The Bandit and the Baron Slot Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

The Bandit and the Baron Review

Microgaming partner, Just For The Win, is no stranger to the Hold & Win feature, and Western Gold is their biggest success so far in that regard. The Bandit and the Baron comes without the scatter jackpot feature that’s equally popular these days. However, you get plenty of expanding wilds on all 5 reels, as well as a Bandit Respin feature that may help trigger the game’s main attraction.

We expected a bit more storytelling from the intriguing title of this game, but it seems to be about a female bandit robbing the bank vault of some rich Lord. The audiovisual presentation is above average, but it poses no threat to the alpha’s of the Wild West genre. The 25,000x potential seems a bit far-fetched, as you’ll see when we break down the details in the review summary below. Overall, this is a mediocre effort from JFTW, and you don’t get the feeling that all that much thought went into it.

The Bandit and the Baron Slot - Reels Screen

The Bandit and the Baron Slot Features

The premium symbols pay between 3 and 20 x your stake for 5 of a kind wins, and the base game comes with 2 main features. You get Bandit Respins that may help trigger the bonus round, as well as quite frequent expanding wilds.

The Expanding Baron Wilds feature triggers whenever a regular 1x1 sized Baron Wild symbol lands, and the wild always expands to cover the full reel.

The wild can appear on any of the 5 reels, and it steps in for all regular pay symbols to help complete winning combinations. The wild also pays the same as the top-tier safe symbol, if a winning combo is created from wilds alone.

The Bandit Respin feature triggers when you land 2 Bandit Bonus scatters at the same time, and this symbol can only appear on reels 1, 3 and 5. The bonus symbol reels, as well as reels 2 and 4, become frozen in place as the final reel where a scatter may land respins. This gives you a second chance to land the third scatter you need to trigger the bonus round.

The Bandit Bonus is a hold-and-win style feature, and it triggers when you land the bandit bonus scatter on reels 1, 3 and 5 on the same spin (or via the Bandit Respins feature). The 5x5 bonus grid is set inside a bank vault, and 12 positions are locked (3 positions in each of the 4 corners) as the feature starts.

You start out with 3 respins, and any non-blank symbol that lands resets the respins tally to 3 again.

In addition to regular cash coin symbols that are worth between 1x and 25x your stake, you can also land 2 special modifier symbols:

• Key symbol - is used to unlock a randomly chosen locked position, making that position active.
• Upgrade symbol - applies a multiplier of x2, x3, x5 or x10 to all cash symbols on the same reel, row or both.

The locked positions spin like regular positions do, and the respins tally resets also when non-blank symbols land in the locked positions. The feature goes on until you either run out of respins, fill all positions or hit the 25,000x win cap. All cash symbols in unlocked positions are summed up and paid when the feature ends.

Finally, non-UK players, and anyone eligible, can take advantage of the Bonus Buy feature. You can thus purchase the Bandit Bonus directly from the in-game menu, and this will set you back 100x the stake. This guarantees 3 bonus scatters on reels 1, 3 and 5 on the spin that follows.

The 200 Spins The Bandit and the Baron Slot Experience

Our 5:43-minute highlights video starts out with a larger win provided by an expanded Baron Wild on reels 1, 3 and 5. You also get to see the Bandit Respin feature in action, but it didn’t land us the third scatter we needed. We therefore decided to buy the Bandit Bonus instead, and you can see the feature being triggered and play out from the 1:30-mark.

Review Summary

A bit more could perhaps have been done with regards to the supposed conflict between the female bandit and the baron, and some kind of shootout wild feature would have been cool. What you get instead is a fairly standard expanding wilds feature, which triggers quite frequently by the way.

It can award “only" 500x your stake at the most though, so you’re not getting anywhere close to cracking the 25,000x potential in the base game.

From what we could gather, you’ll be hard pressed to achieve such a feat also in the streak respins style Bandit Bonus, as it would require a large amount of solid Upgrade symbols. Unlock all 25 positions, fill them with the top-tier 25x coin, and you pocket 625x your stake at best without Upgrade Multiplier action. With no jackpots to help you out, you’re at the mercy of a female bandit ‘upgrader’ that many times misses the mark.

Pros

• Expanding wilds on all 5 reels
• Near-miss Bandit Respin when 2 scatters land
• Bandit Bonus w/ 2 modifier symbols
• Win up to 25,000x your stake

Cons

• Beware of adjustable RTP ranges

If you enjoy The Bandit and the Baron Slot you should also try:

Money Cart 2 - is one to try if you want to enjoy the infamous Money Train 2 hold-and-win feature on a very regular basis. Granted, the price you pay is a 5,000x potential that’s 10x less than in the original game, but this Relax Gaming follow-up allows players to skip the tedious base game grind and benefit from a very solid 98 % RTP at all times.

Western Gold Megaways - is a beefed-up version of Just For The Win’s popular original wild west release, and it comes with up to 117,649 win ways. You can look forward to a hold-and-win style bonus round also here, and filling reels with sheriff star cash symbols award multipliers. In addition, you can win jackpots, and the overall max win is 12,000x your stake.

El Vigilante - is a Zorro-inspired wild west installment from Kalamba, and it comes with 5x3 reels and 20 betlines.

You can win 4 random jackpots up to 2,000x in the hold-and-win style K-Cash Spins feature, and multiplier positions up to x5 can boost your winnings. The K-Cash feature can be triggered from within the bonus round also, and you can win up to 10,136x your stake.

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