5 Wild Wolves: Slot Overview

Whether you’re a fan or not, jackpot prizes are one of those long-standing online slot staples that have been around forever, and they’re not going anywhere anytime soon. Developer 4ThePlayer has its own take on the concept called Boosting Fortunes, a jackpot-style mechanic already used in titles like 4K Ultra Gold. Here, the prizes build up to a fixed ceiling and run alongside expanding symbols in 5 Wild Wolves, a slot that clearly follows in the footsteps of 5 Wild Buffalo/5 Wild Buffalo 2.

Featuring hints of Native American-inspired styling, 5 Wild Wolves is set in North America at night, with a campfire burning and a shooting star streaking overhead. The vibe is close to the 5 Wild Buffalo series, only this time the scenery is mountainous rather than desert-like. It also feels a little less “casino-like” because the prize wheel has been taken out and isn’t used anymore; instead, a list of five jackpot prizes sits to the left of the reels. Beyond that, the game keeps the chunky, bold, colourful look that players have come to recognise from 4ThePlayer.

As a ways slot, 5 Wild Wolves uses a 5×4 gaming area and delivers 1,024 ways to win, paying combinations that start from the leftmost reel and continue across adjacent reels. Under the hood is a highly volatile math model with a theoretical RTP of 96%, and players can wager anywhere from 20 c to a maximum of $/€90.

The symbol line-up features 10-A royals, racoons, owls, horses, cougars, bears, and wolf pay symbols. A 5 OAK royal win returns 0.15x the bet, increasing to 0.2x-0.25x for 5 matching animal symbols across the reels. When appear on any reel except the leftmost. They’re able to replace any regular paying symbol.

5 Wild Wolves: Slot Features

4ThePlayer takes the chance to reintroduce its Boosting Fortunes mechanic, a collection of progressive (up to a cap) jackpot prizes. Supporting features include Wolf Stack Multipliers, Howling Free Spins, and feature buys.

Boosting Fortunes

There are five dynamic jackpots in 5 Wild Wolves. They are the Mini (8x-100x), Midi (12x-200x), Super (100x-500x), Mega (300x-1,500x) and Ultra (1,000x-5,000x). Landing a Gold Coin on a symbol or a wild in free spins increases one or more Fortune Prizes up to its set limit. On any bet, where one or more Gold Coins land on a symbol, the Fortune Bonus may trigger. When activated, players pick objects to reveal a Fortune Prize token. When 3 of the same tokens have been revealed, the corresponding prize is awarded.

Wolf Stack Multipliers

Wolf symbols may appear at any point as regular or fully stacked symbols. Hitting a fully stacked wolf symbol activates the Wolf Stack Multiplier feature. Positioned above each reel is a Wolf Stack Multiplier that changes on every spin, showing values from 3x to 25x. A fully stacked wolf symbol takes the multiplier shown above its reel, and this value determines how many wolf symbols are counted on that reel during win evaluation. If fully stacked wolf symbols land adjacent, they merge into a single symbol and multiply each symbol’s multiplier value. The maximum number of wolf symbols that can appear on all reels is 42,000x.

Howling Free Spins

During the base game, landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters grants 8, 15, or 25 free spins, respectively. In the bonus, any wild symbols that land expand to cover the entire reel and carry a Wild Stack Multiplier of 2x to 20x. The Wolf Stack Multiplier above that reel is added to the Wild Stack Multiplier. This combined total Wild Stack Multiplier is then used to work out how many symbols are on the reel during win evaluations. Players win +4 free spins when 2 scatters land on the reels.

Feature Buy

The feature buy offers two options – Howling Free Spins for 50x, or a spin that guarantees a wolf win with at least 1 full stack of wolf symbols for 100x the bet.

5 Wild Wolves: Slot Verdict

In certain respects, playing 5 Wild Wolves felt a bit like travelling to Vietnam and carrying a million dong, yet only being able to buy a bottle of water and a solid meal with it. Because adjacent wolf symbols combine by multiplying their Wolf Stack Multiplier values, the merged figure can look massive while the payout can still end up surprisingly small. That mainly comes down to the low-paying symbols and what seems to be the limitation of only one wolf symbol landing per reel—so if it doesn’t expand and pick up a multiplier, a lone 1×1 wolf symbol doesn’t do much. That said, it’s not as if the Wolf Stack Multiplier feature is always underwhelming. If luck is on your side, it can really pop. According to the rules, the maximum number of wolf symbols on the reels is 42,000, which equals 10,500x the bet. That’s a strong result for a single spin.

In practice, the Wolf Stack Multiplier feature ended up stealing the spotlight from Boosting Fortunes, which often felt secondary to simply landing wolf symbols and hoping for expansion. Wolf Spins were especially entertaining in the demo, since they go straight to the point—dropping wolf symbols, merging them fairly often into a tasty combined multiplier, and then tallying the outcome. As for Boosting Fortunes, it’s still a nice add-on for anyone who likes jackpots that can increase and the occasional pick-and-click bonus when it shows up.

Overall, anyone who took to 5 Wild Buffalo should find this wolf-themed spin-off just as appealing, as it plays very similarly. There are likely plenty of fans too, given the effort 4ThePlayer has put into developing the 5 Wild style and feature set. If the earlier buffalo entries didn’t click for you, 5 Wild Wolves probably won’t change that, but players who already enjoy the 5 Wild Buffalo slots will find plenty to like here.