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Merge Zoo Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies to Evolve Your Zoo

Animals have always been a fascinating conversation piece. There is just so much that we don’t know about them, and yet they’re everywhere.

Usually, when we’d like to know more about certain kinds of animals, we’d look them up, watch documentaries, or even go to zoos. The best part about going to zoos is that you get to actually experience or see the animal in the flesh. Because you’re one of those that paid for admissions, you’re the reason why the zoo has an income and that is exactly how Merge Zoo works!

merge zoo intro
You bet your sweet bippy I am.

From the makers of Coin Dozer and Taps to Riches, Merge Zoo is a fast-paced, idle business simulator. In Gamer Circus’ mobile game, your goal is to grow your zoo and bring rare animals out to win the hearts (and money) of your visitors. The animals have one thing in common; they’re all unbearably cute. See the image below for an effective example.

merge zoo title panda
D’aww lookit the cute widdle panda!

While the game in itself is simplistic in nature, it has its fair share of complexities and challenges. Its quests can be difficult and the waiting times can be long. Regardless of the task, Merge Zoo is a game that’ll keep you coming back for more. If you’re looking to have the best zoo in the world filled with nothing but the rarest creatures, follow our tips in the guide below!

As a bonus, we’ll make this guide an educational one peppered with trivia on animals both existing and mythical!

1. Ads Are Your Friends

merge zoo ad doubler
Make that double, please!

Before you read the rest of this item, yes there are a lot of ads. But hear us out; watching any or all of these ads will be beneficial to your overall experience.

Ads offer tons of rewards for watching them. They appear in Lucky Events, the Fortune Wheel, and doubling your rewards. Whenever ads pop up, take that opportunity to give them a watch.

While many of them (especially mobile gaming ads) may seem silly or crazy, consider it a spot of brief immersion-breaking entertainment rather than an annoying hurdle. After watching a couple, you’ll find yourself swimming in riches.

Did You Know? Contrary to popular belief, pandas are actually omnivorous. They will occasionally eat meat or fish, but 99% of their diet consists of their favorite meal: bamboo.

2. Animal Care 101

merge zoo collection
Who should be out there earning…?

Your animals are the stars of your zoo. Without them, or with the lack of them, your zoo business would certainly be over. Of course, the best way to get good at this game is to care for your animals.

You can start by making sure that you prioritize your highest earner. While the other, more common, animals support it, your strongest animal should be a focus. For example, a Legendary animal will earn much more than a Common animal, and that should be your focus.

That doesn’t mean you should ignore your lesser animals, however. Along the way, you will earn items called Treats which can be used to evolve animals. Evolving your animals is a surefire way to get them to earn even more than before. One way you can earn treats is by donating duplicate animals from your collection.

Eventually, you will be gaining more habitats in your zoo. This will allow for even more animals and, in turn, more money. Depending on which Zookeepers you have (we’ll talk about those later), those numbers will rise even more quickly.

Finally, when you have the opportunity to hatch Hybrids, don’t miss out on them. Hybrids are powerful additions to your zoo, giving extra income due to their high rarity. Hybrid Animals are quite unusual in appearance and can most certainly give better payouts. Focusing on these marvels of science as well will rake in more cash for your zoo.

Did You Know? A Raiju is a dog wreathed in lightning from Japanese mythology. The Raiju is said to take the form of lightning bolts in the sky when it travels and is the loyal companion of the Japanese god of lightning, Raijin.

3. Cheaper Candy Is Better

merge zoo cheap candies
Time for some rapid-fire merging!

As you continuously merge your candy, it grows in quality. Over time, you will realize that some pieces could be more expensive than the others. To economize on your expenses (and keep yourself busy), opt to buy cheaper candy more than the higher-leveled ones.

The reasoning behind this is you give your animals a chance to earn as you make their food. You’ll consume your funds at a much slower pace and you’ll only occasionally pay for the more expensive candies when you want to make those well-timed merges.

However, if your quest requires you to buy candies of a specific level, only take this on if you’re confident that you have enough cash in your wallet. There’s nothing more disappointing than having a board full of candy with mismatched levels. You can sell these candies to earn back some of the money, if you desire.

Did You Know? A tiger’s stripes are like their version of a fingerprint. The same goes for zebras, giraffes, leopards, cheetahs, and jaguars. These patterned animals definitely have their own identities!

4. Take Advantage Of Lucky Events

merge zoo candy rush
Are you feeling it yet?

Occasionally, you will notice a shamrock-crested box that lands on your board. This is what you call a Lucky Event.

Lucky Events give you a few different bonuses. They help your animals earn more or provide you with more candies to merge. A few examples of Lucky Events are below:

  • Candy Rush – Random candies within boxes fall onto your board for a set number of time. This Lucky Event is best experienced with double duration (meaning, you have to watch an ad if possible). This one is also especially effective in raising the levels of any or all of your candies at a much quicker rate than usual. Not to be confused with Extra Candies.
  • Auto Merge – For a limited time, all candies on your board will merge by themselves. To take advantage of this, buy the cheapest candy you can repeatedly until the Lucky Event ends.
  • Profits Party – Your animals will earn more money increased by a multiplier for a short while.
  • Bonus Gold – You will be given a reasonable amount of gold.
  • Bonus Gems – You will receive a number of gems.
  • Bonus Badges – You are given a small amount of Zookeeper Badges.
  • Extra Candies – A small number of candies will be put on your board.

Did You Know? The Nanook is a fabled bear of Inuit origin. It is said that the Nanook was in charge of deciding on the success of bear hunters. Those who managed to displease the Nanook by not paying fallen bears respect (e.g. hanging the hunted bear’s fur over a specific part of the hunter’s igloo) will be eluded by their future hunts.

5. Try To Complete Animal Sets

merge zoo animal sets
That Rainbow Leopard is mine!

As you keep playing, your animal collection will grow. But there are perks to completing a specific animal collection or an animal set. One such perk is being able to obtain a rare animal.

Not only will collecting animals awaken your inner completionist, but it will give you a sense of greater purpose and adventure. One day, you might focus on gathering canines, and the next you might focus on obtaining birds or pachyderms.

Additionally, completing an animal set will give you a fair amount of gems. With each new animal discovered, you will want more out of the eggs you receive. While it’s evident that eggs are completely RNG, this just adds to the excitement of getting a new animal.

Did You Know? Macaws are among birds with the longest lifespans in the animal kingdom. For instance, blue and gold macaws have been recorded to live up to 80 years and longer!

6. Upgrade The Zookeepers You Need

merge zoo zookeepers
The supporting cast!

After reaching a certain level, you will unlock Zookeepers. These are people who specialize in properly handling specific types of animals or other factors affecting your zoo.

Zookeepers improve the income generated per animal type. This means that each Zookeeper present allows animals of certain categories (canines, felines, hoofed, pachyderms, etc.) to earn more with a boosted multiplier. For example, the Zookeeper named Mike specializes in canines, thus leveling him up will boost the earnings of all canines in your zoo.

All in all, it depends on what kinds of animals you have in your zoo. In general, we recommend upgrading Alberto and more importantly, Eva, who gives a boost to your overall earnings.

merge zoo eva
This is the woman in question.

These multipliers stack on top of the Zookeepers you have already upgraded.

Did You Know? Dragons are legendary reptilian creatures bearing four limbs and a pair of wings. If a dragon bears only a pair of wings and a pair of limbs, it’s classified as a wyvern, a subspecies of dragon. Therefore, all wyverns are dragons, but not all dragons are wyverns! East-Asian dragons are noted to have wingless, serpentine bodies but are still able to fly.

7. Complete Your Quests

merge zoo hard quest
This one’s a doozy!

Quests are one of the many things that can drive a player forward in a game. It guides the player whilst even teaching them more about the game’s mechanics. Merge Zoo’s quests constantly get updated with each completion.

Completing quests gives players treasure boxes which may contain various material for upgrading the zoo and its animals. If they aren’t treasure boxes, they’re eggs that could contain new animals or Hybrids.

If it seems like completing a quest takes forever, don’t worry too much about it; these quests are gradually completed. You’ll just need to wait until you have enough resources to buy out the proper candies or spend those resources to hit that one goal. These quests do not have a time limit and it’s best to accomplish these all at your own pace.

Did You Know? A giraffe’s long neck isn’t just for show. They use their necks to reach acacia leaves and as a means to spot hungry predators from afar. Male giraffes even use their necks to duel against each other over who is stronger by whipping their heads at each other!

8. Attend Festivals

merge zoo festival
Let’s get those tickets rolling!

Festivals are special events within the game. They offer lots of prizes but such prizes can only be redeemed within the festival’s duration through the use of a special currency called Festival Tickets.

Festival Tickets can be earned by buying specific kinds of candies, each with increasing ticket rewards, and by watching ads. These tickets are used to claim festival-only rewards which can range from bonus money, to candy on your board, and other great stuff. The grand prize of each leg of the festival is usually an egg of varying rarity. Other ways you can earn more Festival Tickets is through spending gems and opening treasure boxes.

As we’ve stated earlier, Festivals only last for a short while and to make the most out of your time there, you might as well spend more on the candies that have the Festival Ticket labels on them. While it will put a hole in the finances of your zoo, the returns from the prizes of the Festival should be enough to make up for it.

Did You Know? While a pegasus is a winged horse and a unicorn is a horse with a singular horn at the top of its head, a hybrid between them is called an alicorn. Just imagine a unicorn with wings, and you’ve got an alicorn!

9. Take Advantage Of Cheap Gem Purchases

merge zoo cheap gem price
Not bad, not bad.

Gems are easily awarded to you every now and then just by playing the game. One way you can actually make use of these is by taking advantage of smaller purchases.

For instance, if you require gems to double the duration of a Lucky Event instead of watching an ad for it, you may do this at your own discretion. The same offer can present itself in the form of an extra candy bonus. Along with this is egg hatching if you so desperately want to remove that egg in one of the slots.

While some cheap money boosts are given to you whenever you run out of money, we discourage you from doing this since you’ll earn an exponential amount if you let the game idle. If you absolutely love this game and wish to support the developers, by all means, send them some coin and get the gems yourself.

Did You Know? Hippos are very impressive swimmers. When submerged, their nostrils and ears fold shut to keep water from entering their bodies. They can also hold their breath for as long as 5 minutes before coming back up to the surface for air!

10. Leave The Game If You’re Out Of Cash

merge zoo not enough case
Party’s over… for now!

You spend all your cash on candies and merge them like a pro. Your animals are all fed and you just can’t wait for your biggest earner to gain that new level. But, oh drat! You’ve got no more cash left! This could be a recurring problem for you.

If you’ve run out of cash, try putting the game down and doing something else. It could mean a nap, cooking a meal, running an errand, maybe even watching an episode of your favorite TV show. Maybe you’d want to play another game you have on the side. Don’t worry, the moment you come back, you should have enough cash to improve your zoo even more and make it better than it was hours ago.

Did You Know? A Kitsune is a fox spirit from Japanese folklore. As they age, they become wiser and more clever and have a penchant for playing tricks on humans, especially if they’re lost in the forest. Interestingly enough, the word Kitsune actually translates to “fox” in English!

And there you have it for our strategy guide for Merge Zoo! Now get out there, spend for your candies, feed your animals, and breed the craziest, most impressive beasts that the world has yet to see!

Have more tips for us or something to say about our Merge Zoo guide? Leave us a comment below!

Eve Simon

Monday 14th of November 2022

Why isn't there anything about when you get no gem offers on the Free Gems part or how to get the Festival Tickets as I don't get a Festival Ticket every few hours plz can you do something about this and tell me! Thanks!