Cowboys Gold review
Cowboys Gold came out on 18 November 2020 and, in the studio’s words, continued the Gold series. The intro screen carries a medium volatility badge and the line “win up to 6,065 x bet”. The peculiarity of the game is that money sits right on the cowboy symbols, and a single character collects it, the Renegade, who lives only on the fifth reel. Until he appears, all that cash simply lies on the grid.
A saloon, revolvers and a gang with numbers on their stars
The action unfolds in a wooden saloon: dusty beams, barrels, candles. The reels are framed in planks, and the symbols are drawn in old Western style: a horseshoe, a revolver in a holster, a bottle of whiskey with a glass, a spur with a star, and the card royals A, K, Q and J in a worn typeface. Above the rest stand the cowboys, seven different faces: four with open faces and three in masks. There is also a skull in a hat marked Bonus and the sheriff’s star Wild.
The press release describes the plot as a hunt for a band of outlaw cowboys and the Renegade. The word gold in the title refers not to the plot but to the series: that is what the studio calls the line of games sharing a mechanical pattern.
Ten paylines and what each symbol pays
Lines read from the first reel to the last, and identical symbols must run consecutively. The highest combination on each line pays, and sums from different lines add up. Values were recalculated from money at a 2.00 stake and are shown as multiples of the whole stake.
| Symbol | 5 in a row | 4 in a row | 3 in a row | 2 in a row |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Horseshoe | 75x | 20x | 5x | 0.5x |
| Revolver | 50x | 15x | 3x | none |
| Whiskey | 25x | 10x | 2.5x | none |
| Spur | 20x | 10x | 2x | none |
| A, K | 5x | 2.5x | 0.5x | none |
| Q, J | 2.5x | 1x | 0.5x | none |
| Cowboys (any faces) | 10x | 5x | 1x | none |
The horseshoe stands out by paying already for two in a row, though modestly, 0.5x. The cowboys form a group of their own: by the rules they connect with each other into winning combinations, and different faces count as one symbol. A cowboy’s worth, however, is set not by lines but by the number on his star.
The Wild and the pattern of the ten lines
The Wild, a sheriff’s star, lands on all reels and substitutes for every symbol except Bonus and Renegade. It therefore helps to build both picture lines and lines of cowboys. It has no money value, so it takes no part in the collect.
Ten lines run across the 5×3 grid on different trajectories. The first three follow the three rows, the rest bend into V shapes and zigzags. The stake per line is a tenth of the total, and the rules record payouts from it. The total bet is the coin times ten lines: the coin in the demo runs from 0.01 to 25.00 over 28 values, so the total bet lies between 0.10 and 250. The scheme is classic, without ways or clusters.
Money on the cowboys: a set from 1x to 100x
On any spin the cowboys may be assigned random money values. The rules give the set: 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 8x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x, 75x and 100x of the total bet. That is thirteen values. The plain sum of the whole set is 318, so the arithmetic mean by number of options is about 24.5x. That is arithmetic of the set alone: how often each value lands the public data does not say, and the real average may differ from this figure widely.
Another important property: the money lies on the grid but is not paid by itself. It turns into a win only at the moment the Renegade appears on the fifth reel. Before that the spin may end, and the money vanishes along with the grid. If five cowboys carrying 50x each lie on screen but the fifth reel delivers an ordinary symbol, the spin ends with line wins from the table and the 250x remain unpaid. On the next spin new cowboys receive new values.
The Renegade: one symbol, one spin, the whole sum
The Renegade lands only on the fifth reel. As soon as he appears, the values of all cowboys on screen are added together and the sum is paid. According to the press release, he in effect banks the worth of all the outlaws at once. In addition, the Renegade substitutes for the Bonus symbol, which gives him a double role: collector of money and key to the bonus. The mechanic itself is called Money Collect.
An example: four cowboys with values 5x, 10x, 2x and 25x are on screen, and the Renegade arrives on the fifth reel. The payout is 42x the total bet.
Three Bonus symbols or one Bonus with the Renegade
Bonus symbols, a skull in a cowboy hat, sit on the second, third and fourth reels. Three such symbols start free spins. The rules allow another route: any number of Bonus symbols plus the Renegade. Since the Renegade himself substitutes for a Bonus, it is enough that one or two Bonus symbols land on reels 2 to 4 and the Renegade arrives on the fifth.
For probability this matters: entry to the bonus is possible in two ways. No public statistic of bonus frequency is given for the game, and it cannot be estimated from the rules. There is no bonus buy and no ante in the rules or the interface, and the stake does not change symbol frequency, so the bonus comes only from landing symbols.
Ten spins and three retriggers
Free play opens with ten spins. It can be retriggered no more than three times, and the same conditions serve as a retrigger: three Bonus or any number of Bonus plus the Renegade. Each retrigger adds 5 spins. Three retriggers give a maximum of 25 spins: 10 + 3×5.
Special reels are in play in the bonus: the rules say so directly and do not reveal their makeup. So the chances of symbols landing in the bonus differ from the base game, and can be judged only by watching.
The collect multiplier: 1x, 2x, 3x and 5x
The main gift of the bonus is a multiplier for the Renegade. At the start of the round it is 1x. After the first retrigger it becomes 2x, after the second 3x, after the third 5x. When the Renegade collects money, the whole collected sum is multiplied by the current multiplier. It does not grow as the spins of the round go by, only on a retrigger.
Mind the scope of the multiplier: it belongs to the Renegade collect, not to all wins of the round. Line combinations stay as in the table. That is an important difference from free spins rounds where the multiplier applies to everything.
The gap between the start and the last level is fivefold, but the last level can be reached only after three retriggers. That is why each retrigger matters so much: it not only gives 5 spins but also raises the price of every following collect.
The intro arithmetic: where 6,065x comes from
The intro art shows a grid where twelve cowboys with a 100x value stand on the first four reels and a Renegade with a x5 multiplier on the fifth. Count: twelve times 100 gives 1,200, and multiplying by 5 gives 6,000. The remaining 65 bets in the intro are not spelled out: it is reasonable to suppose they are line wins, but the studio does not confirm that.
The calculation is useful for two reasons. It shows that the ceiling is built on an extreme scenario: all twelve positions taken by cowboys at the top value with the multiplier at its limit. And it hints at what to wait for: not one big value but a combination of many conditions at once. The probability of such a layout does not appear in published data.
Where the studio was heading in 2020
The press release places the game in the Gold line and lists what the studio was busy with at the time: Megaways titles, a partnership with Reel Kingdom and its first branded game, Peaky Blinders. The company’s vice president Lena Yasir speaks in a quote of the growing multiplier in free spins: any spin, in her words, could turn into a lucrative win.
Against Megaways and brands the game looks like a simple classic with one original idea, money on the cowboys, and the studio presents it that way: as one more option for a wide audience.
How to tell the heroes apart on the grid
The game has four figures with special roles, and it pays not to confuse them. Ordinary cowboys look like portraits in golden frames with a sheriff’s star carrying a number: they bear the money. The Bonus is drawn differently: a skull in a wide-brimmed hat with a ribbon and the word Bonus. The Renegade stands out with a red bandana, a revolver and a plate with a multiplier, and he lives only on the fifth reel. The Wild is a sheriff’s star with the word Wild on a red background.
A simple distinction: a cowboy has a number on the star, the Renegade has a multiplier plate. The first means money on the grid, the second the moment when that money turns into a win.
The board above the grid and the circles below it
On the intro art a counter labelled Bounty Collected with the sum of gathered money is visible above the grid, and next to it four medallions with portraits and marks x2, x3 and x5. Below the grid three circles are drawn. The rules do not describe how these elements work, but by the sense of the picture they reflect the progress of the bonus: three circles for the possible retriggers and the multiplier medallions for the steps x1, x2, x3 and x5. This is an observation from the picture, not from the rules text.
Series neighbours: the studio’s Gold games
Two more games belong to the same line. Mustang Gold came out in 2019, with low volatility and a 12,000x cap. The other, Wild West Gold, appeared in 2020, with a 10,000x cap. Cowboys Gold is noticeably more modest at the top end, but simpler to follow: there is no buy and there are no modes, only lines, money and one collector.
Mustang Gold — Release: 2019; RTP: 96.53%; Max win: 12,000x; Volatility: low.
Wild West Gold — Release: 2020; RTP: 96.51%; Max win: 10,000x; Volatility: high.
Cowboys Gold — Release: 2020; RTP: 96.50%; Max win: 6,065x; Volatility: medium.
RTP is almost the same across the three, so the choice between them is best made by the cap and the volatility label, which differs in each: low, high and medium.
