Play Bounty Hunters

Bounty Hunters is a five-reel Western slot from Nolimit City, presented in game under the fuller name Bounty Hunters xNudge. Behind its familiar frontier theme sits a fairly complicated set of features involving expanding Wilds, stored multipliers and two very different bonus rounds. There are 243 ways to win, extreme volatility and a simulated maximum payout of 52,310x the bet. 

Available in Heart Bingo’s online slots library, this is not a cheerful, postcard version of the Wild West. The reels stand in a dusty settlement beneath a washed-out sky, with a female bounty hunter keeping watch from the side of the screen. Wooden symbol tiles, worn metal borders and a muted palette of brown, copper and red give the base game a suitably rough appearance. Pistols, bullets, dynamite and bolas fill most of the reels. Once a bonus round starts, the setting becomes noticeably darker. Bloodstained portraits record defeated criminals, while gunfire breaks out around a battered wooden saloon. Some of the characters are deliberately exaggerated, especially the assorted thugs and bosses, but the artwork never feels light-hearted. Gunshots and heavier percussion add to the tension without overpowering what is happening on the grid. 

All figures below are multipliers of the total bet. 

The standard Wild substitutes for all regular paying symbols. Scatters are limited to the three middle reels, whereas the revolver Bonus symbols usually appear on the first and fifth reels. 

Bounty Hunter Wild and Few Dollars More 

A Bounty Hunter Wild is three symbols tall and can appear on any of the middle reels. If only part of the hunter is visible, the symbol nudges into full view. Every movement adds one to its multiplier, so the final value depends on where the Wild originally landed. When more than one hunter contributes to a win, their multipliers are added together. 

Few Dollars More begins when a Bounty Hunter Wild arrives already fully visible. The hunter stays in place for one respin. Landing another complete hunter produces another respin, allowing more than one multiplier to become involved. 

Mexican Standoff 

Matching revolver Bonus symbols on reels one and five trigger Mexican Standoff, provided that both symbols occupy the same row. Other rows are covered, leaving the selected line to respin. The two triggering revolvers turn into sticky Wilds with 6x multipliers. Any additional revolver that lands also becomes sticky, adds another respin and carries its own 6x value. These multipliers are multiplied together, rather than added, which is what gives the feature its stronger potential. 

Raid Spins 

Three Scatters on the middle reels open Raid Spins. Instead of retaining the ordinary reel layout, the game switches to a 4x5 grid surrounded by bounty hunters. Three spins are awarded initially, and the count returns to three whenever a thug or boss lands. Thugs may carry values from 1x to 25x. Bosses start with smaller values, generally between 1x and 5x, but their abilities can change the rest of the grid. Depending on the character, a boss may collect other values, increase them or apply a multiplier. The bounty hunters then collect nearby criminals and apply their own multipliers, which can rise to 12x. There is quite a lot to follow, though the character placement makes more sense after seeing the round in action. 

Showdown Spins 

Showdown Spins require three Scatters and both revolver Bonus symbols in the same base game result. This time, play moves to a 5x5 area with the Hard Honcho Boss sitting in the centre and 12 thugs positioned around him. Hard Honcho begins at 6x and uses one of the three standard boss abilities on each spin. As in Raid Spins, a newly-landed thug resets the counter to three. Collecting Hard Honcho also fills empty spaces within the diamond surrounding him, giving this round a different rhythm from the more open Raid feature. 

Bounty Hunters uses five reels, three rows and 243 ways to win. Matching symbols must appear on neighbouring reels from left to right, but they do not have to sit on the same horizontal line. Several copies of one symbol on a reel can therefore create multiple winning ways from a single spin. Volatility is classed as Extreme. The simulated maximum payout is 52,310x the bet, and reaching that amount brings the round to an end. 

• Bounty Raid 2: Bounty-hunting and outlaw encounters place this game within much the same rough Wild West territory. 
• Bullets and Bounty: Gunfire, wanted criminals and frontier rewards create an immediately familiar bounty-hunter theme. 
• El Paso Gunfight xNudge: This gritty Nolimit City Western also combines gunfights with nudging Wilds and growing multipliers. 

This title makes better use of its setting than many Western casino games. The wanted poster Wilds belong naturally on the reels, while Raid Spins and Showdown Spins turn the bonus action into an actual hunt rather than an unrelated collection round. Its sombre artwork also helps it stand apart from brighter cowboy games. There is a trade off. Several characters have separate abilities, the trigger conditions are easy to mix up and the bonus rounds are not immediately self explanatory. We found the game distinctive, but certainly not simple. It is likely to make more sense to those who enjoy learning-layered mechanics than to anyone looking for an uncomplicated five-reel slot.