Wild Hike: Slot Overview

The call of the wild takes centre stage in Wild Hike, an online slot from software provider Relax Gaming. There are plenty of nature-themed slots out there, but it’s not often the focus is so clearly on hiking. That’s the sort of twist you’d expect from Relax Gaming. Even so, Wild Hike isn’t among the studio’s most inventive titles overall, as its feature set feels fairly familiar for a Relax Gaming release. Still, if the slightly reduced originality and a pack of perilous animals aren’t enough to turn you back, lace up and let’s see what’s on the trail.

By the time Wild Hike appears on screen, it looks like the day’s trek is already done. The scene is set at night, with a campfire flickering in a wooded clearing where you can toast marshmallows, meat, or whatever else you fancy. It’s the kind of tucked-away spot made for escaping the grind, forgetting the 9 to 5 for a while, and unwinding in nature. Trigger free spins and the view shifts upward, past the treetops to a star-filled night sky. We’re clearly far from “civilization,” helped along by the refreshing lack of light pollution.

Wild Hike may not be one of Relax Gaming’s headline releases—far from it—but it still comes with a solid set of stats. It’s geared toward players who like highly volatile slot machines, very much a Relax Gaming hallmark, and the return changes depending on how you play. With regular bets of 10 p/c to $/€50 per spin, the RTP sits at 96.09%, increasing to 96.51% when purchasing standard free spins or 96.54% for Wild Free Spins. We’ll get to the costs and specifics shortly.

Starting with the layout, Wild Hike uses 6 reels, 4 rows of symbols, and 4,096 ways to win. A payout is made when matching symbols land across at least three neighbouring reels from the left, forming a winning way. Wins range from 1x the bet for six of the 10-A card royals, up to 1.8-10 times the stake for six owls, deer, boar, bears, or wolves. On the four central reels, howling wolf wild symbols appear, substituting for any standard pay symbol as usual.

Wild Hike: Slot Features

One element that’s less standard than the rest is that when wilds land on reels 3 or 4, they turn into Expanding Wilds. These expand to fill the entire reel and activate a Re-spin. Expanding Wilds also carry multipliers that increase by +1 with each consecutive Re-spin. Re-spins keep going as long as a win lands, and Expanding Wilds stay sticky for the duration—scatters are sticky during Re-spins too. When both Expanding Wild multipliers apply to a win, the multipliers multiply each other. Once the Re-spins finish, multipliers reset in the base game.

Free Spins

Hitting 3 or 4 scatter symbols grants 7 or 10 free spins, respectively. In free spins, any multipliers generated through the Expanding Wilds/Re-spins mechanic stay saved until the round ends. When no Expanding Wilds are visible, the current multiplier values are displayed above the third and fourth reels. Every scatter that lands during the bonus adds +1 additional free spin. If free spins begin from within a Re-spin sequence, any multipliers built up in the Re-spins are carried over into the free spins round.

Buy Feature

If you choose to buy free spins, there are two options available. The first is a regular free spins round, activated by 3 or 4 scatters for 75x the bet. The second is Wild Free spins, priced at 150x the bet. This option is also triggered by 3 or 4 scatters, but with the key difference that at least one win is guaranteed on double Expanding Wilds.

Wild Hike: Slot Verdict

A quick bit of online digging is enough to show that hiking is the most popular outdoor activity in the United States, and it’s surely a favourite in plenty of other places too. So it’s no shock that nature slots are everywhere, even if only a handful are so directly tied to hiking. That said, Wild Hike doesn’t feel strongly “hike” focused either—it comes across more like a camping slot than a hiking one—but that’s probably splitting hairs. Let’s set the theme aside and look at how Wild Hike plays instead.

From a gameplay perspective, Wild Hike isn’t among Relax Gaming’s most pioneering efforts. The studio has often taken a relatively straightforward idea—Wild Chapo 2, for instance—and delivered it in a fresh, inventive way. Here, the Expanding Wilds and rising multiplier concept feels less new, having already appeared in the Expanding Wild free spins option in Iron Bank, along with several other mechanics. As in Iron Bank, the system can still escalate into something intense, helped by the ways-to-win format and the fact that Expanded Wild multipliers multiply each other. It can ramp up enough that Wild Hike includes a win cap of 20,000x the bet, and given Relax Gaming’s reputation for hitting max wins, there’s little reason to doubt Wild Hike has the muscle to reach it too.

Of course, seeing a slot hit its absolute ceiling is always a bit of a numbers game—the more players spinning, the more likely something headline-worthy turns up. That’s why game-changers like Money Train 3 draw crowds eager to try their luck. In comparison, while Wild Hike is well-built, it’s not a major Relax Gaming standout, which leaves an open question over just how big its audience will become.