Pickle Bandits: Slot Overview

Out on the old frontier, it probably looked awfully tempting to toss the rulebook aside and take up life as a bandit, figuring that waving a six-shooter around might persuade folks to part with their valuables. Of course, firearms were everywhere too, so catching return fire would have been part of the job description. That’s more broad speculation than Wild West scholarship, but it sets the scene for software designer Bullshark Games and its frontier-themed slot Pickle Bandits. Yes, that’s correct—rather than humans twirling revolvers, the outlaws here are, indeed, pickles.

One of them sits in the bottom-left of the screen, and since Bullshark Games is linked with Hacksaw Gaming—a studio known for planting big characters front and centre—that choice isn’t exactly shocking. This pickle looks convincingly bandit-like, sporting a wide-brimmed hat packed with bullets, a patched poncho, and a glowing stogie; he sells the role. A twangy soundtrack matches the lonely vibe of the dusty, one-horse town backdrop, and while it’s not the harshest Wild West slot around, Bullshark Games has still bottled some frontier flavour. Then, naturally, added a pickle.

Pickle Bandits uses 14 paylines to calculate wins across its 5-reel, 4-row playfield. It runs on a 3 out of 5 rated medium volatile math model, delivering a top RTP of 96.27% with stakes from 10 c to $/€100 per spin, although a reduced 94.33% version is also offered.

Heading over to the paytable, there are 10 standard paying symbols. The low pays are playing cards showing ranks 10 through A, paying 2 times the bet for a 5 OAK hit. Alongside them are stirrups, boots, a hat, a pistol, and horseshoes as the higher-value symbols, returning 5 to 15 times the bet for five of a kind. Winning symbols explode off the reels and are replaced by new symbols dropping in from above.

Pickle Bandits: Slot Features

In Pickle Bandits, mystery symbols can turn into pay symbols or wilds, while multiplier wilds contribute multipliers to a global multiplier, and all of these can appear in both the base game and the free spins round.

Mystery Symbols

Wanted posters act as the mystery symbols. When they land, they reveal a random paying symbol; each one will flip to the same matching pay symbol, wilds, or multiplier wilds.

Multiplier Wilds

Multiplier wilds can carry additive values of 1x to 100x, or multiplicative values of x2 to x10. Once the symbol helps form a win, the multiplier is unlocked, and its amount is added to the global multiplier for the next cascade. Additive wilds are applied first, then the multiplicative values. Multiplier wilds stay locked in place, meaning they don’t drop down. After contributing their value to the multiplier, they change into a standard wild. The global multiplier affects all wins and resets at the start of each new base game spin.

Wild Symbol

The wild substitutes for all paying symbols and is cleared from the grid after it participates in a win. Five wilds on a payline award 25 times the bet.

Outlaw Free Spins

Hitting 3 scatter symbols in the base game triggers 6 free spins, while landing 4 scatter symbols awards 8 free spins with the global multiplier starting at x5. In this mode, the global multiplier does not reset between free spins. Any scatter that lands during the feature grants an extra free spin.

Bonus Buy

The bonus buy menu includes four choices, as follows:

• BonusHunt FeatureSpins – 3x the bet, each spin is 5 times more likely to trigger free spins. Highly
  volatile, RTP 96.31%.
• FeatureSpins – 20x the bet, each spin guarantees at least 4 mystery symbols. Highly volatile, RTP 96.28%.
• Outlaw Free Spins – 100x the bet for 6 free spins. Very highly volatile, RTP 96.34%.
• Extreme Outlaw Free Spins – 200x the bet for 8 free spins, multiplier starts at x5. Highly volatile, RTP 96.32%.

Pickle Bandits: Slot Verdict

In online slots you end up seeing the same ideas repeated so often that any genuine attempt to step outside the usual mould tends to be welcome—even when it’s something off-the-wall, like swapping people for pickles. Without the pickle bandit in the corner, spinning his gun, Pickle Bandits would probably feel less characterful and a touch more run-of-the-mill. Small details, sure, but they matter, and although Pickle Bandits isn’t quite as cheekily inventive as Bullshark Games’ earlier title, Holy Heist, with its nun-disguised criminals theme, it still comes together nicely.

What’s promising about Bullshark Games is the readiness to experiment, jump between themes, and tinker with mechanics. Even so, the studio clearly enjoys multiplier symbols that build a global win multiplier, something previously seen in Mafia Clash and Merlin’s Alchemy, or simply finding fun ways to use multipliers overall—which is true of most of its catalogue, if not all. And fair enough: few things can swing a session like a rapidly climbing multiplier, and in Pickle Bandits the global multiplier can, in theory, do exactly that—going from mild to memorable faster than our pickle partner can draw. On top of that, players can take comfort in the fact that free spins give the global multiplier its persistent behaviour.

Pickle Bandits doesn’t redefine what a slot can be, but it’s lively in presentation (even if not completely untamed) and brings the potential for big, multiplier-driven bursts. Add in a 12,000x max win, available at any moment, and Bullshark Games has delivered another solid entry for its portfolio.