Get ready to lift your spirits with another charming Irish-themed game from Pragmatic Play. They have a few from earlier, but they have decided to avoid long bonus trails and classic bonus games in this one. Instead, Wild Wild Riches revolves around a Money Collect feature, and as the title more than suggests, you need Wilds to get anywhere in this game. Not only to replace regular symbols, as you might be used to, but also to trigger pretty much all of the features that are included in this game.
Set in the meadows of the Emerald Isle with a rainbow on the right, the game plays out on a non-traditional reels setup of 3-3-4-4. You have 576 ways to win here and you can place bets between 25p and £125 per spin on all platforms and devices. You’ll spin the reels to a catchy Irish folk tune, and it’s hard not to get a bit cheerful and charmed by the optimistic and happy attitude of this game. However, don’t get too melted by the Irish charm, because you’ll soon discover how brutal this highly volatile release can be with those who don’t tread carefully.
Single payouts of up to 4,608 times your stake are possible here in the base game, and much more can be won combined in the bonus round. The Money Collect feature is very central to the action and is triggered when you land pots of gold in combination with wilds on the first two reels. This happens regularly in the base game and helps break up the regular grind. However, more happens in the bonus round and you can also win 3 different fixed jackpots and multipliers up to 5x on the last reel.
What are the bonus features?
The Irish Luck theme usually involves money trails and pick ’em bonus games, but this is not the case with Wild Wild Riches. Pragmatic has decided to go a completely different route, and there is a lot to look forward to here in the base game.
You can land a pot of gold coin symbols on reels 3, 4 and 5. These are special symbols that have cash values attached to them. The cash values range from 1 to 25 times your bet. You can also land jackpot and multiplier symbols on reel 5 only. The multiplier symbols can land with 2x, 3x and 5x multipliers and the fixed jackpots are as follows:
- Mega Jackpot is worth 500 times your bet.
- The Major Jackpot is worth 100 times your bet
- The Mini Jackpot is worth 50 times your bet
You only reap the Goldpot cash prizes and/or multipliers and jackpots if you land at least 1 wild on both reels 1 and 2 at the same time. If there is a wild on reels 1 and 2, all Goldpot cash values are totaled and all multipliers are applied.
Let’s illustrate with an example. If you land wilds on reels 1 and 2, plus 2 gold pots worth 10x each plus a 2x multiplier on reel 5, you win (10 + 10) x 2 = 40x. If you land a jackpot symbol on reel 5 instead of a multiplier, you win the corresponding jackpot as described above.
Ante Bet Feature
You have the option to turn on the “Ante Bet” feature in this game, and this adds extra wilds to the mix of possible symbols you can land on Reels 1 and 2. This doubles your probability of triggering a feature (collect feature or bonus round), but you will have to pay 20% more for each spin.
Free Spins in Wild Wild Riches
Triggering the free spins bonus round also involves landing a wild on the 2 first reels and then the bonus symbol on reel 3. This gives you 10 free spins initially, and you can now expect even more from the Money Collect feature than what you may be used to from the base game. You can also retrigger the bonus round in the same way you originally got it, and this will give you 10 new spins.
How to play the game
The semi-transparent game interface is the same as always from Pragmatic, and everything you need is at the bottom of the screen. In this section of the review, we will take you through all the important aspects of playing Wild Wild Riches, leaving nothing to chance before you start playing.
It is usually a good idea to start with the game settings, as this allows you to configure the game to your liking. You open the settings from the small hamburger menu icon at the bottom left of the screen. Here you can activate the Quick Spin option, which is suitable for people who prefer a higher spin speed. You can also activate the power saving mode if you are playing on your phone or tablet and cannot charge for some reason.
The intro screen can be turned off the next time the game loads. You can also turn the game sound and music on and off separately here. After playing for a while, you can also check your game history here and set your bet level between 25p and £125 per spin (or 30p to £150 per spin with the Ante Bet option enabled ).
Speaking of which, the Ante Bet option is located on the left-hand side, and you can view the paytable by clicking on the “i” icon at the bottom left. As always from Pragmatic, you will see a dynamic paytable where the symbol values are displayed in valuta and updated according to your selected bet level.
You can also use the arrows to scroll the paytable and read all about the bonus features and game rules. Finally, you can set up the autoplay feature if you don’t want to spin the reels manually. You can choose between 10 and 100 auto spins and activate the “turbo mode” for super fast gameplay. You also have many options to stop the autoplay function.
The 200 Spins Wild Riches Experience
The good thing about the Irish luck theme is that no matter what happens when you play, it’s hard not to have your spirits lifted by the upbeat folk music, all the lucky charms and bright colors. We immediately saw that Wild Wild Riches had all of this in spades and were looking forward to testing our beginner’s luck with our 200 first spins.
Since we were in a daredevil mood, we opted for the highest possible bet level, with the Ante Bet feature activated. The game surprised us with an early Money Collect feature and we won 13.86 times our bet from 5 different pots of gold coins. The downside of all the pot of gold symbols you land is that they take up a lot of prime real estate on the reels. This prevents other symbols from getting you payouts, since the pots of gold only pay out when you trigger the collect feature.
The good news is that you actually trigger the collect feature quite often, and more often than we originally thought. After a few dead spins and a small win, we got the 2 necessary wilds again. This time we won 13.33 times our bet. We realize that these are not big wins, but they still help you reach the bonus round.
After our initial good luck, we had a longer losing streak, but came out strong on the other side with a decent collectible win of 22.5 times our bet. The game called this a “big win,” but we had our hopes up for bigger prizes. The leprechaun must have heard our prayers when we landed 2 Wilds and a Bonus symbol right after that, triggering the expected bonus round.
We had a smaller collectible win at the beginning of the free spins feature, but then we only got dead spins and minute wins for a while. Our luck turned around towards the end when we got two “big wins” of 15x and 20.9x via the Collect feature. All in all, we came away with 44.7x our bet from the bonus round, but it wasn’t enough to make up for our losses in the base game.
Rating Conclusion
The subtitle of this game is “Luck of the Irish”, and you will certainly need it to get out of this rather brutal, but highly charming, wild game alive. It seems that you really need the collect feature to keep going here, as the regular symbols are often blocked by all the inactive pots of gold that land without the wilds present to collect their respective values.
It’s easy to be fooled by the cheerful atmosphere of this game and forget about the brutal mathematical model lurking behind the shiny facade. Filling the reels with the strong symbol’s pin will give you a solid 4,608x payout, but it seems difficult to get bigger wins in the base game. Your chances of big wins increase in the bonus round, of course, and it’s probably a good idea to keep the Ante Bet feature here, as you can maximize your chances of triggering the features.
Pros
Money Collect feature with up to 5x multipliers
3 different fixed jackpots up to 500x
Free spins with increased chances for the collect function
High volatility and 4,608x maximum win potential
Cons
Gold pot symbols are “blanks” without the 2 triggering wilds
Wild Riches Slot FAQs
What is the return to player of the Wild Wild Riches slot?
The RTP in this game is 96%, which is slightly above the industry average. However, due to the RTP ranges, you can get a lower payout. Available RTP values are 96.00%, 95.00% and 94.00%.
How volatile is Wild Wild Riches?
This is a very volatile game, scoring 4.5 out of a possible 5 on Pragmatic Play’s own volatility scale. In our experience, it’s a pretty brutal beast.
What is the biggest possible profit here?
You can win up to 4,608x on a single spin here, and this is done by filling the screen with the highest paying pint symbol.
Can I win a jackpot on Wild Wild Riches?
Yes, you can win 3 different fixed jackpots worth 50x, 100x and 500x respectively. These are won by landing a wild on reels 1 and 2 and 1 of the 3 different jackpot symbols on reel 5.
How does the Money Collect feature work?
You will often land pots of gold with cash values attached, but you need to land a wild on Reels 1 and 2 at the same time to collect all the money from the pots of gold.
Is there a free spins mode on the Wild Wild Riches slot?
Yes, you trigger it by landing 2 wilds on reels 1 and 2 and a bonus symbol on the third reel. You get 10 free spins with increased chances to trigger the Money Collect feature.
How many ways to win are there?
The game comes with an unusual 2-2-4-4 reels setup and 576 fixed ways to win.
Can I play Wild Wild Riches slot for free?
Yes, this is not a problem at all. You can follow this link at the very top of the page and play Wild Wild Riches for free instantly (UK players will need to confirm their age first). Up there you will also find a nice selection of licensed casinos and you can get a welcome bonus to play this game.
