Last year’s wave of Telegram tap-to-earn gaming hype may have died down, but one new title has scrapped the tapping part and is bringing in a ton of users as a result—even if it arguably feels like even less of a game than others.
Zoo is the new hit on the messaging platform, bringing a FarmVille-style vibe to the world of Telegram games with a promise of payouts in tokens to players. You build up your zoo, filling it with more and more animals, which all results in earning more in-game currency—and yes, that will supposedly translate to on-chain tokens when the airdrop arrives.
There are a few other things to do, from daily riddles and quizzes to joining a group of other players, and of course keeping your animals fed. Still, Zoo is very much an idle game and not something that will keep you glued to your screen and actively engaged for hours at a time.
While there isn’t all that much to Zoo on Telegram, with the potential of a token airdrop coming soon, there are certainly worse ways of spending your time. Here is everything you need to know about Zoo.
What is Zoo?
Zoo is the latest hit game on Telegram, and can be considered adjacent to the tap-to-earn games that dominated the space in 2024. However, instead of tapping some random object, you build a zoo filled with exotic animals, which all bring in a passive income providing you keep them fed.
It’s essentially a cross between Farmville and Zoo Tycoon, where you select the square to place your new animal enclosures and then watch the coins roll in as they attract visitors to your zoo.
Screenshots from the Telegram game Zoo. Image: Decrypt
It’s not the most complex game in the world, and is arguably more passive than a lot of the tap-to-earn games—but like most games that have a slightly unique idea in the Telegram space, it has picked up a ton of users over the past few weeks. Over 14 million accounts have interacted with the app so far, and that number is growing by the day.
It’s also already in the final stages of its mining phase, where you can play to earn some tokens in an eventual airdrop. Details on exactly how it will work are thin on the ground, but the mining phase ends on January 31—so if you want to get in on the Zoo fun, you’ll need to act quickly.
How to play Zoo on Telegram
Zoo is incredibly easy to play, and after you get started, it barely needs to be played at all. To begin, you’ll need to head to Telegram and launch the Zoo mini app, which will then guide you through the opening stages of setting up your zoo.
To begin, you’ll need to tap on an empty square on the map and buy an animal enclosure to fill it. Once you have at least one animal, you’ll start earning in-game Zoo tokens, which the developers say will correspond 1:1 with the airdropped on-chain tokens in the future airdrop. You can buy more animals to get even greater income per hour, with more expensive animals bringing in more tokens.
Screenshots from the Telegram game Zoo. Image: Decrypt
Your animals will passively earn you tokens as long as they are fed, which you’ll need to do by pressing the feeding button. This, however, costs Animal Feed—the other in-game currency that is also used to buy new animals. So be sure not to spend all your cash on new additions at the expense of being able to feed your existing animals.
That is essentially the core of the game, but you’ll spend most of your time trying to get more Animal Feed currency, as it doesn’t replenish automatically. You’ll want to claim the daily login bonus, and complete tasks such as daily riddles or social actions to make sure you have enough Animal Feed to keep the creatures happy—and keep more money flowing into your zoo.
When is the ZOO airdrop?
There is no confirmed date for the ZOO token airdrop, but we do know that the mining period is due to end on January 31.
Once the month ends, you’ll apparently no longer be able to earn Zoo tokens in-game, which presumably means your airdrop allocation will be set as the in-game Zoo tokens will correspond 1:1 with on-chain tokens. So if you end the month with a million Zoo tokens in game, then you should receive a million ZOO tokens from the airdrop.
Zoo’s token is likely to launch on The Open Network (TON), since you can connect a TON wallet and spend TON to purchase certain benefits, such as bundles of Animal Feed. The developers have yet to confirm that ZOO will launch on TON, and we have seen Telegram games swap ecosystems not long before the airdrop, but TON appears to be the most likely bet—at least for now.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
