Field notes · Progression
Accreditation: check your mode before you grind
If animals are locked or your tier seems stuck, identify the current game mode before putting more hours into the wrong progression track.
The short answer
Career and Franchise Accreditation are separate. Career progresses through scenario medals; Franchise uses zoo reputation and Wildlife Reserve biodiversity. Career progress will not raise your Franchise tier, so you do not need to finish Career to improve Franchise Accreditation.[1]
Which progress actually counts?
| Current mode | Progress to look at | Avoid this dead end |
|---|---|---|
| Career | Medals earned in scenario zoos and Wildlife Reserves.[1] | Expecting a separate Franchise zoo to advance Career Accreditation. |
| Franchise | Zoo Reputation for your zoos and Biodiversity Rating for your Wildlife Reserves.[1] | Completing more Career scenarios because a Franchise animal is locked. |
The two Franchise ratings describe different location types. Identify whether the requirement refers to a zoo or a Wildlife Reserve before deciding where to spend your next session. Do not silently substitute one kind of progress for the other.
Locked animal, empty market or connection error?
In Liamarie<3’s 13 October Steam thread, the question mixes animal locks with a concern about having to finish the tutorial. Replies discuss both market scarcity and Career progress. Frontier’s later clarification resolves the mode question; it does not make those different market symptoms interchangeable.[1][2]
| Observation | Useful next step |
|---|---|
| The interface states an Accreditation requirement | Work on the progression track for the current mode. Keep the stated requirement in view; do not infer the answer from another player’s tier number. |
| The market opens, but offers are scarce | Treat availability separately. Frontier acknowledged launch-market shortages; more medals in another mode will not repair a supply problem.[3] |
| Franchise cannot connect or shows Offline | Start with the Franchise connection checks. A connection failure prevents you from evaluating normal market availability. |
A practical next-session checklist
- Name the mode. Write down Career or Franchise. This is the first branch, not a minor detail.
- Read the actual block. Separate an explicit Accreditation requirement from a missing offer or a connection error.
- Choose the matching progress. In Career, focus on the scenario medal objective. In Franchise, identify which zoo-reputation or reserve-biodiversity requirement is not yet met.
- Work on that requirement, then check the same screen. Keep the mode and location type consistent when comparing before and after.
This decision order avoids two common wasted efforts: working in a different mode and treating an unavailable market as an animal-unlock requirement.
What this guide does not infer
Araya reported reaching a Career tier after two maps, while another reply used different starting-level terminology. Those comments are useful evidence of confusion, not a verified universal medal threshold or a reliable tier-number table.[2]
We are not publishing an unverified complete five-tier reward table or a “fastest Tier 5” route here. This guide’s promise is narrower: choose the correct progression track, identify the blocker and avoid treating market availability as Accreditation.
Frontier said it was investigating feedback about Accreditation requirements. Recheck the current in-game requirement after an update; the official mode separation is the rule confirmed in the 14 October explanation.[1]
Sources & verification
- Frontier on Steam · Accreditation clarification ↗ (external site, opens in a new tab) — 14 Oct 2026; official mode separation and progression types; single official source supports these rules.
- Steam · Accredidation ↗ (external site, opens in a new tab) — 13 Oct 2026; animal-lock/tutorial question and differing player reports, not a threshold specification.
- Reddit · Frontier Official on Franchise availability ↗ (external site, opens in a new tab) — Historical launch-market acknowledgement; does not prove a current outage.
Checked 15 October 2026. Research-based guidance; we have not personally tested these setups or fixes. Earlier player reports may describe an older build.
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