Planet Zoo 2 Scenery Themes: 4 New Themes and 5 Returning

Scenery themes are the architectural vocabulary of Planet Zoo 2. Every fence, bench, lamp post and façade you place belongs to a theme — a curated style that keeps your zoo visually coherent instead of a jumble of mismatched parts. Frontier has confirmed the launch line-up: four brand-new themes plus five returning favourites from the original Planet Zoo, together covering iconic architecture from around the world.

Why Themes Matter More Than You Think

A theme is more than a skin. It is a shortcut to atmosphere. When every building in a district shares a palette, a material language and a design era, guests read the area as a place rather than a pile of assets — and themed areas are what turn a functional zoo into a destination. Themes also discipline your building: constraints breed creativity, and working within one theme’s kit often produces better results than unlimited choice.

Planet Zoo 2’s themes span the globe by design. Frontier’s official description promises zoos built across “globe-spanning biomes,” and the theme line-up is built to match — each style evokes a region’s architecture, so your zoo can sit naturally in a Scandinavian valley, an East Asian forest or a tropical coast. Nine themes at launch — four new, five returning — give the sequel the broadest architectural palette the series has shipped with on day one.

The Four Brand-New Themes

Frontier has officially showcased four new themes for Planet Zoo 2, each with a confirmed personality.

The North theme is hardy and robust, bringing the rugged scenery of the northern hemisphere’s colder regions to your zoos. Think timber, stone and structures built to shrug off long winters — a natural fit for alpine maps and boreal habitats.

The East theme is exotic, bright and tranquil, packed with scenery that turns your zoo into a tropical paradise. Warm colours, ornate detailing and lush planting define it — the obvious partner for rainforests and Asian-inspired areas.

The South theme is wild at heart, with organic and elegant scenery that gets back to nature. Expect natural materials, curves and forms that blend into terrain rather than compete with it — ideal for reserves and safari-style parks.

The West theme is homely and temperate, bringing the pastoral to your zoos with classic, timeless vistas. It suits gentle countryside maps and the kind of traditional zoo layout guests instinctively find welcoming.

Together the four new themes cover cold, tropical, naturalistic and temperate architecture — a toolkit for nearly any biome you build in.

Five Themes Return from Planet Zoo

Alongside the newcomers, Frontier has confirmed that five themes return from the original Planet Zoo. Frontier’s official features page highlights the Planet theme as the foundation: packed with the essentials for any zoo, including returning favourites — the general-purpose kit that gets any park started regardless of setting.

The returning line-up matters most for veteran players. Five years of community creations, workshop habits and muscle memory built around the original game’s style kits carry forward, and blueprints built from returning pieces should feel instantly familiar. If you are coming from the first game, expect your favourite architectural vocabulary to be waiting for you. Our blueprints guide explains how ready-to-place blueprints draw on these theme kits.

For new players, the returning themes are the friendly option: a proven, general-purpose visual language that looks coherent even when you are still learning which pieces exist. Starting with the familiar kit and branching into the new themes as your confidence grows is a natural progression.

Theming on a Budget

Themes also interact with economy. In Career and Franchise modes, every scenery piece has a cost, and lavish theming is one of the easiest ways to drain a young zoo’s account. The disciplined approach is to theme where guests congregate — entrances, main avenues, flagship habitats — and stay utilitarian behind the scenes. A food court in full East theme beside a plain staff corridor is good economics, not lazy design.

Invest gradually. Each new exhibit can carry one themed “moment” — a gate, a bridge, a viewing shelter — rather than a fully dressed set. Over years of game time, those moments accumulate into a zoo that feels richly themed without ever having broken the bank.

Themes Across Globe-Spanning Biomes

The confirmed biomes give themes their stage. An alpine valley map with cold-climate species begs for North architecture; a tropical coast with aquatics wants East. The gameplay reason to care: themed scenery boosts guest appeal, and guests who feel transported linger longer and spend more. That makes theme choice an economic decision in Career and Franchise modes, not just an artistic one — a point our Franchise mode guide returns to.

Do not feel locked to one theme per zoo. District theming — a South-themed reserve zone flowing into a West-themed guest plaza — creates the sense of a journey through world cultures that globe-spanning biomes are designed for. Transitions matter more than districts: blend two themes gradually over several path lengths with flexi-colour, shared planting and repeating motifs, so the shift feels like travel rather than a costume change.

How to Choose a Theme

Match three things: your map’s biome, your flagship animals, and your ambition. Cold map plus bears and wolves equals North. Tropical map with elephants and tigers equals East. A reserve-focused park equals South. A first, friendly, traditional zoo equals West or the returning Planet kit. When two themes both fit, pick the one whose architecture you can picture repeating across a dozen buildings — consistency is what guests remember.

Whatever you choose, commit early. Coherent theming from the first path pays off in guest approval long before your zoo is finished, and a half-themed map costs more to fix than a modest one costs to extend. New species and theme details will keep arriving after launch, so follow our animal reveals tracker and the update tracker as the library grows.