What is Zoo Racing

This is a mini-game within the Zoo World game. The new flash based racing game can now earn you Zoo Dollars that you can use in the other parts of the game. In the future, the developers also hope to incorporate other prizes and such as collectibles and special items within the balloons.

Basically, there are two parts to Zoo Racing. The actual racing is determined by your bird's speed and other bonuses (rank, number of zoo mates and stones available, etc) versus your opponent. Like any type of racing, if you're faster than your opponent, you'll most likely win. But of course, there are still times where they get lucky, or you have a bad race.

The second part of the game is the collection of bonuses (Zoo Dollars only for now) that are tied to the balloons. Using the mouse, you can control your bird in the racing screen by going forward, back, up and down. The objective is to shoot down as many balloons holding the bonuses as possible, while avoiding running into the zeppelins/blimps. Running into them will cause you to lose some of the bonuses you have collected. As you upgrade your bird and rank in the game, you will get better weapons and gain the ability to actually shoot down the zeppelins/blimps as well. The larger zeppelins will break up into smaller ones, and the smaller zeppelins will break into a bunch of balloons for more Zoo Dollars to collect. This part of the game has no affect if you win or lose the actual race.


Now, for a little explaination of the stats:

Rank - This is the current rank of the bird. The bird will progress through the ranks as your rating improves. Each higher rank gives your bird a +125 bonus in speed.

Record - This is your win-loss record. First number is the number of wins, second number are the losses.

Speed - The current speed of your bird. Eagles start at 100, the Swift starts at 350, and Peregrine Falcons start at 600, Your bird's speed increases as your ranking improves.

Team Bonus - When you race, you gain stones. These stones give your bird extra speed. for each team member you have, you can use up to that number of stones per race.

Races - How many races the bird has left. You can have up to 5 races. After that, you have to wait 5 minutes to gain back one race, or 65 minutes for all races.

Rating - The number on the left is your experience points, and the number on the right is the number you need to move onto the next rank. Each rank you move up will give your bird a higher base speed.

If you do not wish to wait for the next race, you can choose to use 5 of your Wildlife Points to help your Eagle or Swift recuperate immediately and regain all 5 races. Also, every time you move up a rank, you are also given the opportunity to spend 10 Wildlife Points and add an additional 125 speed bonus for your bird instantly.


Unlocking Race Animals and Super Babies

The three Trainable birds in the game are also the animals you can race. They are the Eagle, the Swift, and the Peregrine Falcons. You start with the Eagle. Once your eagle reaches Pro ranking, the Swift is unlocked. And once a Swift reaches Pro ranking, then the Peregrine Falcon is unlocked for racing.

Once your Eagle reaches Pro ranking, you can also create a Super Baby Eagle. These Super Babies have a higher starting speed than the regular Eagles, and will give you an advantage while racing. Same goes for the Swift and Peregrine Falcon. Once you have a bird that reaches Pro, it will allow you to create a Super Baby from them.

Once your Super Babies reach Pro, they can create the next generation Super Baby, with even faster base speeds. They do however, cost more and more to breed. You can tell them apart by the colour markings on their wings:

2nd Gen: Blue Markings
3nd Gen: Yellow Markings
4th Gen: Green Markings
5th Gen: Orange Markings
6th Gen: Magenta Markings
7th Gen: Cyan Markings


Unlocking Boss Animals in the Shop

The Boss animals that you must race as a team can now be unlocked and purchased in the shop. You must first have a Peregrine Falcon in the Pro ranks before you can unlock the Boss Birds. Once your Peregrine Falcon reaches Pro, you have to work on your mastery levels of each Team Racing Boss. Once you finish Gold Mastery on each of the Boss Birds, you will have unlocked them in the shop, and be able to purchase up to two since they are breedable.

Remember, you can get 5 bonus sprints in addition to the 5 team sprints allowed per day if you click on a friend's feed asking for help racing their Boss. Look for these and it will help you unlock these Boss animals faster.



Stones

These stones give your eagle a speed bonus. They are collected as you race, and can be traded up for higher bonus stones:

* Obsidian (+1)
* Sugilite (+2)
* Azurite (+3)
* Amazonite (+4)
* Jade (+5)
* Garnet (+6)
* Citrine (+7)
* Chrysoberyl (+
* Moonstone (+9)


ZooMates

You can invite your zoo Friends to join your race team and become ZooMates. For each team member you have, you can use an extra stone for bonus speed. So for example, if you've got two Amazonite (+4) stones as your highest bonus stones, but you're racing without team members. You are only allowed to use one of those stones, for a +4 bonus in speed. However, if you have one other team member, then you can use both, making it a +8 speed bonus per race.


Team Racing

There are three birds that you must race against as a team with your Zoo Mates: The Martial Eagle, Purple Needletail Swift, and the Gyrfalcon. As you win races against these birds, you advance in the mastery and win trophies. And as with all other trophies in the game, you get the accompanying Wildlife Points (WLP): 1 WLP for Bronze, 2 WLP for Silver, 5 WLP for Gold. It seems that Gold is currently the highest trophy in Team Racing at the moment.


Tips on Racing

Look for players with fewer races in total. The fewer races they've had, the lower ranked they are (lower base speed). It also means they have accumulated less stones (less bonus speed). Of those racers, fewer wins is even better since they would have gotten less of the +2 Sugilite stones.

Also, match the number of stones you hold with the number of teammates as much as possible. For example, you're just starting out, but got 5 teammates. After a few initial races, you've accumulated 6 Obsidian (+1) stones. Should you upgrade the stones at this point? NO. Keep the lower speed stones for now. Why? Because it takes 3 Obsidian stones to upgrade to 1 Sugilite stone. If you upgrade now, you'll have 2 Sugilite stones instead of 6 Obsidian stones. That means a +4 speed bonus instead of a +5 bonus (because you have 5 people on your team, you can use up to 5 Obsidian stones). What I do is hold the lowest level stones until some are not being used anymore. Then, upgrade enough stones so that all low level stones are used again.