Frontier Developments shipped Update 1.0.5 for Planet Zoo 2 on October 16, 2026. The patch lands three days after the zoo management simulation launched on Steam for Windows on October 13, 2026, as the game heads into its first post-launch weekend.
In the official 1.0.5 patch notes, Frontier said concurrent player numbers were “well above our expectations.” The studio also apologized for stability issues, especially in Franchise Mode, and wrote that general game stability “has been below what we would expect.” Frontier blamed the complexity of the simulation during the biggest influx of players.
Frontier named several high-priority areas after launch: Franchise Mode stability, crash and performance resolution, save stability and protection from Conservation Credit loss, the return of quality-of-life features from the original Planet Zoo that did not deploy correctly, and fixes for erratic animal behaviors and animations.
Franchise Mode and server connectivity
Franchise Mode gets the most direct changes in 1.0.5. Frontier increased server capacity and added more animals to the trading market. The patch balances male and female animals added to the market and balances male and female births, which should make breeding stock less lopsided. A longer login window has been introduced to reduce server timeouts, and the studio said loading a franchise zoo is now more stable.
The patch notes also explain two cases that can appear as connection failures. Some usernames are blocked by the profanity filter when a banned word appears inside the username, and this can surface as a server connection error. Affected players should file a support ticket. Frontier also warned that using a VPN while playing, especially in Franchise Mode, may cause connectivity issues.
Quality-of-life settings and construction fixes
Update 1.0.5 adds an Edge Scrolling option to Keyboard and Mouse settings, one of the features Frontier said did not deploy correctly from the original Planet Zoo. A settings bug that prevented several options from being saved after closing the game has also been fixed. For DLC owners, the Zoopedia no longer marks DLC animals as inaccessible incorrectly.
Sandbox and creative players should see fewer visual interruptions because texture streaming improvements reduce pop-in. Crash fixes cover the ecosystem brush and keybinding conflicts. Construction and Workshop fixes are included, along with a gamepad fix and localization corrections.
Career softlocks and animal fixes
Career mode players receive fixes for three specific blockers: a Moon Jelly Exhibit softlock, a Great Rift Valley giraffe softlock, and an East Africa Shoebill adoption softlock. Wildlife Reserves were also costing the wrong amount of Conservation Credits, and that cost error has been corrected.
Animal fixes in this patch include climbing animation improvements, corrected albino Meerkat textures, fish stuck outside aquariums, and African Penguins walking on water. A separate fix stops vet staff from remaining stuck while removing deceased animals.
For Steam Deck players, the update includes a PC/Steam fix for the inability to connect to the server on Proton 11 and newer. Frontier said that next week it will publish an “under investigation” news post that will be regularly updated to highlight key issues from its Issue Tracker. The fixes listed in 1.0.5 are live now, but broader behavior and stability problems remain tracked separately.
