Pragmatic Play – Wild West Gold

Whether you side with the sheriff or the gang of outlaws is up to you, but it’s the sheriff star wilds that will benefit you the most in this game. They land as multiplier wilds that can be combined in the base game, and these get sticky during the game’s all-important bonus round. This is where you can get the big wins, and a maximum of 10,000 times your bet is possible during the free spins feature.

The reels are located in the main street of a dusty western town and everything takes place on 5 reels, 3 rows and 40 ways to win. You can place bets between 20p and £100 per spin on all platforms and devices, and the game’s RTP of 96.51% is slightly above the industry average of 96%. Make no mistake, this is a typical Pragmatic Play slot with high volatility, and you can expect heavy dry spells between triggering the bonus round.

The multiplier wilds that can be combined in the base game seem like a helpful feature at first glance, but in practice you will very rarely get much out of them. It all boils down to the free spins with Sticky Multiplier Wilds bonus round, and it’s perhaps a bit too obvious that Pragmatic is trying to piggyback on NetENT’s hit game Dead or Alive 2 with this title.

What are the symbols?

The most valuable symbol here is the cool looking sheriff, and you also have 3 other rough looking characters as premium symbols. The regular royal symbols with low value are also on the reels, and you need between 3 and 5 matching symbols to win. Here we present you the paytable for Wild West Gold slot:

Sheriff – Pays 20x for 5 on a payline.
Blackhat Bandit – Pays 12.5x for 5 on a payline
Female Cowboy – Pays 7.5x for 5 on a payline
Lady – Pays 5x for 5 on a payline
Gold Bags – Pays 3.75x for 5 on a payline
Pistol and Holster – Pays 2.5x for 5 on a payline
Royal symbols – Pay 1.5x to 1x for 5 on a payline

What are the bonus features?

The wild symbol plays a very important role in this game and it is the silver star worn by the sheriff. The sheriff badge wild can only land on the 3 middle reel (i.e. reels 2, 3 and 4) and a random multiplier is applied to each wild that lands.

If you land a wild that becomes part of a winning combination, you will benefit from a multiplier boost of either 2x, 3x or 5x. This multiplier wild feature can get really interesting if you have more than 1 wild in a winning combination. The wilds are then added together (not multiplied). So if you land a winner with a 2x Wild and a 3x Wild, you will benefit from a 5x Wild in total.

Free Spins in Wild West Gold

You need to land the Canyon Sunset scatter symbol on reels 1, 3 and 5 on the same spin to trigger the game’s free spins bonus round. This will initially give you 8 free spins and you will benefit from sticky multiplier wilds throughout the bonus round. The wilds will continue to land only on the 3 middle reels, but now they will be frozen while the feature is active.

The key to the bigger wins is that you can combine multipliers. Since the multiplier wilds are sticky, it is much easier to achieve this during the bonus round. During the free spins feature, there is also a special golden sheriff star scatter symbol in play that can land as an overlay symbol on any other symbol. This includes the Sticky Wilds. If you land at least 2 golden star symbols on the same spin, you can retrigger the free spins feature as follows:

2 golden sheriff stars give you 4 additional spins.
3 golden sheriff stars give you 8 additional free spins
4 golden sheriff stars give you 12 additional free spins
5 golden sheriff stars give you 20 additional free spins

There is even a win guarantee here. If you win less than 10 times your bet, your total win will increase to 10 times your bet.

What is the jackpot (maximum win)?

You won’t find a jackpot on Wild West Gold slot, but you can still win pretty solid payouts here. The game’s maximum win on a single spin is 6,750 times your bet. However, you can win up to 10,000 times your total bet during the game’s free spins bonus round. Pretty good potential for a very volatile game, but it doesn’t really compare to the obvious source of inspiration for this game, which is Dead or Alive 2.

Verdict

It cannot be denied that Wild West Gold is very similar to NetEnts Dead or Alive 2, and for this reason it cannot escape comparison. However, it lacks the crudeness and coolness of its source of inspiration, and an aura of wannabe hangs over it. The volatility here is also brutally high, but the maximum profit potential is not even in the same stadium. As a standalone game, this is pretty solid stuff, but it begs the question: Why play a “wannabe” when the real deal is freely available?