Planet Zoo: New South America DLC Pack Announced

Image Source: Planet Zoo, via Steam

Quite possibly the headline game in this epic wave of wildlife-based games that we’re seeing, Frontier Developments is continuing to grow the experience of Planet Zoo with another DLC pack.

Owners of
Planet Zoo can already upgrade their animal and decorations rosters with the
Deluxe Upgrade Pack and Arctic Pack, and soon they’ll be able to bring in some
iconic South American animals and aesthetics.

On 7 April
2020, Planet Zoo will unleash the South America Pack alongside the free 1.2
update to the game.

Here’s what
you need to know.

New animals in Planet Zoo’s South America DLC

Of course,
the most exciting part of any Planet Zoo DLC is the new animals coming to the
roster.

With the
South America Pack, players will be able to adopt five new and iconic species
from the continent:

• Capuchin
  Monkey
• Giant
  Anteater
• Jaguar
• Llama
• Red-Eyed
  Tree Frog

Each of
these animals comes with its own list of challenges for you to complete to
settle them in your zoo.

As is the
case with all animals in Planet Zoo, you’ll need to meet the needs of the
capuchin monkey, giant anteater, jaguar, llama, and red-eyed tree frog once
they are introduced to your park.

Along with
the new fauna from the expansion, Planet Zoo will also be getting over 250 new
scenery pieces in the theme of South America. These include Aztec-style temples
and buildings, as well as South American rainforest flora and decorations.

To unlock
these five new animals in Planet Zoo, you’ll need to buy the DLC, which will
cost £7.99 ($10.99/€10.99) from the Frontier or Steam store when it launches on
7 April.

Free Update 1.2 details for Planet Zoo

The 1.2 Planet Zoo update, which also lands on 7 April, will be free for all players of the game. In a post to the Planet Zoo Steam page, the team announced that the Update 1.2 features several improvements that are based on community feedback.

These are some
of the highlights of the free Update 1.2 announcement:

• Animal Feeding
  • Food preparation time for the keepers has been simplified.
  • The filling of feeding stations has been made more efficient: keepers now sprint when there’s a critical task and while carrying buckets – they also fill stations closest to them first.
  • Players can utilise the new keepers’ thoughts feature to identify habitat issues.
  • Animals within the mixed-species habitats can now eat any upgraded shared foods, eliminating the issue of food theft that’s been causing hunger problems.
  • Animals in the juvenile stage cost less to feed, with consumption being relative to their estimated body mass.
• Difficulty Settings
  • The current game difficulty of Planet Zoo is medium, but Update 1.2 will allow you to select between Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulty.
  • You’ll be able to change the difficulty at any time in the settings and will now receive an option when loading a zoo to choose which difficulty setting to use.
• Genealogy
  • To help avoid inbreeding, the new Genealogy UI will enable you to see the bloodlines of animals and establish common ancestors.
  • You’ll also be able to make use of the new simplified genetic code mechanism, Genetic Identity, to look into deeper genetic information.
• Paths
  • Players will be able to click on a normal path to replace it with a staff path.
  • A new step height editor feature will be brought in, enabling you to set step height in increments of 50cm.
  • Staff buildings will now connect to the staff paths with a staff path.
  • When you double-click on a piece of path, you’ll open the Path Editor with that specific texture and type of path being selected automatically for further path construction.  
• Zoopedia UI
  • The development team has added a new search engine feature to the Zoopedia. So, you’ll be able to search for species by name or by scrolling through the Zoopedia’s UI.
• New Stuff!
  • Along with the multitude of additional updates and features (more of which are listed in the Planet Zoo blog post), Planet Zoo Update 1.2 will be bringing in lots of new items for you to place in your zoo.
  • There’ll be some new building pieces, enrichment items, and foliage, including moss rocks, tropical rocks, and the much-requested glass panels.

Planet Zoo was already a superb zoo simulation game, but as they’ve done with other games, Frontier Developments keeps on improving the experience with DLC packs and free updates.

The South
America Pack for Planet Zoo hits Steam and the Frontier Store on 7 April 2020.