Planet Coaster 2 has an incredibly customizable sandbox mode, with a range of preset difficulties, as well as a completely custom mode. Settings are split into groups and each one affects the game differently, allowing you to fine tune your experience.
We take a look at all the options, what they are, and show you how they’ll change your sandbox experience, so you can build the park of your dreams, your way.
What Is Sandbox Mode?
Planet Coaster 2’s sandbox mode is far more than just a free for all building tool. You can choose exactly what the settings are, enabling you to set yourself a challenge or remove all the hurdles and simply freely build with no constraints.
You’ll choose from one of four biomes, and then further customize the experience from there. When you’ve chosen your setting, you’ll be given a large area of free space in your chosen biome.
What Are The Biomes?
There are four biomes in total: tropical, temperate, Mediterranean, and Taiga. Each one has its own unique terrain and landscaping. The weather patterns also appear to vary slightly, with less rain in the hotter biomes.
The weather makes some difference, but unless you are challenging yourself in sandbox, you’ll most likely want to explore the map each option offers. Some biomes have flatter terrain, so bear this in mind if you are someone who doesn’t want to deal with terrain editing.
All The Preset Sandbox Settings
There are three preset sandboxes, as well as a custom option. The preset options have different settings for six different aspects of park management: cash, research, power, water, staff, and guests.
Here’s what each one changes at a glance:
|
Default |
Creative |
Challenge |
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Cash & Economy |
Unlimited Cash |
Unlimited Cash |
100k – Easy 50k – Medium/Hard |
|
Research |
None |
None |
Full – All |
|
Power Management |
Full |
None |
Full – All |
|
Water Management |
Full |
None |
Full – All |
|
Staff Management |
Full |
None |
Full – Easy/Medium 125% Fair Pay Mod- Hard |
|
Guest Management |
Full |
None |
Full – Easy/Medium 1.25% Needs Mod – Hard |
For any of these difficulties, you can also tweak the settings by selecting the Sandbox Settings button on the creation screen.
Related
Custom Sandbox Options
As with many other aspects of the game, there are multiple sections here, each with different options. Here is a summary of everything you can customize, and what it does for the game experience.
You can hover over most menu options to get details in a tooltip. This is time-consuming, but can be useful to double-check anything you are unsure about.
Park Settings
The park settings are simple and cover power and maintenance options, including servicing and breakdowns.
|
Setting |
Description |
Effect |
|---|---|---|
|
Power Supply |
Decides if rides or facilities need power infrastructure. |
This option eliminates the need for power generators and distributors if turned off. |
|
Ride / Facility Condition |
Determines if rides and facilities deteriorate over time. |
Rides and facilities stay in perfect condition and won’t break down if this is turned off. |
|
Service Badges |
A service badge is given after a scheduled service and stops rides or facilities deteriorating for a set period. |
If this is turned off, rides and facilities will begin to deteriorate again immediately after a service. |
|
Breakdowns |
A ride or facility will have a higher chance of breaking down the more deteriorated it is. |
When this is turned off, rides and facilities will never break down, regardless of condition. |
Guest Settings
The guest settings are more complex but can have more effect on your game. They cover both numbers and the needs of visitors.
|
Setting |
Description |
Effect |
|---|---|---|
|
Limit Guest Capacity |
Limits the guest capacity. It has a range of 0 – 6000. |
This limits the number of daily guests. It resets each day. A lower number reduces crowds but also profits. |
|
Guest Moods |
Guests change mood, based on their park experience. |
Guests’ moods will directly affect your park reputation and rating, for better and worse. If this is off, their mood stays steady and your rating and reputation are unaffected by guest experience. |
|
Guest Preferences |
Guests will enter the park with unique wishes to visit specific rides or shops. |
If you can fulfill these random desires, guests’ moods will improve. If this is off, guest’s mood is unaffected by ride type. |
|
Hunger Need |
Guests will get hungry over time. If hunger is high and food unavailable, they will leave. |
Make sure you have plenty of food stalls available if you enable guest hunger. Make sure you have a vegan food stall if you want guests’ mood to be high. |
|
Hunger Multiplier |
Adjust how often guests get hungry. |
You can lower this to reduce the need to provide as many food stalls, or raise it to sell more food. |
|
Thirst Need |
Guests will require drinks since they will get thirsty over time. |
As with food, you will need to make sure you have plenty of drinks available or guests will leave early. |
|
Thirst Multiplier |
Changing this increases or reduces how often guests want to drink. |
Again, this is the same as food. More thirst needs more drink shops or vending machines to prevent guests leaving. |
|
Toilet Need |
If this is enabled guests will need toilet facilities to be available. |
The more guests eat and/or drink, the more often they will need the toilet. |
|
Toilet Multiplier |
Changes the frequency of toilet visits. |
While less noticeable when it comes to profits, you can charge for toilet use and make a penny from a pee. |
|
Nausea |
Enables guests to feel nauseous after rides. Tolerance is individual. |
If this is enabled, guests will have a nausea tolerance for rides and going over it will lead to vomiting. |
|
Vomit |
If enabled, guests will vomit when nausea is high. |
The higher the guests’ nausea, the higher the chance of vomiting, and the more cleaning up will be required to avoid negative effects. If this is enabled, make sure you have enough janitors. |
|
Litter |
If this is enabled, guests will drop litter. |
If you have litter enabled, then place a lot of bins, especially near shops. Otherwise, little will cover the park and negatively affect guests. You’ll also need janitors to empty them. |
|
Facility Negative Effects |
When enabled, guests will have a negative reaction to staff and utility buildings. |
Turn this off to enable you to build utilities and staff rooms close to other attractions without affecting guests’ moods. |
|
Weather Effects On Guests |
A guest affected by the weather will seek shelter in the rain, and can get sunburned. |
If this is enabled, you need to ensure that suncream is available for guests to purchase or they will get sunburned. When turned off, guests do not burn and also no longer make ride choices based on the weather. |
|
Sunburn |
Changes if guests can get sunburned. |
If you want guests to make ride choices based on weather but don’t want to deal with suncream and sunburn you can disable just this specific weather effect. |
|
Sunburn Multiplier |
Adjust how often sunburn happens. |
Well, that’s one way to make a profit from suncream sales. |
Many of these options link together, and you will see some options grayed out at times. For example, you cannot turn on sunburn without also turning on other weather effects.
If your park is lagging or your paths are getting blocked, reducing the guest capacity can make a big difference.
Flat Ride Settings
This tab is simple. All it changes is if flat rides need to be connected to a power source. If you turn this off, there will not be a power requirement for any flat ride.
Tracked Ride Settings
Predictably, the first option here is to decide if tracked rides, which includes both rollercoasters and transport rides, require power to work. Turning this off means they don’t need power to run.
The extended track limits option is something we recommend leaving off, at least until you gain more experience building.
By default, the game has restrictions on track placement to avoid your angles being too steep. If this extension is enabled, these are relaxed. It will give more flexibility when building, but will also make it more likely you’ll get a coaster with too much g-force.
Staff Settings
Here you can change how staff behave by playing with settings for morale, breaks, wages, and quitting. If you want staff to be unable to quit and happy to work for nothing, now is your chance.
Staff pay is first. Choose if staff get paid at all, and if they do, you can use the fair pay multiplier to decide what wage they’ll be happy with; low, average, or high.
Staff morale is increased by good pay and frequent breaks. Alternatively, you can just turn it off with this handy setting, and they’ll be happy whatever the conditions.
Staff will get tired by default and if this is enabled they will need a staff room and to take breaks. If this is turned on, make sure you have extra staff to cover the breaks.
Staff quitting is the final option here, and you can decide if they are allowed to leave, ever.
Water Park Settings
Pool cleanliness settings dictate if pools will get dirtier over time, something you’ll need to negate with water filters and maintenance, or if the water stays pristine.
You can also apply the cleanliness settings to flumes, which again will require filters and maintenance to keep clean if this option is enabled.
The final water park setting is if lifeguards are required to keep pools safe. Turning this off means no more drowning guests.
Economy Settings
The economy is another area which you can customize to a large extent. Here are all the options available.
|
Setting |
Description |
Effect |
|---|---|---|
|
Player Cash |
Determines if you have a finite amount of money. |
If this is turned off, then you will have infinite money at all times. |
|
Player Cash (Amount) |
This allows you to specify a monetary amount you start with. |
Chose from 50,000 up to 100,000 on a sliding scale. |
|
Reset Cash |
Return your cash balance to the amount specified under Player Cash. |
An instant escape from bankruptcy, turn this on to reset your cash amount. |
|
Research Tree |
Decide if you want to use the research tree system. |
If this is enabled, you’ll need a workshop and mechanics to generate research points to unlock new rides and facilities. |
|
Reset Research Tree |
This setting resets your research progress. |
If you make a mistake, you can reset your research and select again. |
|
Guest Refunds |
Guests may ask for refunds. |
If this is enabled guests may ask for refunds if they leave early due to a negative experience such as hunger, thirst, or ride breakdowns. |
|
Guest Refund Multiplier |
Changes how much guests are refunded. |
This can be adjusted from 0% up to 150% and is a percentage of the park entry fee. |
|
Demolishing Refunds |
If you demolish a ride, facility, object or piece of scenery you will be refunded the build cost. |
If you don’t want to lose money if you make a mistake when building, set this to on and claim back your build costs for anything demolished. |
|
Demolishing Refund Multiplier |
This changes how much of the cost you will be refunded. |
The slider here goes from 0% – 100%. No, you cannot profit from your mistakes. |
|
Loans |
This changes if loans are available. |
If you disable loans while you have some in the game, they will be removed and essentially written off. |
|
Resolve Active Loans |
This cancels all existing loans. |
Get a fresh start by canceling all your existing loans, fee free. |
Changing The Sandbox Settings For An Active Park
If you choose one of the default options, you can still adjust your sandbox park as you go along. While in the park, go to the pause menu (escape on PC) and you’ll see Sandbox Settings as the sixth option, just below settings.
Clicking into this menu will still give you access to all the same settings you get in custom mode. This means that even if you choose one of the pre-set options, you can still adjust anything at any time.
