Happiness and stars
Habitat happiness
Planting, space, food and group- Perfect100% happiness or morex1.8 guests
- Thriving85% happiness or morex1.5 guests
Content70% happiness or morex1.25 guests- Restless50% happiness or morex1 guests
Strugglingunder 50%x0.65 guests
Animals show a happy face at 80% and up and an unhappy one under 50%. Feeding a habitat's trays gives +15 XP, and keepers refill any tray under 60%.
The star rating
What the rating panel scores
ToiletsYour visitors need toilets, one for every 20 visitors. Too few costs stars, but never more than 1. A toilet only counts once a path reaches its door.
Food and drinkHotdog, ice cream and drinks stands count towards the rating, for up to 0.5 stars.
VarietyKeep as many different species as you can. It counts species, not animals: twenty rabbits count as one, and every new species fills the bar further.
Happy animalsKeep your animals happy, or visitors won't want to come.- Rainbow starsNormal stars can be upgraded to rainbow stars by getting rarer versions of animals. With rainbow stars, more guests come to visit.
Max stars by zoo level
| Zoo level | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max stars | 1 | 1.5 | 2 | 2.5 | 3 | 3.5 | 4 | 5 |
| Rating multiplier | x1.1 | x1.15 | x1.2 | x1.25 | x1.3 | x1.35 | x1.4 | x1.5 |
Where to go next
The habitat planner turns the happiness tiers into guests for a whole zoo, and the rainbow star calculator counts the points your rare animals earn. Favourite plants for every species are on the nature page.
Questions
How do you make animals happy in Zoo Builder Tycoon?
Happiness comes from four things the game lists on every habitat: planting (favourite plants count double), space for each animal, food in the trays and the right group size. Keepers keep trays full once you have a staff house.
What does 100% happiness do?
A habitat at 100% is Perfect and draws x1.8 guests, against x0.65 when Struggling. The first time a species and each habitat reach 100% pay +100 and +100 XP.
How do you get 5 stars?
Reach zoo level 8: the star cap rises from 1 at level 1 to 5 at level 8. Inside the cap, enough toilets, food stands, many species and happy animals fill it.
What do stars do?
Each star adds 10% to the zoo's rating multiplier, from x1 at no stars to x1.5 at 5. Rainbow stars add their own guest bonus on top, up to +25%.
