Bounty Hunters

Bounty Hunters: Slot Overview

If there is one genre software provider Nolimit City favours, it has got to be the Wild West. A favourite amongst casino game makers in general and within this venerable slot category, Nolimit City has created some fine examples - Tombstone, Deadwood, Tombstone RIP, and numerous others. Why the West in particular? Maybe one reason is that it allows game designers to say things like, 'In this world, you're either all in - or you're dead.' So it is written in the game docs for Bounty Hunter, a bucking bronco of a Western from Nolimit City. From some other studios, a sentence like that might sound like a hollow boast. From a Nolimit City slot, it's more of a warning, putting potential participants on notice.

Players acquainted with prior Western slots from this studio will no doubt be used to seeing grim scenes of bleak desolation. This might be missing initially, as the base game plays out in a low-key, unassuming location where a well-dressed lady of the era meanders across a prairie towards or away from a lone house in the distance. If you think Nolimit City might be lightening up, you better check those thoughts. Even at its most upbeat, Bounty Hunters evokes a certain forlornness, and don't worry, coffins, blood, and death are lurking just around the corner.

First, a bit of housekeeping, and important to note, is Bounty Hunters 'Extremely' volatile math model producing a default RTP value of 96.07% with lower values available. Bets of 20 p/c to $/€100 may be selected (up to €300 at selected casinos), and an ante bet has been included as well. Known as the xBet, when this feature is switched on, the stake is increased by 200%, while also increasing the chances of triggering the different features. RTP with the xBet active is 96.34%.

The bounty hunting takes place in the base game on a 5x3, 243-ways-to-win grid. On it lands 10 regular pay symbols, split into 10 to A card royals and a whip, a bundle of dynamite, a pendant, smokes and bullets, and pistols. When hitting a 5 OAK winnbing way, the rewards are 1-1.25x the bet for the royals and 1.25 to 5 times the bet for the picture symbols. Lastly, wilds substitute for any paying symbol and have a value of 5x the bet for a five-wild winning way.

Bounty Hunters: Slot Features

Features now and Bounty Hunter's got a lot, such as the Bounty Hunter Wild, the Few Dollars More, the Mexican Standoff, Raid Spins, Showdown, and the Nolimit Bonus.

Scatters and Bonus Symbols

Scatters land only on reels 2, 3, and 4, and landing 3 of them triggers Raid Spins. Hitting 3 scatters on the same row as the bonus symbols triggers Showdown Spins. The bonus symbols land on reels 1 and 5 only, except during the Mexican Standoff, where they may land on the middle reels.

Bounty Hunter Wild

This is a full reel wild symbol present on reels 2, 3, and 4, which always nudges to be fully visible. For each step it nudges, the multiplier increases by +1. When more than one Bounty Hunters Wild is active, their multipliers are added together.

A Few Dollars More

Landing a fully stacked Bounty Hunter Wild triggers the A Few Dollars more round. Bounty Hunter Wilds are sticky, and a respin is awarded. If a new Bounty Hunter Wild lands, another respin is triggered.

Mexican Standoff

Landing 2 bonus symbols on the same row triggers a Mexican Standoff. The triggering row remains active for 1 respin; the other rows are deactivated. The triggering bonus symbols become wilds with x6 multipliers, and if a Bounty Hunter Wild lands, it becomes an x6 wild, too. Landing bonus symbols during the respin awards additional respins, and they act as wilds for the next respin, remaining sticky till the feature ends. All multipliers from sticky wilds are multiplied.

Raid Spins

This bonus utilises a 5x4 area where Thugs and Bosses land, bordered by two 5-position reels on the sides and a reel at the bottom where Hunters land. Now, 3 respins are awarded, which reset when a Thug or Boss lands. Thugs have coin values of 1-25; their values are collected and the Thug is removed by the closest Hunter landing in front of it on the same reel or row. Otherwise, the Thug carries over to the next spin. Hunters have multipliers of up to x12, which is applied to coin values they collect from Thugs or Bosses and added to the total win. Multiplier values on Hunters increase when they collect. Multipliers on left or right Hunters reset if they do not collect on a spin; bottom Hunters never reset.

Bosses land with coin values of 1-5 and upgrade in the order they land - row and reel-wise. Boss 1 adds coin values from all Thugs and Bosses to its own coin value. Boss 2 adds its coin value to all Thugs on a spin. Boss 3 selects a group of Thugs from the same category and multiplies their coin values. The starting value for the multiplier is x2 and rises by +1 with each selected Thug. So if there are 3 Thugs, the multipliers applied are x2, x3, and x4.

Lastly, killing all of the Bosses upgrades to Showdown Spins, provided all Raid Spins are completed first.

Showdown

Showdown behaves similarly to Raid Spins, with a few differences. It's played on a 5x5 grid with a Hard Honcho Boss in the middle surrounded by 12 Thugs in a diamond shape. The feature starts with 3 respins, which reset when new Thugs land. The Hard Honcho Boss starts with a 6x coin and behaves like the 3 bosses on Raid Spins, which may change per spin.

If the Hard Honcho Boss acts like Boss 1, its coin value increases accordingly. The upgraded coin does not reset. If the Hard Honcho Boss acts like Boss 2, it will add 6x value to all Thug values. When acting like Boss 3, it functions accordingly to Raid Spins. When the Hard Honcho Boss is collected, any empty positions on the diamond shape are filled with Thugs for the next spin.

Nolimit Bonus

The Nolimit Bonus menu gives players four feature buy options:

• The Mexican Standoff can be bought for 136x the bet with a default RTP of 96.07%.
• Raid Spins can be bought for 100x the bet with a default RTP of 96.14%.
• Showdown Spins can be bought for 850x the bet with a default RTP of 96.09%.
• The Lucky Draw option costs 175x the bet and has a default RTP of 96.09%.

Bounty Hunters: Slot Verdict

Rob Doyle of The Guardian wrote about the late American novelist Cormac McCarthy as being 'utterly wedded to the apocalyptic sublime', and the same might be said of Nolimit City. At least, it might be said when dealing with the studio's adversarial Western-themed slots. Bounty Hunters is no exception. It's filled with grim imagery, possesses a take-no-prisoners attitude, and slings out lashings of combative gameplay. The rewards for getting bounties in can be massive, though, and Bounty Hunters provides a thrilling ride to possibly achieve them.

When it's in a giving mood, that is. Nolimit City slots have a ferocious reputation for merciless brutality. By far, the most exciting moments during the test sessions occurred during Showdown Spins. Getting to them is unlikely to be a cakewalk, but there are several methods for doing so. Aside from just buying the round, one way is to hit the requisite number of scatters and bonus symbols; another is by being quick on the draw during Raid Spins and killing all the bosses. For the record, the game sheet mentions a free spins frequency of 1 in 180, but it is unclear if this includes the Showdown round or if triggering it has a different number. Not much information was available in regard to the xBet, and its 200% stake increase isn't exactly a bargain. In other words, tread carefully, hombre, because Bounty Hunters ain't here to make buds.

It can potentially create big rewards, though, maxing out at 52,310 times the bet. Any future big win clips that capture this happening will no doubt be rather insane, too, because when Bounty Hunters is firing, it is quite a sight. A taste of this occurred via the Mexican Standoff, which is an outstanding side feature when combined with Bounty Hunter Wilds, and Showdown Spins when it got a roll on had that parabolic multiplicative mayhem feeling experienced in a thrilling Money Train round.

Bounty Hunters was something of a slow burn at the start, but by the end, it turned out to be another classic Nolimit City Western. While it's got no qualms savaging the hand that feeds it and then leaving the remains for buzzards to pick over, it can lead players on a gripping thrill ride should they strike it lucky.