Big Bad Wolf: Pigs of Steel Demo: Fortified Pigs and Doubling Moons

Pigs that turn wild, and steel that keeps them on the board

Wins pay on 25 bet lines from the leftmost reel, and the line diagrams at the end of the paytable number all 25. Winning symbols are removed, new ones fall in from above and every new win adds to the total. The three pigs are the top symbols, paying €25, €20 and €15 for five at a €1.00 stake, and the gold toolbox Wild pays €40 for five of its own.

The wild rule fits in one line of the paytable: Piggy symbols become Piggy Wild after 2, 4 and 6 tumbles. Quickspin's game page gives the order, red pigs after 2, green after 4 and blue after 6. Both the Piggy Wilds and the toolbox Wild replace every symbol except the wolf Bonus and the Moon.

Pigs of Steel is the new idea. When winning tumbles remove pigs, the pigs still on the board become protected and stay: one level of protection after 3 removed pigs, two levels after 6. The meter under the logo counts the removals; only in the Super and Ultra Bonus Games do the rules say it keeps its progress between spins.

In our 500 logged spins the meters often went further than in the Megaways game: 47 chained at least two wins and lit the red pigs, 12 reached four and 8 reached six with all three colours wild; 22 spins earned the first level of protection and 7 the second. The longest chain came on spin 227, with 16 consecutive wins for 15.3x, the best spin of the session without a bonus.

Three bonus games, chosen by how many wolves land

All three bonus games start with 10 free spins; what changes is the multiplier and what the board remembers. The Bonus Game (3 wolves) starts at x1, the Super Bonus Game (4) at x2 with a Pigs of Steel meter that does not reset between spins, and the Ultra Bonus Game (5) at x3 with both the Pigs of Steel and the Piggy Wild meters kept.

Moons are the second lever. Collecting 3 Moon Bonus symbols adds 2 free spins and doubles the current multiplier, and collecting 6 does it again, so by the rules a Super Bonus can climb from x2 to x8 and an Ultra Bonus from x3 to x12.

Our 500 spins: three bonuses and one Super Bonus at x4

We logged 500 paid spins at €1.00 on the demo server. 29% paid something, the median paying spin returned 0.5x and the longest losing run lasted 23 spins. The bonus arrived 3 times, on spins 4, 35, 481, and those rounds paid 24.85x, 101.35x, 33.35x in that order.

• 500paid demo spins at €1.00
• 29%of them paid something
• 101.35xbest spin, free spins round included
• 3free spins bonuses triggered

Spin 35 carried the session. Four wolves meant the Super Bonus Game: the multiplier started at x2, a third Moon doubled it to x4 and added 2 spins, and the filled Pigs of Steel meter stayed full to the end. With the base-game tumbles that triggered it, the spin paid 101.35x, our only win of 100x or more, and lifted the balance to €5,098.85. The other two were Bonus Games at x1 without a third Moon. The balance bottomed at €4,800.80 on spin 480 and finished with €324.65 back from €500.00 staked (64.9%).

Buy Bonus Game for 60x or Buy Improved Bonus Game for 240x

The two cards in the buy menu promise a bonus game with 3+ or 4+ Bonus symbols. The rules screen is more precise: 60x the bet enters the Bonus Game, 240x the Super Bonus Game, and the Buy Feature may not be available in all markets. Neither card buys the Ultra Bonus Game, and Quickspin's game sheet and game page do not mention the buy at all.

We bought the first card at €1.00. A dialog confirmed a bet of €1.00 at a total cost of €60.00, and three wolf Bonus symbols dropped onto reels 1, 2 and 3 to open the Bonus Game.

The clip is the whole round with the game's sound. It plays in a wooden house at night and only one Moon reaches the meter, so the multiplier stays at x1 and the round ends after the original 10 free spins. The first five spins add up to €3.45. Then the sixth keeps tumbling for about three minutes.

That sixth free spin paid €267.80 on its own; the frame below comes from near the end of its chain.

The round ended at €277.25, 277.25x the bet and more than four times the €60 price. One purchase says nothing about the average return of the buy, which Quickspin does not publish for this game.

Pigs of Steel next to the 2013 original and the Megaways version

Pigs of Steel keeps the 5x3 grid and 25 lines of the original Big Bad Wolf from 2013, but the numbers move a long way: the default RTP falls from 97.34% to 96.14%, volatility rises from 4.24 to 5, and the top win grows from 1,225x to 18,173x. The original's figure is the largest win in 1 billion simulated spins, this game's the largest win in 100 million simulated spins.

Big Bad Wolf Megaways (September 2021, Megaways, up to 117,649 ways) lists the bigger record, 30,540.35x, but as the largest win in 100 billion simulated spins, so the two records are not like for like. On paper Pigs of Steel pays big wins more often: a win of 100x or more comes 1 in 767 spins here, 1 in 1,235 in Megaways and 1 in 1,043 in the original.

The three also split their return differently. Free spins carry 44.95% of the RTP here, 30.96% in the original and 21.35% in Megaways. Pigs of Steel also has the widest range of models, down to 87.15% against 90.19% and 90.01%.

Outside the family, Sticky Bandits 3 Most Wanted sells its free spins for the same 60x as the first card here.

Verdict: a wolf sequel that saves its weight for the bonus

Pigs of Steel goes back to the shape of the 2013 game and builds everything new into the tumbles: pigs that turn wild in three colours and pigs that harden into steel. The bonus is where the game differs from its siblings, with three entry levels, multipliers that double rather than climb by one, and the largest share of the RTP of the three wolf games. Our logs matched that shape: one spin and its Super Bonus brought back 31% of everything our 500 spins returned, and one free spin made almost all of the bought round. The free demo shows how often the wolves arrive before any money is involved.

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Big Bad Wolf: Pigs of Steel questions

Answers taken from the in-game rules, the game sheet and our logged spins.