5 Wild Buffalo 2: Slot Overview

It’s hardly a surprise that slot developers keep circling back to rugged wilderness settings filled with buffalo, and 4ThePlayer has now underlined that idea for a second time. The studio has revisited its 2024 title, 5 Wild Buffalo, and introduced a new ante bet along with a Golden Buffalo symbol and related mechanics to create the follow-up 5 Wild Buffalo 2. It isn’t a radical departure, but most of the additions are welcome, so if you’re as fond of North American nature themes as the developers seem to be, it’s time to climb aboard and have a look.

Looking closely, you can spot a handful of small visual tweaks around the edges. Some rocks have given way to trees, and the feature buy button has swapped sides, yet overall 5 Wild Buffalo 2 is extremely similar to the first game. That means the same wooden-framed play area packed with on-theme wildlife, a spinning jackpot wheel, and jackpot values shown across the top. It’s a loud, jackpot-forward presentation that will strongly appeal to fans of this style, while likely pushing away anyone who dislikes big, attention-grabbing designs.

The action plays out on a 5×4 grid using a 1,024 ways to win system. Starting from the far-left reel, matching symbols must appear on at least 3 consecutive reels to form a winning combination. As with the original, RTP is set at 96.01%, and the volatility remains high. Stakes range from 20 c $/€80 per spin, and players can also enable the Power Bet, which adds 25% to the wager to improve the odds of reaching the free spins feature.

Just like 5 Wild Buffalo, the pay values in 5 Wild Buffalo 2 are quite modest. A 5 OAK hit of the lower 10 to A card ranks returns 0.15 times their bet, while 5 horses, eagles, cougars, wolves, bears, and buffalo pay 0.2x to 0.25x the stake. Wild rock formation symbols can substitute for any symbol except free spin scatters. Wilds may land on any reel.

5 Wild Buffalo 2: Slot Features

Key mechanics from the earlier buffalo release are back, including Boosting Fortunes, Buffalo Thunder, free spins, and feature buys, now joined by new Golden Buffalo stacks and the extras tied to them.

Boosting Fortunes

The game includes 5 Fortune prizes – the Mini, Big, Super, Mega, and Ultra (worth between 8x to 5,000x), with one prize positioned above each reel. Diamonds can appear on any symbol on any reel. When a Diamond lands (or a wild symbol during free spins), it increases the value of the Fortune prize above that reel. Whenever one or more Diamonds land, the Fortune Wheel bonus may activate and spin to award one of the Fortune prizes. After a prize is awarded, its value resets back to the starting amount.

Buffalo Thunder

In the base game or in free spins, landing 4 Buffalo symbols on the same reel activates the Buffalo Thunder feature. Those 4 Buffalo symbols merge into one symbol carrying a multiplier of x5 to x10.

Golden Buffalo Stacks

Golden Buffalo stacks are treated as standard Buffalo symbols for win calculations. They always appear as a full 4-high stack of symbols and come with a stack multiplier of x10. In the base game, Golden Buffalo stacks always land as part of or before 1 of these features:

• Golden Buffalo Summon – as the reels spin, 1 to 4 Golden Buffalo stacks are placed on the reels.
• Golden Buffalo Shuffle – when the reels stop spinning, 1 or more Golden Buffalo stacks move to another reel. This will either create a new win or improve a current win.
• Golden Buffalo Nudge – when the reels stop spinning 1 or more reels with a Golden Buffalo stack partially in view or just out of view nudge so the Golden Buffalo stack is fully visible.

Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters awards 8, 15, or 25 free spins, respectively. In free spins, any wild symbols expand to cover the entire reel as one wild symbol with a stack multiplier of x6 to x12, showing how many symbols on that reel are counted for win evaluation. In addition, a Golden Buffalo stack shifts between reels on every spin and can cover 1 to 4 reels on any given spin. The Golden Buffalo stack cannot trigger the Summon, Shuffle, or Nudge features. Hitting 2, 3, 4, or 5 scatters retriggers 4, 8, 15, or 25 extra free spins, respectively. Wilds boosts the Fortune Prize above the reels, and any landed Diamond spins the Fortune Wheel.

Feature Buy

There are two purchasable options in 5 Wild Buffalo 2: free spins for 65 times the bet, or one spin that guarantees a Buffalo Thunder win for 100x the bet.

5 Wild Buffalo 2: Slot Verdict

Usually, when a studio decides to produce a sequel—whether it’s a game, a film, or anything else—you’d expect the original to have landed well with its audience. If that’s true here, then players who liked what 5 Wild Buffalo offered now get a more feature-packed follow-up. That said, anyone expecting a big leap forward in creativity might feel a touch underwhelmed. 5 Wild Buffalo 2 stays very close to the first title, but the adjustments that are present generally make it the better pick.

The headline additions are the Power Bet, plus the Golden Buffalo stacks and the modifiers connected to them. A major plus is that Golden Buffalo stacks add more life to the base game, since Summon, Shuffle, and Nudge only happen there. Free spins also gain something, because during that mode a Golden Buffalo stack is always in play, shifting from reel to reel each spin. With base symbol payouts being fairly low without multipliers, any extra assistance in connecting the top-paying Buffalo symbols into wins is valuable.

It also helps that 4ThePlayer kept the strong 96.01% RTP rather than cutting it down into the 94% range, which they’ve leaned toward recently. If the RTP had been reduced, 5 Wild Buffalo 2 could have struggled from the outset. Instead, this 2.0 edition effectively replaces the original, as it includes everything the first game had and then adds more on top. The rest of the stats line up closely too, including the maximum win of 7,500x the bet and the average best win after 100 spins figures for both games, which 4ThePlayer conveniently shares, being similar. In other words, the real differences come down to the Golden Buffalo effects and the Power Bet—so you may as well go with the sequel.