Wild West Duels: Slot Overview

Alright folks, time to head out West again… though with the sheer number of cowboy slots lately, we’ve done enough “saddling up” to start feeling it. Maybe we’ll walk this one off instead. Either way, today’s stop is Wild West Duels, an online slot from the ever-busy Pragmatic Play crew. Of course, being prolific doesn’t automatically equal being fresh, and Wild West Duels is a pretty clear case of “taking inspiration” from elsewhere. We won’t name the earlier game just yet, but anyone who knows their Western slots should be able to clock it quickly—assuming you’re willing to risk a little more saddle soreness.

The backdrop in Wild West Duels is a dusty frontier town that looks like it’s been left to rot. Maybe the mine ran dry, maybe the railway bosses skipped it, or maybe something else pushed the place into decline. Or perhaps everyone’s simply too afraid to step outside thanks to bandits. Whatever the story, the town comes across as empty and windswept, with tumbleweeds, dust, and a couple of cacti doing most of the work. A twangy soundtrack handles the mood nicely and is genuinely solid, although the xylophone-style win count-up noises take a bit of shine off it. Visually and sonically it does the job, but it still doesn’t hit the same distinctive atmosphere as the slot it’s clearly aiming to echo.

Wild West Duels runs on a 5×5 game grid, with 15 lines running across the reels to form winning combinations. Wins land when three or more matching symbols connect along a line from the leftmost reel across consecutive reels. It’s highly volatile and can be pretty punishing, regardless of whether you’re spinning normally or buying bonuses—the RTP doesn’t change. The top setting is 96%, although there are two reduced versions too, so it’s worth checking the paytable to confirm which one you’re playing. If everything checks out, you can set stakes from 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin and get the shootout started.

Symbol-wise, Wild West Duels features 10 standard paying icons plus several special ones. The lower-value symbols are a wanted poster, necktie, drink bottle, boots, and a hat, while the higher-value symbols are five different character portraits. A five-of-a-kind win pays 1x the bet for low symbols or 5-20x the bet for premium symbols. Helping to connect combinations is the familiar gold wild, which substitutes for any regular paying symbol and can appear on all reels. In the base game or in the Duel feature, wilds may randomly expand to cover an entire reel as two gunslingers face off. The winner applies their multiplier of x2 to x100 to the wild. These expansions only occur when they will create at least one win.

Wild West Duels: Slot Features

That leads us to three special scatter symbols, which are responsible for triggering Wild West Duels’ three bonus rounds – the Beer Game, the Duel, and Lost Relics.

Beer Game

Landing 3 or more Beer Game scatters awards 10 free Beer Game spins. In the Beer Game, whenever the wild beer mug symbol appears, it receives a random multiplier of x2 or x3 and sticks to its position until the feature ends. The multipliers apply to any wins they help form, and if multiple wilds contribute to a win, their multiplier values are added together. Expanding wilds aren’t used in this feature, and it also can’t be retriggered.

Duel

If 3 or more Duel scatters show up, players are awarded 10 free Duel spins. Throughout this bonus, expanding wilds can appear, and at least one wild symbol is guaranteed to land in a random spot on every free spin. This round also cannot be retrigged.

Lost Relics

The final scatter is the Lost Relics scatter. Hitting at least 3 triggers the Lost Relics feature, which begins with 3 free spins. Before the spins start, players pick 9 out of 25 shovels on screen to reveal either guaranteed wilds or random multipliers. Wild values are 1, 2, 3, or 5, while multiplier values are x1, x2, x3, or x5. After the selection phase, the free spins play out. On each spin, the chosen number of wilds is guaranteed to land in random positions, and every win is multiplied by the initially picked multiplier. Expanding wilds aren’t included, and the feature can’t be retriggered.

Buy Free Spins

Where permitted, players can purchase any of the three bonus rounds directly. Buying the Beer Game costs 100x the bet, the Duel costs 200x the bet, and Lost Relics comes in at 400x the bet. As noted earlier, the RTP is identical to playing without bonus buys.

Wild West Duels: Slot Verdict

So, it’s not a frame-for-frame clone, but yes—Wild West Duels is essentially Hacksaw’s Wanted Dead or a Wild wearing a different hat. Wanted Dead or a Wild delivered its brutal take on the frontier roughly a year and a half before Wild West Duels was lined up to launch. Maybe Pragmatic Play figured memories of Hacksaw Gaming’s hit would have faded and people wouldn’t connect the dots. Or maybe they simply pushed ahead with their own version with little concern for outside opinions. Either way, it’s hardly unprecedented. In online gambling, copying isn’t just “flattery”—it’s something you see all the time.

Leaving that aside, what remains is a thrilling Western slot—just know it can be viciously harsh at times. When the bonus rounds click, they can bring everything together into something impressive, but they can also deliver very little, which makes buying them a risky move. At least, that’s how it felt during our testing. The upside is huge, though, and with a top win of 20,000x the bet, there’s significantly more potential here than in the original Wanted Dead or a Wild. Maybe those bigger numbers will be the hook that pulls players toward Wild West Duels.

It may need to be, because the rest of the package feels like it’s playing catch-up. Wild West Duels doesn’t have the originality—whether in art style, mechanics, or that heavy, oppressive mood—that Wanted Dead or Alive burst onto the scene with. It’s difficult not to call Wild West Duels a really strong game, but that’s largely because it lifted its best ideas from a rival.