Tap Zoo Guide
The complete guide to the popular Pocket Gems game made for the iPhone/iPod Touch
Advanced Tips
It might take you a month to reach level 25, but it may take you 5 to 6 months to level another 25. This section suggests a few tips that will help you along the way.
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Collect Only Twice Per Day
You may generally think that because several animals generate revenue more frequently, you are required to play Tap Zoo 5 times a day, 10 times a day, or even every 30 minutes. You probably are just wasting time for little gain. Collect revenue only TWICE A DAY. Even if you collect only once a day, it won't be that bad.
Here's why: Let's say you own all of the coin based animals, which is what majority of animals you will typically have, you lose only 4.8% of revenue per day if you collect only 2 times per day compared to collecting revenue every 5 minutes. Collecting once a day, you will lose only 10.4% which isn't that bad either. The table below lists the total revenue collected dependening on how many times you collect. This assumes you have 4 of each of the animals purchased with coins.
| Collection Frequency | Coins | % Loss |
| Every 5 Minutes | 75,795,984 | 0% |
| 2x per Day | 72,362,304 | 4.8% |
| 1x per Day | 68,645,300 | 10.4% |
Experience is similar in nature, you don't lose much if you simply collect 2 times per day.
| Collection Frequency | Experience | % Loss |
| Every 5 Minutes | 5,668,228 | 0% |
| 2x per Day | 5,427,996 | 4.4% |
| 1x per Day | 5,156,304 | 9.9% |
Buy More Nests
So that one nest has lasted you this long, but how much longer will it take to nurse the rest of the animals. If you must know, if you only nest animals that can be purchased by with coins, it will take you 491 days - a little over 16 months. Nursing all the animals purchased with stars will take you an additional 279 days. That will 2 years and a couple of months.
Do yourself a favor, if you can afford it, purchase additional nests - 4 would be great, otherwise, purchase as much as you can handle. It will cost you stars, but it will potentially double your revenue!
Cross-Breeding slots may not be that much worth it though. Although it may take you 223 days to crossbreed all the animals in Tap Zoo, you can crossbreed at the same time as you are nursing other animals which takes much longer.
Performance Tip: Run Tap Zoo Alone
Tap Zoo runs really slow when you have sidewalks, rivers, 50 species, 20 trees, 15 decorations, 12 rangers, 4 trash cans, and a partridge in a pear tree!
Mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPod Touch have very limited internal system memory that it uses to run apps. This is not to be confused with flash memory which is used to store music and video in addition to apps. Getting a 32GB iPhone instead of a 16GB version will NOT help. Tap Zoo requires a LOT of system memory when you have a well developed zoo with dozens of species, rangers and decorations. If you have other apps running in the background that require system memory, that will not leave much for Tap Zoo and your game play will be sluggish.
There are two ways to stop other apps that are running in the background: Turn your device off and then on again, or manually close all background apps. Let's assume you already know how to turn your device off and then back on again. Not everyone knows how to manually close background apps though. If you're one of them, read on, otherwise start closing those apps.
To close background apps, you have to first be at the Home screen where you launch all your apps, so if you're currently running an app, tap the Home button on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Now double-tap the Home button (pushing the Home button twice in quick succession). You should see all your apps gray out and the most recent apps you ran should show at the bottom of your screen. If you have more than 4 background apps running, you can swipe across the icons on the screen to view more apps in the background. Now hold one of the icons until the icons start to jiggle and it should also show a minus sign at the top left corner of each icon. If you have done it correctly, your screen should look similar to the picture below.
To stop a application that is currently running in the background, tap the minus sign. Tap on the minus sign for all the background apps leaving only Tap Zoo running. Press the Home button one more time, and re-run Tap Zoo for a speed boost!
Performance Tip: Buy an iPad 2
The processor speed on iPhone's and iPod Touch's are slow. Even with the iPhone 4, processor is run at a slower speed than to conserve battery. The iPad 2 however has a faster process running at full speed and more system memory than most other iPhones and iPod Touches.
Performance Tip: Remove all Decorations
If you love your decorations, skip this tip, but if you can live without them, do so. Sell all of your decorations leaving only the revenue/experience generating animals and trees, and support structures that keep your grade up. The fewer items you have on the screen, the quicker your game play will be.
The Janitor
If you've been trying to keep up with your Achievements, The Janitor is probably the most difficult to fulfill. It requires you to collect 10,000 pieces of trash. You can typically pickup 2 to 5 pieces of trash a few times a days, but even if you get 50 a day, it'll still take 200 days or nearly 7 months to complete this achievement.
This is where you will need neighbors. With neighbors you can collect trash all day long and reach this goal much more quickly. I suggest you have at least 20 neighbors in which you can cycle through. If you don't have very many neighbors, follow the tips in the Making Friends section of the guide.
When you do find time to collect your neighbors trash, start from the top of your list, collect your neighbors trash, and then move on to the next one. Once you're done with all of them, restart from the top again. You also gain the benefit of generating revenue from your neighbors trash. At higher levels, trash pick-up can reward you thousands of coins.
The only problem here again is finding the time to do this, but if you're waiting in line to purchase your iPad 2, you might as well collect your neighbors trash.