bronze, Silver and Gold comes from the fan wiki (wikily.gg). We haven't verified it in the game itself.
Chapter 1
- Great Rift Valley: 1 Shoebill Release Group, Biodiversity Rating 5 stars.
- East Africa: 12 terrestrial and 3 avian species, average welfare 80%, 5 Release Groups, Shoebill researched to Level 4, 10 newborns, Zoo Reputation 5 stars.
Chapter 2
- Nordic Fjords: 6 aquatic species, 8 shoal species, at least 10 Blacktip Reef Sharks, welfare 90%, Guest Education 4 stars.
- South East Wales: guest needs at 80%, a 5 star inspection report, Shop Profit $1,400 per season.
- New England: 1,500 guests, Profit $15,000 per season, Zoo Reputation 5 stars.
- Scottish Highlands: 25 Release Groups, Biodiversity 4.5 stars.
- South Africa: 15 species, 8 staff trained to 3 stars, 20 Research Levels.
Chapter 3
- Sumatra: Binturong, Sumatran Tiger, Sumatran Orangutan and Great Hornbill, 14 Release Groups in total, Biodiversity 5 stars.
- Java: no more than 4 Habitats for the whole scenario, a Thriving orangutan and hornbill, Shop Profit $10,000 per season, Zoo Reputation 4.5 stars.
- Rural France: 9 Thriving species, Guest Education 4 stars, Zoo Reputation 4.5 stars.
- Mountain Forests: a newly bred Giant Panda, Red Panda researched to Level 3, Zoo Reputation 4.5 stars.
- Sweden: Eurasian Brown Bear, 10 Release Groups, Biodiversity 5 stars.
Chapter 4
- Maluku Islands: 15 aquatic species, a Thriving Ocean Sunfish.
- Channel Islands: 11 species at 100% welfare, 4 seasons without protesters, Zoo Reputation 4.5 stars.
- Singapore: 7 species in one habitat, 10 Thriving species, 2 Komodo Dragons with Animal Appeal of at least 2,400, Zoo Reputation 5 stars.
- Poland: at least 5 Flourishing Ecosystems, Biodiversity 5 stars.
- Swiss Alps: Release Groups from the Taiga, Grassland and Tropical biomes, Zoo Reputation 4.5 stars.
- Tanzania: 15 Release Groups, at least 9 Established Ecosystems, Biodiversity 5 stars.
Tips for the hardest scenarios
Player guides cover Chapters 1–3; we haven't found any guide for Chapter 4 yet.
- Great Rift Valley: the zebra photo only counts with two zebras in the frame. Stop the vehicle far away and walk up on foot.
- Release Groups: finalised animals can't return to your zoo, and the objective stays blocked until the target ecosystem is Established.
- Nordic Fjords: the Water Filter needs power, and set the Aquarium to 28°C.
- South East Wales: when the otter habitat barrier is broken, use Box All Animals, then send the Mechanic.
- New England: don't pay off the loan before donations and shops bring in cash.
- Sumatra: the River Ecosystem needs enough water, and all three otters must be in one photo. Silver only opens after Bronze in Java, Rural France and Mountain Forests.
- Java: release the animals you already have first to free up Habitats. You can release the tapir and the crocodile only after researching them to Level 3.
- Mountain Forests: split the 20 parakeets between two aviaries of 10.
- Chapter 4: high thresholds already at Bronze: a Komodo Dragon with Animal Appeal of at least 2,600 (Singapore), 95% welfare (Channel Islands), 6 aquatic animals at 100% welfare (Maluku).
Patches 1.0.4 (October 14, 2026) and 1.0.5 (October 16, 2026) removed several career softlocks, including ones in Nordic Fjords, Great Rift Valley and East Africa. More in our bugs and known issues article.
Steam achievements tied to the career
Percentages from October 18, 2026, five days after launch, so they will rise quickly.
| Achievement | Requirement | % of players |
|---|---|---|
| Good Start… | Bronze in all Career Scenarios | 0.2% |
| Excellent Finish | Gold in all Career Scenarios | 0.0% |
| Credit Where It's Due | the highest Accreditation in any non-Sandbox mode | 0.2% |
| Job Well Done | release 20 Release Groups | 5.2% |
| Paradise | 5 stars in a Wildlife Reserve | 1.6% |
| Goodwin Park | 5 star reputation in a zoo | 0.5% |
The last three should come naturally with Gold medals. According to the wiki, changing the difficulty can affect whether you earn achievements, but it isn't clear yet which levels count.
The first-person opening and accessibility
The career starts with a first-person section: you walk with WASD and the game captures your cursor. On October 14, 2026, a player with a motor disability wrote on Reddit that they couldn't skip it. According to their edit from October 16, 2026, Frontier contacted them and is working on a fix. The same player says driving the vehicle in the reserve is optional, although the wiki lists "Enter the Research Vehicle" as a Bronze objective in Great Rift Valley.
What's disputed
- The character's name: officially Alys (gameplay trailer and the 1.0.5 changelog). Some guides and YouTube auto-captions say "Alice Jones", but no official source confirms the surname.
- Unlocking Sumatra: the wiki's scenario page says 7 Bronze, while the accreditation table says 7 Bronze + 1 Silver. In practice it doesn't matter: 7 Bronze requires Nordic Fjords, and Nordic Fjords requires Silver in Great Rift Valley.
- Difficulty: according to the wiki, it changes the simulation (for example, Guest Education ×1.75 on Easy and ×0.8 on Hard). Shacknews says it mainly decided how much the UI pointed you in the right direction. These may be two separate settings.
FAQ
How long is the career?
There's no reliable data yet. On October 18, 2026, HowLongToBeat had not a single reported completion.
Does the career raise Franchise accreditation?
No. Frontier: "Progressing further into Career will not advance your Franchise accreditation."
