Wild Swarm 2: Slot Overview

It’s a little ironic that something as often criticised as online gambling (in some circles, and we’ll leave that discussion there) is also packed with bright, adorable themes. Fruit slots are everywhere, along with leprechauns, fluffy wildlife, and candy-coated worlds. Another sweet-as-they-come visitor to the reels is the humble bee, and back in 2018 Push Gaming launched Wild Swarm, which has remained one of the more long-lasting entries in the bee-slot niche. Jump ahead roughly 6 years and the studio has dipped back into the honey pot. The outcome is Wild Swarm 2—a blend of familiar elements from the original, a reworked core, and a few extra enhancements on top.

Wild Swarm 2 keeps you in the same woodland setting, and it’s just as pleasant to look at as its predecessor. The soundtrack is equally upbeat, and the game does an excellent job of helping you forget reality and sink into a fantasy forest where—ignoring the queen bee’s monarchic leanings—everyone darts around collecting nectar to make honey for the hive, like an insect-themed communal daydream.

The action plays out on Wild Swarm 2’s 5-reel, 4-row grid, lashed together with wooden beams, with 20 paylines used to calculate wins. While the original Wild Swarm sat in the medium-high volatility range, Wild Swarm 2 pushes that up to high. And although the first game offered an unusually lofty 97.03% RTP (highest setting), the sequel still holds up well, featuring a default RTP of 96.67%. Stakes range from 10 c to $/€100 per spin, and there are also four bonus buy options available.

As for the paytable, leafy J-A symbols cover the low end, followed by a purple flower, a white flower, a jar of honey, a crown, and a honey-dripping dollar sign as the premium icons. Landing 5 matching low pays returns 0.5 to 0.7 times the bet, while 5 matching high pays award 1.25x to 15x. The Wild Honey and Sticky Wild symbols act as wilds, replacing any other paying symbol. They also pay the same as the top-value symbol. That said, Sticky Wilds do not show up in the base game.

Wild Swarm 2: Slot Features

If you’ve played the first Wild Swarm, you’ll probably feel right at home working through Wild Swarm 2’s returning mechanics—while also keeping an eye out for what’s been added, which mainly comes down to reel multipliers.

Sticky Wild

The wild symbol featuring the bee is the Sticky Wild, and it appears only in free spins and the Swarm Mode feature. Any Sticky Wilds that land become sticky immediately, staying locked in place until the feature finishes.

Chest Feature

Hitting a Chest symbol in the base game, free spins or Swarm Mode triggers the Chest feature. Then, 5 Hidden Chest Prizes are shown for the player to pick from. Once a choice is made, the reward is revealed and paid out. In the base game, prizes include bet multipliers of 2x to 1,000x, free spins, Swarm Boost, which instantly increases the Hive Meter, or Instant Swarm Mode. Prizes during free spins or Swarm Mode include bet multipliers, 1-6 extra free spins, or a Sticky Wilds Reel with a multiplier.

Collectable Bees

In the base game, whenever a bee symbol lands, it flies over to the hive to be collected, and a wild honey symbol is left behind in its original spot. There are two bee types: the worker bee, which raises the hive meter by +1 segment, and queen bees, which boost it by +5 segments when they head to the hive. Once the hive reaches the maximum level of 5, and another bee symbol lands, there is a chance the hive explodes, activating the Swarm Mode feature. The Queen Bee has a higher chance of setting it off.

Free Spins

• Landing 3 scatter triggers 7 free spins and 3 guaranteed Sticky Wilds.
• Landing 4 scatters grant 8 free spins and 4 guaranteed Sticky Wilds.
• Landing 5 scatters award 10 free spins and 5 guaranteed Sticky Wilds.

The feature may also be granted as a Chest Prize in the base game. The guaranteed Sticky Wilds are applied to reels with multipliers. When Sticky Wilds land, they stay where they are until the round is over. Reel multipliers of x2 and x4 sit above reels 2 and 4 during free spins, respectively. Completing these reels with Sticky Wilds applies the Reel Multiplier value to each Sticky Wild underneath. Filling a reel also awards +1 free spin. Sticky Wild Multipliers are additive.

Swarm Mode

Swarm Mode is triggered when the Hive explodes after collecting a bee on level 5 or by picking it from the base game Chest feature. Swarm Mode begins with 10 free spins, and Reel Multipliers are placed above each reel – x2, x3, x4, x6, and x8 in this order. Before spin one, a stack of Sticky Wild symbols is randomly placed on one reel (this does not grant extra free spins). Once Swarm Mode ends, a new Hive appears with a random level of 2, 3, or 4 and is partly filled by 40%-60%.

Bonus Buy

Players can purchase free spins triggered by 3 scatters for 74x the bet (RTP 96.83%), 4 scatters for 139x the bet (RTP 96.88%), 5 scatters for 332x the bet (96.87%), or random scatters for 125x the bet (RTP 96.84%).

Wild Swarm 2: Slot Verdict

Making a follow-up to a well-liked game has to be intimidating. You need to keep the recognisable parts, introduce fresh ideas, and avoid swinging too far either way—changing so much that it alienates fans like extreme celebrity cosmetic work, or staying so close that the sequel feels unnecessary. Push Gaming has proven more than once it can deliver strong sequel-style releases, including entries in the ‘Fat’ range, and the fang-filled follow-up Razor Returns is hard to forget. This time the studio has put its worker bees to work on Wild Swarm 2, and overall it should satisfy players who enjoyed the first game while happily taking a bit extra on top.

And when it comes to potential, it’s more than just a little extra: the maximum win has climbed beyond 2018 levels to a 10,000x the bet win cap. That leap is clearly helped by the addition of Reel Multipliers—multiplication can be a serious force in a slot. Wild Swarm 2 introduces them gradually in free spins, where only two reels carry multipliers, before turning things up in Wild Swarm Mode by placing multipliers above every reel. The final piece is the incentive to fill reels with Sticky Wilds, as if sticky wilds weren’t already valuable enough on their own. Throughout it all, the game maintains the same cosy, feel-good woodland vibe that made the original so appealing.

Put simply, Wild Swarm 2 remains as cute and inviting as ever, but with more room to go wild when the features kick in. It may not land with quite the same impact as Razor Returns; it doesn’t really feel like that, but it’s still a strong release—ideal for fans returning from the first game or anyone after a bee slot with a genuinely sharp sting in its tail.