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Three reviewers say The Wildos Xmas Xpress plays the same as Thunderkick’s The Wildos 2, just under a Christmas theme. But before you roll your eyes at another Christmas release, it’s worth remembering that the engine under the hood of this 5×4 train robbery slot is incredibly potent.
With a 10,000x max win and a multiplier system that can turn a dead session into a massive payout in a single spin, there’s a lot to unpack here.
The Base Game: Prepare for a Grind
If you’re a casual player looking for constant, small hits to keep your balance ticking over, you might want to get off at the next station. The base game in Xmas Xpress is unapologetically brutal, and the RTP is 94.19%.
The paytable is incredibly top-heavy. The top premium symbol (the Red Wildo) pays a respectable 20x your stake for a five-of-a-kind. However, drop below the three outlaw characters, and nothing short of a five-of-a-kind will even return your initial bet. Landing three boxes, pocket watches, or top hats pays out a measly 0.2x to 0.4x.
My session was a harsh reminder of this game’s volatility. Across roughly 30 spins, I hit a completely dry stretch of 14 dead spins, and my biggest base-game hit was a paltry 2.2x my stake. You’ll see the Christmas Cake scatters tease you constantly, but for the most part, the base game is mostly a wait for the multiplier wilds.
The Multiplier Engine: It’s All About Reel One
Thunderkick doesn’t rely on cascades or cluster pays here. The entire game is built around the three middle reels (2, 3, and 4), where Multiplier Wilds drop in three tiers:
- Bronze: x1 to x3
- Silver: x5 to x8
- Gold: x10 to x25
The great thing about these wilds is that their values are additive. If you land a x10 and a x5 on a winning payline, you get a x15 multiplier.
The problem? Because lines only pay left-to-right, a wild cannot start a win. During my session, I landed a beautiful Silver x6 wild on reel two, but because I didn’t have a matching symbol on reel one, it was just a dead cell mocking me from the grid. The entire mechanic relies heavily on the first reel cooperating with the middle reels.
Free Spins: Pick Your Poison
Hit three Christmas Cake scatters, and you trigger the Bonus Game. Thunderkick gives you a classic volatility choice here, trading spin counts for multiplier potential:
- Bronze: 12 Free Spins
- Silver: 9 Free Spins
- Gold: 6 Free Spins
- Random: Awards one of the above, with a chance to trigger the Super Bonus.
During the bonus, the metal tier you chose becomes sticky. But there’s a fun twist: a sticky wild keeps its cell, and when a higher-value wild lands on top of it, the bigger multiplier counts for that spin before it drops back. A sticky wild also re-rolls its value within its tier every spin, so a sticky Gold can go from x10 to x25, which keeps the tension incredibly high. If you manage to fill an entire reel with sticky wilds, you get extra spins (which is crucial, as there are no scatter retriggers).
If you’re lucky enough to trigger the Super Bonus (either via the Random pick or by landing two Scatters and a Super Scatter together in the base game), all metals become sticky, and landing a higher-tier metal on top of a lower one upgrades it.
The dream setup is obvious: getting two or three Gold wilds on a single line. Three maxed-out Gold wilds add up to a x75 multiplier. Connect that with the top-tier Red Wildo, and a standard 20x payout explodes into 1,500x on a single line.
