Terra Nil: How to Unlock All Animals

Unlocking Terra Nil animals is an essential part of reclaiming the wastes. As you cleanse the toxins poisoning the land and water, reintroducing fauna is a required part of rehabilitating your map. So how do you discover animals?

Each Terra Nil biome has a different collection of unlockable animals, and each of those fauna species has specific unlock requirements. The game doesn’t outright tell you what these requirements are, but there are hints in your Handbook under the animals tab. 

Some fauna types, like the Bear, require forests before they can be discovered. Others, like Narwhal require something different. 

To discover animals, you must reach the third stage of biome rehabilitation, after you’ve had the chance to regrow all of a map’s various ecosystems and build certain structures. Once you do, you’ll get access to the scanner, which you can build anywhere and use to scan the map and its ecosystems for animals. 

Click the arrow under the animal footprint that appears in the top left corner of the screen, then click each animal portrait. Then click the orange circle just below the portraits to the right, and highlight an area of the map to scan for them in that area. 

Below, we’ve outlined the animals in each biome, including their discovery requirements. It’s possible that you won’t be able to discover all fauna types on a single map because of the requirements and tile sizes of ecosystems.

Related: How to Make a Lake in Terra Nil

How to Find All Animals in Terra Nil

To effectively scan for the animals below, you’ll typically need to scan multiple tiles across several biomes at the same time. For example, you can simply scan 20 greenery tiles for Deer, but you’ll need to scan 20 river tiles and 10 forest tiles with the same scan to discover Beavers. 

Further, some animals require specific weather conditions or you create lakes to find them. Most criteria are self-explanatory, but we’ve left notes on those that are a bit more confusing. 

Temperate Biome

• Deer:
  • In range of at least 20 greenery tiles.
• Frog:
  • In range of at least 10 Wetland tiles.
  • In range of at least 5 Fynbos tiles.
• Bear:
  • In range of at least 20 forest tiles.
  • On a hill of at least 20 tiles.
  • In range of a beehive.
• Goose:
  • Make a lake with a 4×4 tile radius.
• Beaver:
  • In range of at least 20 river tiles.
  • In range of at least 10 forest tiles.
• Timber Wolf:
  • In range of at least 15 forest tiles.
  • In range of a group of Deer (must scan for and discover Deer near a forest first).

Tropical Biome 

• Reef Shark:
  • In range of 4 mangrove tiles.
  • In range of 16 Coral reef tiles.
  • Temperature must be at 20 Celsius or higher.
• Whale:
  • In range of 20 ocean tiles.
  • In range of 10 deep ocean tiles (usually at a corner of the map).
  • No land in range. 
• Parrot:
  • In range of 20 tropical forest tiles.
  • No buildings in range (scan after recycling buildings in forest).
• Manta ray:
  • In range of 8 ocean tiles.
  • In range of 6 Coral reef tiles.
  • In range of 3 river tiles. 
• Tortoise:
  • In range of 10 Beach tiles.
  • On a small island. (can be built using Sandbank).
• Flamingo:
  • In range of 10 Beach tiles.
  • In range of 10 wetland tiles (not mangrove tiles).

Polar Biome

• Snowy Owl:
  • In range of 10 forest tiles.
  • In range of 10 tundra tiles.
• Narwhal:
  • In range of 20 ocean tiles.
  • In range of 4 ice sheet tiles.
  • Temperature must be at least -10 Celsius so glaciers will form.
• Penguin:
  • In range of 16 ice sheet tiles.
  • In range of 10 ocean tiles. 
• Arctic Fox:
  • In range of 10 snow tiles.
  • In range of 5 tundra tiles. 
• Elk:
  • In range of 6 lichen tiles (not moss on rocks).
  • In range of 20 snow tiles. 
• Polar Bear:
  • In range of 6 ocean tiles.
  • In range of 16 snow tiles.
  • Near Elk.
    • Rocks need to meet the ocean or be very close. Have lichen on rocks, scan for Elk to populate Elk, and place a Flash Freezer to create snow around the rocks. Use a Rock Hopper if need be to place a second flash freezer. 

Continental Biome

• Turtle:
  • In range of 20 lagoon tiles.
• Peacock:
  • In range of 24 greenery tiles.
• Panda:
  • In range of 20 bamboo tiles.
  • In range of 6 greenery tiles.
• Boar:
  • In range of 8 greenery tiles.
  • In range of 12 deciduous forest tiles.
• Sea Otter:
  • In range of 12 ocean tiles.
  • In range of 12 kelp forest tiles.
• Eagle:
  • In range of 6 derelict skyscraper tiles.
  • In range of group of boar (must scan to find boar first).

That’s how to unlock all Terra Nil animals, bringing all species to each of the maps you reclaim from the wastes. If you’re playing through a second time on the B-side maps, here’s how to fix no trees on Abandoned Quarry. 

Featured image by GameSkinny.