Sanctuary rewards the combination of three scarce things: access to a useful tile, enough action strength to play it, and a legal space on the zoo map. A high-value tile stranded in your holder scores nothing. These are practical heuristics drawn from the publisher-verified rules, with examples to help you test a choice at your own table.
Read the five conservation objectives before your first draft
Five of ten objectives enter each game. Look at their icon types, then ask which two are likely to overlap with the animals and projects you can realistically place. Supporting an objective gives points and satisfies one action-upgrade condition. You can only support one objective on a turn and cannot support the same objective twice, so a single impressive icon collection should not become your entire plan.
Conservation markers are flexible, but you still need at least one matching printed icon for an objective. Pairs of male and female animals with the same name yield a marker when placed adjacent. The pair may help you bridge an icon shortfall; saving the marker to score two points is also an option if an objective can be reached without it. Spend only when the stronger achievement marker or earlier upgrade is worth the trade.
Draft for access and fit, not printed points alone
The Projects card sets your normal draft reach. A card at strength 1 sees only the first display position, even when you intend to play an animal. A Projects action can instead take from any display position; its upgraded side can gain a second tile. Moving Projects to the left after use reduces next turn’s ordinary draft reach, so timing that card changes your future options.
Before taking a level-5 animal, count how many actions until its habitat card can reach the needed strength. Check its arrows against your map. If it requires an extra open area from a face-down hand tile, it has a second hidden cost: hand space and map space. A modest animal that fits now and contributes to an objective may produce more value than a spectacular tile you cannot place before the game ends.
Upgrade the action that unlocks your next sequence
There are four upgrade conditions: support an objective, play two projects, connect three tiles of one habitat, or show four different animal classes. Each condition flips one action card once. An upgraded action has one more strength in the same slot. Projects gains a second display pick; an upgraded animal action can place two compatible animals whose combined levels fit its strength.
Choose the upgrade for a near-term plan. If you have two low-level water animals ready, upgrading Water may turn two future turns into one. If the display keeps offering the icons you need and your hand can absorb them, upgrading Projects may be more useful. Do not count a doubled animal action as automatic efficiency: both animals must share that action’s habitat or be undefined, have legal placement, and meet the combined level threshold.
Protect a flexible map shape
New face-up tiles must touch the entrance or an existing played tile. Open areas printed on the board satisfy arrows but do not extend your placement network. Avoid sealing off every open edge with tiles that make future building conditions or animal arrows impossible. For a tile with conditional points from adjacent icons, reserve the neighboring spaces it needs before placing unrelated tiles around it.
Example: you have a project that will score from connected Europe icons. Joining another Europe tile directly to the group can help the whole connected chain. Placing a non-Europe tile in the only linking space may leave a future Europe tile isolated. This does not make the non-Europe tile bad; it makes that exact space costly. The scoring guide distinguishes adjacent from connected and whole-zoo conditions.
Use buildings as a separate tempo gain
One eligible building can be played after your action, without using its strength. If a building’s condition and legal space are already satisfied, a turn can draft a tile, place an animal with the action, then place the building. That can trigger placement bonuses and improve an upgrade condition in the same turn. Conversely, holding several buildings that all demand the same rare neighboring icons clogs the six-tile end-of-turn hand.
Watch the race to end the game
Four supported objectives or a fully covered map grants the triggering player a 10-point marker, while opponents receive one final turn. If you are close, compare that ten-point lead with the tile points and achievements you would gain by waiting. If an opponent is one support away, prioritize tiles you can actually play now and choose an attainable objective over a speculative higher-value project.
The tile pile can also end the game before a player completes the map or all four objectives. This is especially relevant when actions and effects draw extra tiles. A collection of scoring tiles still in your hand may be partly useful if a particular tile scores hand tiles, but most unplayed tiles do not score on their own. Keep the difference clear.
A four-question turn check
- Which display tile can Projects reach, and what will it let me do within the next two actions?
- Does the chosen action have enough strength, the right habitat and a legal location?
- Can an eligible building or objective support follow the action?
- What does moving that action to the left do to my next turn?
For precise sequencing, see how to play. For a dedicated one-player plan, see solo rules and challenges. Strategy is editorial analysis of the published rules, checked October 3, 2026; it is not a claim of playtesting or a guaranteed winning line.