Buffalo slot

Game overview

Buffalo is one of Aristocrat's best known games, launched on land-based cabinets in 2008 and later brought online. It is set on the North American plains, with the buffalo and other wildlife on a 5 by 4 grid. Instead of paylines it uses 1,024 ways to win, which means many small combinations can land on a single spin.

Volatility is usually described as medium. The base game produces regular small wins, and the bigger outcomes come from the free games, where wild multipliers can combine for up to 27x. That balance makes it a reasonable pick if you want a steady pace with a bonus that can still deliver.

Rules and how wins are paid

With 1,024 ways, a win needs matching symbols on adjacent reels starting from the leftmost reel. The position on each reel does not matter, only that the symbol appears somewhere on each consecutive reel. If a symbol appears more than once on a reel, each extra copy creates additional ways, and all ways wins are added together. Gold coin scatters pay from any position.

Symbols

• Low-paying symbols: card ranks.
• Animal symbols: North American wildlife, with the buffalo as the top symbol.
• Sunset (wild): lands only on reels 2, 3 and 4 and substitutes for the regular symbols.
• Gold coin (scatter): pays from anywhere and triggers the free games.

Special features

Sunset wild

The sunset wild appears on the three middle reels only. Because the first reel must hold the paying symbol itself, the wild works by linking that symbol through to reels further right.

Free spins / bonus round

Three, four or five gold coins anywhere award 8, 15 or 20 free games. During the free games, sunset wilds that land on reels 2, 3 and 4 carry a 2x or 3x multiplier. If more than one multiplier wild is part of the same win, the multipliers are multiplied together, so a win with three 3x wilds is multiplied by 27, the highest possible.

The feature can be extended. During the free games, two gold coins add 5 more spins, and three or more coins retrigger the full award again.

Bet settings, bonus buy and RTP

Online versions list stakes from a few pence up to around £80 or $100 per spin, depending on the operator. There is no bonus buy or ante bet. The RTP is listed at 94.85%, which is lower than many modern online slots. No maximum win multiplier is published by the provider; the multiplier cap that matters is the 27x combined wild multiplier in free games.

How to play, step by step

1. Set your stake. All 1,024 ways are active on every spin.
2. Spin and look for matching symbols from reel 1 across to the right.
3. Note sunset wilds on reels 2 to 4: they connect symbols across the middle of the grid.
4. Watch for gold coins. Three, four or five start 8, 15 or 20 free games.
5. During free games, look for multiplier wilds lining up in the same win, as their values multiply together.
6. Two or more coins during the free games add more spins.
7. Use autoplay if available, with a loss limit set.

Tips before you play

• The RTP is below average for online slots. Factor that into how much you are prepared to spend.
• Medium volatility means regular small wins, but most of the upside still sits in the free games.
• Multipliers only apply in free games, so do not expect them in the base game.
• Try the free demo if one is available to see how often the coins appear.
• Keep to a budget and stop when it is reached. Gambling should never be a way to make money.