Wild Swarm 2

Theme and Design

A Tranquil Setting Belies a Voraciously Volatile Slot Engine

Wild Swarm 2 is set in the same tranquil forest space as the first game. With its hazy summer vibe, cute soundtrack, fairy tale trees, toadstools and busy bees it’s a heart-warming game that reminds us a little of Hacksaw’s Forest Fortune and NetEnt’s Bee Hive Bonanza too. One of the reasons for Push Gaming’s success, alongside original gameplay, is the quality of their production and Wild Swarm 2 is top class in that respect. If you like your cute animal slots with a lot of volatility thrown in, then you’ll love this one.

RTP and Variance

Push Gaming give their slots multiple RTP settings and leave it to the operator to decide what rate they want to run the game on. Wild Swarm 2 has 5 RTP settings – 96.67%, 95.7%, 94.67%, 90.65% and 88.79%. Whilst the top rate of 96.67% is excellent – though less than the 97.03% found in the original Wild Swarm game - anything less is under average for an online slot game and should be avoided if possible.

You can find out which RTP setting the game is on by hitting the hamburger menu in the top corner then the ‘?’ button on the info screen. Scroll through until you see Return To Player. Most slot sites will run the game at one of the top 3 settings but beware because some will go as low as 88.79% which will noticeably impact your returns.

A good choice if you want to play at optimum RTP is MrQ from Lindar Media which always runs games at top RTP settings.

In terms of volatility, Wild Swarm 2 is a high variance slot, which means a little more volatile than the original which plays as medium-high.

Maximum Win

The change in volatility is reflected in the higher max win here. Whereas Wild Swarm had a top payout of just 3,100x, Wild Swarm 2 comes in at a much more respectable 10,000x which brings it more in line with current max wins, though still falls some way short of the numbers we see in many of the highest paying Push Gaming slots like Razor Returns (100,000x) and Dinopolis (50,000x), Big Bamboo (50,000x) and Fire Hopper (50,000x).

Symbols and Paytable

Wild Swarm 2 follows the same 5 reel, 4 row set up as the first game, with 20 paylines to land wins on. Wins require 3 or more identical symbols to land across the reels from left to right, starting at the far left.

Symbol values are reasonably good. The low payers are the cards, Jack through to Ace. Their values are from 0.2x for 3 Jacks up to 0.7x for 5 Aces on a line. The premiums show continuity from the original game, with a purple flower, white flower, honey pot and dollar sign which pay out up to 15x for 5 dollar signs on a line.

Also of interest are TWO wild symbols. These are the Wild Honey and the Sticky Wild which will both substitute for any pay symbol to complete a win line AND pay out on their own when 3, 4 or 5 appear on a line, maxing out at 15x for 5.

Features and Gameplay

Wild Swarm 2 takes the base elements of the first game and powers them up with reel multipliers and sticky wild combinations in Free Spins and Swarm Mode, which feels like a very enticing proposition.

Sticky Wild

During the free spins round and Swarm Mode the Sticky Wild is activated. It’s the same bee and honey splat as you see in the original game and it sticks when it lands for the full feature.

Pick Feature

You will also recognise this one from the original Wild Swarm game. At any point in the game – base or free spins – when a chest symbol lands it will trigger the Pick Feature. There are 5 chests to choose from. The player picks one and reveals a prize of 2x to 1,000x, Free Spins, a boost to the Hive Meter or direct entry to the Swarm Mode.

If you trigger the Pick Feature during Free Spins or Swarm Mode then you can win between 1 and 6 extra spins or a Sticky Wild Reel with a multiplier.

Free Spins

The free spins round has been tweaked to give it more potential via reel multipliers and sticky wilds, and it is better for it. There are two ways to trigger the round.

• Landing 3 scatters gets you 7 free spins with a guaranteed minimum of 3 sticky wilds
• Landing 4 scatters gets you 8 free spins with a guaranteed minimum of 4 sticky wilds
• Landing 5 scatters gets you 10 free spins with a guaranteed minimum of 5 sticky wilds
• Picking the Free Spins prize in the Pick Feature gets you entry direct to Free Spins

Now, reels 2 and 4 have 2x and 4x reel multipliers for the round and your Sticky Wilds are guaranteed to land on one of these reels where they stay until you run out of spins.

Those reel multipliers only become active if you fill the entire reel with sticky wilds, which also earns you 1 extra free spin.

Swarm Mode

As with Wild Swarm, the holy grail of this game is the Swarm Mode. It is triggered by collecting bees in the hive to the side of the reels. Any time a worker bee or queen bee lands on a spin, it will fly into the hive, leaving a Honey Wild behind to help score wins.

A worker bee will add 1 to the hive meter whilst a queen bee will add 5. The objective is to hit 5 on the meter. When this happens, the hive is primed and landing another bee of either type MAY trigger it. This doesn’t always happen, so you may have to wait for a few bees to land before it does, but keep in mind that the queen bee has a greater chance of triggering the swarm.

The Swarm Mode is the best chance you have of hitting the 10,000x max win. Now you have multipliers above EVERY reel – 2x, 3x, 4x, 6x and 8x. You start with 10 free spins and a stack of Sticky Wilds that is dropped onto one reel.

NOTE: You can also enter the Swarm Mode via a the Pick Feature if you get really lucky!