How to build a hard shelter in Planet Zoo

Animals in Planet Zoo have several requirements that must be met to keep them happy and ensure the protestors stay away, including a hard shelter requirement. Here’s how to fulfill that need.

Hard shelters in Planet Zoo protect the animals in your zoo from the elements, and they’re a place to stay away from prying eyes if their stress level gets too high. However, some animals will require more shelter than others.

If you’re struggling to meet the hard shelter requirements in Planet Zoo and want a fix, we’ve got the answers.

How to build hard shelters in Planet Zoo

There are two ways to build hard shelters in Planet Zoo, with the easiest being to use items already constructed in the game. You can use the filters to see what shelters apply to a specific animal by following these steps:

• Select the animal inside the exhibit.
• Navigate to the Terrain tab and select the Hard Shelter option.
• Select “Beds and Shelters” from the pop-up.
• Select “Shelters” from the sub-menu.
• Choose an appropriate shelter and place it inside the enclosure.

Some Shelters require Vet Research to be unlocked, but basic shelters are automatically available. If the Hard Shelter requirement is still not met, ensure the shelter is accessible and allows the animal to move underneath.

Enclosures with a higher amount of animals may require more Hard Shelter. Use the Traversable Area heat map to see whether shelters inside the enclosure are accessible to animals.

The other option to meet the Hard Shelter requirement is to build a shelter yourself using items in the game, such as rocks, roofs, and walls. As long as there is enough room underneath for the animal to pass through, it will count towards the Hard Shelter requirement.

The general rule of thumb is that anything that blocks sunlight or snow counts as a hard shelter if the animal can move beneath it—so the floating rocks in the image above count towards the hard shelter requirement of the tortoise.

Once you’ve got the height right for your custom hard shelter, use the heat map to ensure the area beneath what you have placed is traversable, add walls to make it more aesthetically pleasing, and add any other finer details.