Two animal-trading flows. In-zoo Animal Trading for self-adoption; Franchise Animal Marketplace for cross-platform async trades. Use Franchise Animal Storage as the cap and plan the breeding pipeline to fit it.
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In-zoo Animal Trading menu in Planet Zoo 2
The in-zoo Animal Trading menu is where a player adopts animals for their own zoo from a list of available species. The menu is opened from the Animal Trading button on the main HUD or from a habitat's release dialog. Adoptions arrive in Animal Storage, a per-zoo buffer where animals wait until they are released into a habitat. Animal Storage has its own cap, separate from the Franchise Animal Storage cap. The fastest workflow is to adopt an animal, place its preferred habitat setup, and release the animal into that habitat the same session. The Animal Trading menu is the same in Career, Franchise, and Sandbox; Sandbox unlocks the full launch roster, while Career and Franchise gate species by progress.
Franchise Animal Marketplace in Planet Zoo 2
The Franchise Animal Marketplace is the async cross-platform place where Franchise players send and receive animal offers. The marketplace runs across PC (Steam and Epic), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. The marketplace is async: a player sends an offer, the receiving player sees the offer in their inbox, and the trade is final when the receiving player accepts. Accepted offers move the animal into the receiving player's Franchise Animal Storage. There is no live trade interface and no live co-op. The Franchise marketplace is separate from the in-zoo Animal Trading menu: in-zoo adoption is for the player's own zoo, and Franchise trades are for cross-player species movement.
Breeding programmes and the Franchise Animal Storage cap
Every Franchise save has a finite Franchise Animal Storage cap, and every accepted offer counts against the cap. The cap is the main constraint on the breeding pipeline inside Franchise. A breeding programme that holds offspring for one or two generations before they are traded keeps the cap stable, while holding offspring for three or more generations will overflow it. The most efficient Franchise workflow is to keep the core breeding pair, accept targeted offers that match the breeding plan, and trade or release surplus offspring as soon as the welfare check and the genetic value of the offspring are confirmed. The species-specific layer in the Zoopedia includes the social group size and pair-bonding preferences, both of which inform the breeding plan.
End-to-end Planet Zoo 2 animal trading flow
Open the Animal Trading menu
Open the in-zoo Animal Trading menu (or the Franchise Animal Marketplace) and pick the species.
Adopt or send the offer
Adopt into the player's Animal Storage, or send a Franchise marketplace offer to another player.
Plan habitat or storage
Plan the habitat setup or the Franchise Animal Storage space for the incoming animal.
Release or accept
Release from in-zoo Animal Storage, or accept the incoming Franchise offer into Franchise Animal Storage and release it into a habitat when the welfare setup is ready.