Planet Zoo 2 launched on 13 October 2026 at 3pm BST, and its first post-release patch followed about 24 hours later. Update 1.0.4 went live on 14 October at 2pm BST and is, in Frontier Developments’ own words, “now available on all platforms.” The studio’s Steam post called it “our first post-release update, tackling a number of key concerns you’ve highlighted so far,” and the same post says a second update is already planned for the end of that week. Here is what 1.0.4 changes, roughly in the order a player will feel it.
What this covers: the fixes shipped in Planet Zoo 2 Update 1.0.4 — DLSS and FSR selection, custom keybindings that stopped sticking, Franchise Mode stability and trading, fewer automatically boxed animals, gentler loan interest, and the new default angle-snap increment. Why it matters: this is the first patch after launch, and it repairs several systems that were working against the player — settings that would not hold, menus that broke hotkeys, and animals that escaped or boxed themselves mid-session. Who should care: PC players who lost performance or lost keybinds, Franchise players trading animals late at night, and anyone who watched a habitat empty itself without an obvious cause.
The headline fixes at a glance
Frontier splits the notes into themed blocks — Stability & Performance, Career, Franchise, Sandbox, Animals, Exhibits, Park Management, Park Construction, Wildlife Reserves, Workshop, Avatar Editor, Settings, Gamepad, Localisation, Misc and Platform Specific. The blocks most players will notice first are the ones below.
| Area | What 1.0.4 changes | Who it lands for |
|---|---|---|
| Graphics (PC) | FSR and DLSS “should now function correctly when selected in the Graphics menu” | PC (Steam, Epic, Winstore) |
| Graphics preset (PC) | The “Ultra” preset now sets Foliage Detail to Very High | PC |
| Controls | Custom keybindings no longer reset when opening the Hub, Animal Trading or Animal Storage | All platforms |
| Controls | A customisable keybinding was added for the Scale option under “Object Placement Controls” | All platforms |
| Audio | Resolved distortion when cycling through heatmap tabs | All platforms |
| Franchise Mode | Several stability factors resolved, greater access to initial animal-trading volumes, juvenile Shoals can be listed for trade | Franchise |
| Animals | Improvements to navigation, fewer automatic boxings, plus fixes to escapes, climbing animations, enrichment, breeding, shoal welfare and temperature | All platforms |
| Park Construction | Default angle-snap increment reduced to 1 degree, from 15 degrees | Builders |
| Park Management | Reduced interest rates on low-level loans | Career / Franchise |
| Stability | Several crashes fixed, including an undo/redo hardlock during terrain sculpting | All platforms |
| Sandbox | Editable areas on several maps updated; terrestrial animals no longer removed when exporting a zoo as a sandbox map | Sandbox |
Graphics: DLSS and FSR now respect the menu
The PC graphics bug is the one that drew the most outside attention. Frontier’s notes state plainly that “FSR and DLSS should now function correctly when selected in the Graphics menu,” which addresses a case where the upscalers were selectable but not actually taking effect. The same platform block raises the “Ultra” graphics preset so it sets Foliage Detail to Very High.
GameWatcher’s write-up notes a limit on what Frontier confirmed: players had also reported problems with Frame Generation, but “Frontier’s notes specifically confirm fixes for DLSS and FSR rather than detailing a separate Frame Generation correction.” That distinction is worth keeping — 1.0.4 is a fix for two named upscalers, not a blanket statement that every frame-rate-related setting was reworked.
Keybindings stop resetting — and Scale gets its own bind
The second widely felt fix is a controls bug rather than a performance one. Frontier’s Settings block reads: “Fixed an issue where custom keybindings were being reset when opening the Hub, Animal Trading, or Animal Storage.” Anyone who rebound keys and then dipped into the animal-trading menus had been losing that work; the notes close that route. The same block adds “customisable keybinding for Scale option under Object Placement Controls,” giving the object-scale tool a bind of its own.
Two smaller control fixes ship alongside it. On gamepad, players can now favourite Animal Market listings, and a single key can delete every item in one multiselected group.
Franchise Mode: stability, and more animals to trade
Franchise Mode gets a cluster of changes rather than a headline. The Key Changes list opens with “Resolved several factors affecting Franchise Mode stability” and “Provided greater access to initial animal trading volumes in Franchise Mode.” The dedicated Franchise block adds three specific repairs: juvenile Shoals can now be listed for trading, the Community Challenge panel displays all of its information, and release groups show the correct Conservation Credit reward value on completion. On PS5, player info now appears in the Franchise Animal Trading menu.
The same week’s Steam post ties those fixes to a scheduled disruption: Frontier warned that “tomorrow (Thursday 15 October) there will be a short window of planned maintenance,” expected “around 07:00 BST (02:00 EDT / 01:00 CDT),” during which “online features, such as Franchise mode and the Workshop will be unavailable,” lasting “approximately one hour.” The studio said it had “already made some significant changes behind the scenes on Franchise mode stability and increasing the availability of species in Animal Trading.”
Animals: fewer boxings, fewer escapes
The animal changes are the ones Frontier frames as unfinished work rather than a closed ticket. Update 1.0.4’s Ongoing Areas of Focus — described as areas “the development team have identified for ongoing improvements, due to the complex nature of Planet Zoo 2’s simulation” — lists animals that “don’t align with their enrichments correctly on occasion,” animals that “sometimes erroneously escape from habitats during certain behaviours,” and animals “being boxed more frequently than usual, including when migrating in wild areas.”
The shipping changes in that block include “a reduction in the frequency animals are automatically boxed” and improvements to escapes, climbing behaviour, enrichment interactions, breeding frequency and success rate, shoal welfare requirements, and temperature calculations and notifications. Frontier also fixed some animals not showing injuries “after fights or predation,” feeder enrichments that would not show food for particular species, Shoals that teleported after dying, a nest-camera location error, and juvenile birds in Wildlife Reserves getting stuck in the nest if their group migrated while they matured. Social group welfare information was added to shoal info panels, and both the Zoopedia and the animal cohabitation lists received updates.
The framing matters for setting expectations. The notes say climbing, jumping and pouncing “will see ongoing improvements” — future tense — and the studio repeated in its Steam post that it is “continuing to investigate key areas for improvement, such as animals climbing, escaping and using their enrichments.”
Construction, maps and the loan change
For builders, the quietest change may have the largest effect: “Reduced the default angle snap increment to 1 degree rather than 15 degrees.” Piece-by-piece construction is built on small rotations, and a 15-degree default made fine placement a fight; 1 degree brings the default in line with that workflow.
| Change | Detail |
|---|---|
| Angle snapping | Default increment now 1 degree, down from 15 |
| Habitat barriers | Placing a barrier after the nature brush no longer disables mouse and keyboard hotkeys until another interface opens |
| Sandbox map edges | Editable areas updated on one Grassland map (car park), one Temperate map (village), one Tropical map (beach placement and buildings) and the China sculpted maps (whole plateau) |
| Scenery and tools | Flexicolour fixed for the Planet Wood Roof set; the Demolish Brush remembers its set height; a button was added to remove waterlogged and snow terrain |
| Pathing | Fixed several issues with how invisible paths and path extras were hidden |
| Snap to Adjacent Heights | Barrier option now functions correctly |
Park Management carries its own batch: interest rates on low-level loans were reduced, which softens the early-game squeeze that hits new Franchise and Career zoos; guests no longer float on certain seating; inconsistencies between park reputation and animal welfare were fixed; average donations after a season tick-over are now consistent; and some guest and staff facilities are correctly highlighted in the relevant heatmaps. The heatmap-tab audio distortion fix — “Resolved audio distortion when cycling though heatmap tabs” — sits here too, and it matters to anyone who audits a park through those tabs. That habit is familiar from Frontier’s other management sim; our Planet Coaster 2 Water Park Guide leans on the same Utilities heatmaps to check Power Supply and Water Cleanliness.
Career, Sandbox and the smaller repairs
Career Mode fixes target progression edge cases: later save slots no longer echo save slot 1’s medal total and prematurely unlock levels, scenario data clears correctly when moving between hubs, boxed animals no longer appear in the opening cinematic of the Great Rift Valley Reserve scenario, the next scenario unlocks reliably even if the player saves and quits before finishing, Great Rift Valley audio no longer cuts off unexpectedly, and the New England scenario now asks for a gift shop rather than a souvenir shop. Completing the career also unlocks new Avatar Editor costumes.
Sandbox gets two changes: several terrestrial animals are no longer removed when a career or franchise zoo is exported as a sandbox map, and the map-edge updates in the table above. Wildlife Reserves sees zoo-specific blueprints removed from the object browser and a fix for animals that would sometimes teleport. The Workshop repairs restore creator-profile viewing through the object browser in Career Mode and fix a chosen thumbnail not loading when a blueprint is uploaded.
Stability work runs through all of it. Frontier lists a crash when moving scenery out of a scenery group, a crash when entering and exiting the Hub quickly, a crash when multiselecting multiple blueprints at once, an “occasional hardlock caused by selecting undo while using terrain sculpting tools,” and an occasional inability to place objects after pressing TAB. Console players get two platform-specific lines: the PS5 Franchise Animal Trading menu now shows player info, and on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S “audio during career cinematics now pauses correctly when entering console OS menu.”
Launch week’s other payload
Update 1.0.4 was not the only thing added in Planet Zoo 2’s first 48 hours. The Steam DLC page lists the paid extras that went on sale with the game on 13 October.
| Content | Price | Released | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planet Zoo 2: Deluxe Upgrade Pack | $17.99 | Oct 13, 2026 | “an additional 6 animal species from across the globe, as well as a selection of exclusive animal signs” |
| You, Me & Sanctuary, The Music of Planet Zoo 2 | $9.99 | Oct 13, 2026 | soundtrack “featuring music by J.J. Ipsen and additional composers” |
| Planet Zoo 2: Bonus Content Pack | $2.99 | Oct 13, 2026 | pre-purchase bonus content |
On Steam, the store page bundles the base game and the Deluxe Upgrade Pack as the Deluxe Edition. The same page carried a Mixed reception at the time of writing — “Mixed (1,500) - 63% of the 1,500 user reviews for this game are positive” — and a Metacritic score of 85. That split is a useful lens on 1.0.4: the patch targets the class of problems that tends to drive early negative reviews, without touching content.
What’s still open, and what’s next
Three threads run past the patch. First, the second update: Frontier’s Player Feedback post says “another update planned to arrive this Friday, ahead of the weekend.” With that post dated 14 October and describing the Thursday maintenance as “tomorrow,” the Friday in question is 16 October.
Second, accreditation. The same post clarifies that “your accreditation is entirely separate for each game mode, meaning there is no requirement to play Career mode to improve your franchise accreditation rating or vice versa.” It spells out the two routes: in Career Mode, “your Accreditation Tier is increased by gaining medals from scenario zoos and Wildlife Reserves”; in Franchise Mode, you “increase your Accreditation Tier by having zoos with a high Zoo Reputation, and Wildlife Reserves with a high Biodiversity Rating.”
Third, reporting. The patch notes and the Steam post both push players toward Frontier’s issue tracker for anything still broken, and the notes say the team is “continuing to work on additional fixes” while monitoring Franchise Mode stability and investigating feedback on the core creative toolset. At the time of writing, Frontier’s update-notes index listed just one entry — 1.0.4, dated 14 October 2026. The Friday patch has since been added there as 1.0.5, dated 16 October.