Wild West Duels Slot (Pragmatic Play) Slot Demo & Review

Some of the most beloved online slots of all time have featured a Wild West theme, but that doesn’t seem to put developers off from taking a shot at creating a new one! This can only be a good thing for us players, as it sets a very high bar for them to try and reach – will Pragmatic Play prove up to the task today with their new game Wild West Duels? Things certainly get off to a good start – the game uses a 5×5 playfield with a total of 3,125 pay ways, and the maximum jackpot is well above average at a cool 20,000x the total bet.

The Wild West theme extends further than just the backgrounds and symbols here too – a duel feature frequently appears during the base game, which can turn regular wild symbols into full-reel multiplier wilds to boost pay way wins by up to 100x. The main bonus round is dubbed the ‘beer game’ and awards ten free spins with sticky multiplier wild symbols. These two features can even combine as the ‘duel free spins’, which also awards ten spins, except this time, you are guaranteed at least one stacked multiplier wild on every round. Two free spin rounds would usually be enough to satisfy players, but Pragmatic Play has decided that a third is necessary for this release! The ‘lost relics’ bonus only awards three spins, but you also get a pick-me phase which determines the number of guaranteed wilds and a multiplier for the feature to come. All three of these features are available to purchase via a bonus buy facility, but you’ll need to have your wallet ready… the most expensive option costs a whopping 400x the normal price per spin!

Think you are quick enough on the draw to take on the West’s most notorious outlaws? Rather you than me! Why not just play our free demo slot of Wild West Duels instead? It’s far less dangerous!

Wild West Duels Slot
ProviderPragmatic Play
Reels5
Rows5
Paylines3,125
Bonus Rounds3
Bet Range0.20 - 100
VolatilityHigh
Max Win20,000x
Bonus BuyYes
RTP96.00%
Our Rating8.5

Wild West Duels Slot Casino Bonuses


Wild West Duels Slot Free Play


Wild West Duels Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols

Wild West Duels Slot Paytable
Wild West Duels slot paytable

We couldn’t really write about Wild West-themed slots without talking about NetEnt’s Dead or Alive, but the game is getting a little long in the tooth now – even the best games get old eventually! Sure, we have Dead or Alive 2, and its enormous jackpot is likely to keep that in people’s favourite lists for some time to come, but the feature set is looking a little dated in comparison to games such as Wilds of the West or Big Time Gaming’s recent Outlaw Megaways. So does the game need to be packed with features to make it worth playing? I would usually argue not, but spending a little time playing this release can make you doubt that view – all three of the special features in Wild West Duels are exciting, fun and provide a good amount of variety that should keep players coming back to this game for some time.

Great features then, but how does it pay? With 3,125 payways, there is only so much that a developer can do in terms of regular paytable wins. There are five high-paying outlaw character symbols, the most valuable of which will pay you 20x the total bet for a full payway of five of a kind. Two more share equal payouts of 10x for all five symbols, with the remaining two having equal values of 5x for a complete payway. The low pays include a cowboy hat, boots, canteen, bandana, and a wanted poster, and all five of them have identical returns at 1x for a five of a kind combination.

Pragmatic Play has not fallen into the anti-player trap of limiting the available wager options in their slots (yet!), so you are free to choose any bet amount between the minimum of €0.20 and the maximum €100.00 per spin. There’s a really good spread of stakes between these two amounts, so finding a bet size to play at that is comparable to your bankroll shouldn’t be an issue.


Base Game & Modifiers

Wild West Duels Slot Base Game
Wild West Duels slot base game

The first thing you will see after loading Wild West Duels is a 5×5 reel set. This is on the large side for a regular payday-based machine and results in a huge total of 3,125 payways. That may not sound like much compared to a Megaways slot, for example, but this is still a rare configuration in the current market.

All symbols pay from left to right on adjacent reels starting from the leftmost reel. Whilst the numbers shown on the paytable may not seem immediately impressive, it’s important to note that not only do the symbols appear in stacks on all reels but their returns can also be multiplied by up to 100x if a wild symbol appears as part of the winning combination.


Expanding Wild Multiplier

During the base game and duel free spins, any wild symbol can randomly expand to fill its entire reel. When this occurs, the game will also add a random multiplier of between 2x and 100x to all winning combinations that pass through the wild.


Wild West Duels Slot Bonus Features

Wild West Duels Slot Bonus Round
Wild West Duels slot bonus round

There are three different free spin modes available in Wild West Duels, all of which are triggered by their own specific sets of scatter symbols. This does mean that you can end up with up to six scatters littering the reels without triggering a feature, but the larger than average playfield does go some way to mitigating this.


Beer Game Free Spins

Three or more ‘beer game’ scatters will award you ten free spins. The reels used in this mode feature an extra wild symbol with a 2x or 3x multiplier added to it, and every one of these that lands during the feature will become sticky and remain in place for the duration of the bonus round.

The expanding wild feature cannot appear in this mode, and the feature cannot be re-triggered either, but this seems like a small price to pay for 3x multiplier wilds!


Duel Free Spins

Three or more ‘duel’ scatters will award another set of ten free spins. This time, the expanding wild feature from the base game is available, and at least one wild symbol is guaranteed to appear during every round. Unfortunately, this doesn’t guarantee an expansion, but it seems to happen relatively frequently in comparison to the base game.


Lost Relics Free Spins

The final ‘lost relic’ free spin feature awards just three spins, but before they start, you will be offered the chance to make nine selections from a grid of 25 shovels. Each shovel contains either a random number of wild symbols or a multiplier, and all your picks will be added together before the free spins begin.

The wild shovels can add up to five wild symbols each, whilst the multiplier shovels can award up to 5x as well. The paytable does not state what the maximum achievable total of each might be, but I guess it could theoretically be possible to obtain 25 wilds with a 20x multiplier at a push!


Bonus Buy

All three of the free spin modes described above are available to purchase via the bonus buy facility at the following rates:

  • Beer Game Free Spins: 100x Bet
  • Duel Free Spins: 200x Bet
  • Lost Relics Free Spins: 400x Bet

Wild West Duels Slot Review Final Thoughts

Pragmatic Play is on fire so far in 2023 – I believe that all of their new games published so far this year have been rated 8 or above, and Wild West Duels isn’t about to break that run either, even if it does have some glaring similarities to Hacksaw Gaming’s Wanted Dead or a Wild slot. Give this one a go; you won’t regret trying It.


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