Wild Swarm (Push Gaming): Introduction

Push Gaming is easily one of the more intriguing underdog studios right now. Most players probably hadn’t heard of them before their major breakout with Tiki Tumble, followed more recently by Fat Rabbit. To be fair, we didn’t know much about Push Gaming either until we started seeing massive Tiki Tumble wins popping up on Youtube and their titles becoming a regular pick on casino streamers’ setlists.

What Push Gaming recognized—something many other providers seem to have missed—is that the appetite for high volatility is at an all-time high. They stepped outside their usual lane to create a slot with far more upside than anything they’d attempted before, and it paid off.

Push Gaming went from being another medium variance provider that few people paid attention to, to becoming the most talked-about studio in 2018—and at the moment, the only provider with the potential to push (no pun intended) Big Time Gaming off the Ultra High variance throne.

Wild Swarm is a 5-reel, 4-row slot with 20 paylines and can be played on all devices from €0.20 to €100. It isn’t as high variance as Tiki Tumble and Fat Rabbit, and because of its lower variance the bonus hits more often, but it still offers decent potential.

Wild Swarm is a great-looking slot with a calm, laid-back vibe. Production values are excellent in both visuals and audio, featuring a fairy-tale forest backdrop with fireflies drifting upward into the night. Plenty of slots use a bee theme, but the first comparison that came to mind here was Microgaming’s Pollen Party. That said, the two games play very differently.

Wild Swarm includes 4 low-value symbols designed as wooden A, K, Q and J icons. The premium symbols are flowers, honeypots and a queen bee. The Honey Dollar is the highest-paying symbol and awards 30 times your stake for landing 5 of a kind.

There are two kinds of wilds: a standard wild that shows up in the base game, and a sticky wild that appears only during the bonus and Swarm Mode feature.

When a chest symbol lands anywhere, the Pick feature activates. You’re shown five concealed instant prizes to choose from. After selecting one, the chosen prize is revealed and paid out.

In the main game, instant prizes are:

• Win multipliers
• Free Spins
• Swarm Boost feature
• Swarm Mode

In the free spins feature and Swarm mode features, instant prizes include 1, 2, or 5 free spins, plus Sticky wild upgrades which in turn include:

• Shifting wilds: all sticky wild symbols move one position to the left.
• Expanding wilds: one sticky wild symbol expands vertically to cover the reel with sticky wild symbols.

Free Spins

Landing 3, 4 or 5 Hive scatter symbols anywhere triggers the free spins round, awarding 7, 10 or 14 free spins respectively. Free spins can also be granted as an instant prize through the pick feature. During free spins, any sticky wild symbols that land anywhere remain sticky and stay locked in place until the feature ends.

Collectable Bees

In the base game, whenever a bee symbol lands anywhere, it flies into the Hive and is collected, leaving a wild Honey symbol behind in its position on the reels. Once the Hive reaches the maximum level of 5 and another bee symbol lands anywhere, there’s a chance the Hive will explode and trigger the Swarm Mode feature.

Swarm Mode feature

The Swarm Mode feature starts when the Hive explodes, or when it’s awarded via the pick feature. When Swarm Mode begins, a number of sticky wild symbols are placed onto the reels and 10 free spins are awarded. As in the standard free spins round, wilds remain stuck on the reels for the duration of the feature. When Swarm Mode ends, a new Hive appears above the reels with a starting level of 2, 3, or 4.

Conclusion

We definitely had fun with Wild Swarm, largely thanks to its strong production quality and smart overall design. The base-game features and fairly frequent bonus triggers kept the session engaging throughout. It’s a medium variance slot and it’s nowhere close to Tiki Tumble in terms of potential, so bear that in mind.

Over our 3 hour session, we managed to stay in profit after landing two 200x wins from the picking feature just a few spins apart. Unfortunately, the free spins round didn’t pay much for us, and we never managed to trigger the Swarm Mode feature—which is where we think the best value is likely to be found.

Wild Swarm has a 97.03% RTP and is currently available on all Push Gaming casinos.