Bucks and Doe 10K Ways: Slot Overview

Players who enjoy the idea of firing away, creeping through the wilderness, and taking down animals (or at least doing it virtually from a keyboard) may want to look at Bucks and Doe 10K Ways from developer ReelPlay. This hunting-inspired online slot joins ReelPlay’s growing 10K Ways lineup. Normally, that wouldn’t be especially exciting, as many entries in the series have felt fairly familiar in features and flow. Still, Bucks and Doe 10K Ways flips expectations by introducing one of the most inventive bonus rounds the range has produced so far.

The theme also feels refreshingly different. Up to now, the series has leaned on familiar territory like Asian settings, Thor, pirates, Irish themes, and more, so Bucks and Doe 10K Ways arrives on less-trodden ground. The base game is set in a woodland cabin far from the daily grind, complete with a stack of firewood and a welcoming rocking chair. Deer antlers hang above a window, hinting that the “mission” is to head out, shoot some critters, and add extra trophies to the wall. Some players will love that angle, others won’t. At least Bucks and Doe 10K Ways is only a game, so no animals were harmed in making it, as far as we know.

As with the other titles in the series, Bucks and Doe 10K Ways runs on a grid featuring 6 reels with 4 rows each, plus a horizontal reel above that displays 4 symbols. As the title suggests, this configuration delivers 10,000 ways to win. To score, matching symbols must begin from the leftmost reel and continue across adjacent reels. With a top RTP of 96.1% (4 lower values are available depending on the market), Bucks and Doe 10K Ways is a medium-high volatile slot with a hit rate of around 1 in 4. Stakes range from 20 p/c to $/€40, and there are also four different bonus buy options available.

On the symbol front, the paytable includes ten standard paying symbols – six low and four high. The low symbols are 9-A card ranks, paying 0.5 to 1 times the bet for 6-of-a-kind, while the premium symbols are a deer, elk, moose, and hunter, paying 1.5 to 50 times the bet for 6 OAK. Worth noting: Bucks and Doe 10K Ways does not include wild symbols. It does, however, feature a cascade win mechanic, where winning symbols disappear and new ones drop down to fill the empty spaces.

Bucks and Doe 10K Ways: Slot Features

With the base game additions already covered, we can jump right into the bonus respins round. This feature starts when 3 or more scatter symbols appear. The game symbol used during the bonus is randomly selected when the feature is triggered naturally. Only one game symbol type will appear. It may be the Deer with values of 1-100x the bet, Elk with values of 1-150x the bet, or Moose with values of 1-200x the bet. Once the round begins, you receive 3 respins, and the triggering scatter prizes are collected. On each spin, the following symbols can land:

• Game symbols which possess prize values as mentioned above.
• Ammunition symbols reset the spin count back to 3.
• Hunters target all prizes on the reels.
• Bear symbols have 1 to 3 lives and consume an animal symbol absorbing its values.
• Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum trophy scatter symbols.

Trophy prizes come in Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum, worth 10x, 50x, 250x, or 2,000x the bet, respectively. Only one trophy can appear on the reels at any given time. After the reels finish spinning, a target drifts across the screen. If it shoots a symbol (the bear included), that value is collected, and any bear hit loses one life. Bears disappear once their lives reach 0. Trophy scatter symbols stay where they land until the feature ends, or until they are targeted and their value is collected. When the respins conclude, the total collected amount is paid out.

Buy Bonus

In Bucks and Doe 10K Ways, players can pick from four bonus buys. The options are bonus respins with Deer symbols, bonus respins with Elk symbols, bonus respins with Moose symbols, or bonus respins with a random animal for 55x, 65x, 75x, or 65x the bet, respectively.

Bucks and Doe 10K Ways: Slot Verdict

Prior to Bucks and Doe 10K Ways, the 10K range had started to feel a bit repetitive. There have been differences, but new releases often came with little expectation of anything truly fresh. That changes here. Bucks and Doe 10K Ways is arguably the most imaginative entry in the lineup so far. The theme alone is a bold choice, since hunting is something people can feel strongly about in either direction. We could easily get pulled into arguments for and against it, but this is an online slot, so we’ll leave that discussion aside.

What’s more important is the Bucks and Doe 10K Ways bonus round, which stands out as the most creatively constructed feature in the 10K Ways series to date. For one thing, it includes a fairly broad set of symbols (by 10K Ways standards), so it’s not just about landing cash symbols or bonus prizes and then collecting everything at the end. The collection process is more involved because you need the target to hover over and shoot prizes to actually bank them. On top of that, bears can consume other prizes and linger on the screen, ammunition refills the spin counter, and you have three distinct levels – Deer, Elk, and Moose. It’s a smart design, and it’s easy to picture players who like the hunting vibe enjoying the tension of lining things up and “taking the shot” in Bucks and Doe 10K Ways’ bonus round. The final stat to note is the max win, which reaches 6,116x the bet.

That said, it can also be a bit aggravating. As noted, it’s not as simple as landing symbols and automatically receiving their values at the end. Perhaps that’s intentional, echoing some of the annoyances associated with hunting—missing a shot, or not even spotting anything worth aiming at. Hunters can weigh in on that. Either way, Bucks and Doe 10K Ways ended up being packed with unexpected elements, which is surprising in itself after covering so many 10K Ways slots. Strange as it sounds, if you want a bonus round that feels genuinely different from almost everything else out there, Bucks and Doe 10K Ways may be worth taking a look at.