Out of the Woods: Campers, Cultists and a Giant Owl 

Out of the Woods is a slot game where players must help four wandering campers who wander into a forest occupied by an owl-worshipping cult. While the theme sounds pretty dark, the artwork is closer to an animated horror comedy instead of a slasher.

Out of the Woods, played on PokerStars, has 5 reels, 4 rows and 25 fixed paylines. Its main feature is a full reel of Multiplier Wilds that can start respins and reveal higher values as it moves down. What it lacks in features, however, it makes up for in character. The campers are colourful while the hooded cultists aren’t taking things too seriously, enjoying roasted marshmallows while letting their booby-trapped symbols do their work.

Theme and Design: A Camping Trip Gone Wrong

Camping in the middle of nowhere, with a group of cultists lurking around, already sounds like the start of a classic horror movie. The four characters in Out of the Woods seem to have ignored every warning sign and walked straight into a group devoted to the wooden owl.

In classic Pragmatic Play style, the studio hasn’t tried to make the setting genuinely scary. The characters have oversized animated heads and expressive faces, and the cultists look more bizarre and barely bothered actually to do any cultish things.

The theme itself is one of the more unique in the PokerStars library, as well as for the studio. It’s an obvious contrast from the fishing titles like Big Bass Splash, or mythology slots like Zeus vs Hades – Gods of War, which have become some of Pragmatic Play’s most popular games. The soundtrack stays pretty simple, with a fairy tale-style song throughout and other sound effects to announce the main feature and spins.

The Four Campers

The higher-paying symbols show the four friends being hunted through the woods. The rabbit hat guy is the most valuable character, followed by the camper wearing a blue bird hat, the one in a bear hat and the pink coated girl.

Their bright outfits and coloured frames make them easy to separate from the standard card symbols. They also look completely out of place beside the hooded cultists. The owl shows up elsewhere in this slot game as the main Wild. It also features in the background carvings as the figure worshipped by the cult.

Core Gameplay: Keeping the Base Game Simple

Out of the Woods, played on PokerStars, uses 25 fixed paylines across the 5×4 grid. To get a payout the player needs at least 3 matching symbols, starting on the first reel and continuing from left to right. Several lines can pay on the same spin, with each amount added to the total. When more than one combination appears on a payline, only the highest is paid.

High-Paying Symbols

The rabbit hat guy is the highest-paying regular symbol. Based on a £1 bet, 3 of these symbols pay £1.60, 4 pay £4.80 and 5 award £24.00. The blue bird hat camper pays £1.20 for 3 symbols, £3.60 for 4 and £18.00 for 5. The bear hat camper awards £0.80 for 3 symbols, £2.40 for 4 and £12.00 for 5. The pink coated girl is the lowest-paying character symbol. Three pay £0.40, 4 pay £1.20 and 5 award £6.00.

Low-Paying Card Symbols

The lower-paying symbols are A, K, Q, J and 10 card ranks. Each sits on a woodland trap, helping the standard symbols fit the creepy forest hunt theme. Five A symbols pay £3.60 on a £1 bet. Four pay £0.72, while 3 award £0.24. The K pays £3.00 for 5, £0.60 for 4 and £0.20 for 3. Five Q symbols award £2.40. Four pay £0.48 and 3 pay £0.16. The J pays £1.80 for 5, £0.36 for 4 and £0.12 for 3. The 10 is worth £1.20 for 5 symbols, £0.24 for 4 and £0.08 for 3.

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The Owl Wild

The Owl Wild substitutes for all regular paying symbols but cannot replace the Scatter. It also has its own payouts. Three Wilds pay £1.60 on a £1 bet, 4 pay £4.80 and 5 award £24.00. That puts it level with the Rabbit Hat camper at the top of the paytable. The standard owl can land as an individual symbol. The Multiplier Wild is a full reel instead, with a different multiplier placed on each of its four spaces.

Multiplier Wild Reels

The Multiplier Wild only appears as a full vertical stack. Its values start with 1x at the bottom, followed by 2x, 3x and 4x at the top. Every symbol in the stack can replace a regular paying symbol but not the Scatter. A win involving one of these Wilds starts a respin. As the stack slides down, new Multiplier Wilds appear at the top with higher values.

A one-position move places a 5x Wild in the top space, and another respin can bring in 6x, followed by 7x and higher values when the run continues. Wilds drop out of sight once they pass the bottom of the reel. The stack sticks around until a respin can’t pay out anymore, at which point the next round starts without it.

Golden Multiplier Wild

Some Multiplier Wilds can show up with a golden rim. When the marked Wild reaches the bottom and another respin begins, the reel makes a random drop of between 2 and 10 positions. Instead of moving through each number one at a time, the stack skips ahead and brings another group of Wilds into view. The golden rim doesn’t have its own cash payout; it just changes how far the reel drops.

Free Spins

The Scatter triggers the Free Spins feature and doesn’t substitute for other symbols. Landing 3 Scatters awards 10 Free Spins. Four give 15, while 5 award 20. The first Multiplier Wild stack begins with 1x, 2x, 3x and 4x. From there, wins can move it down through the reels in the same way as during the base game.

The highest multiplier reached is kept during Free Spins. When an earlier stack reaches 8x, for example, the next one starts with 8x at the top instead of dropping back to 4x. Another run of respins can then push the numbers higher. Golden Multiplier Wilds remain active during the bonus and can make the same random drop of between 2 and 10 positions.

Retriggering Free Spins

Further Scatters add more spins. Three Scatters give another 10 Free Spins, 4 add 15 and 5 award 20. Any extra spins are added to those already left. The highest Multiplier Wild value reached earlier in the feature is used when the next stack arrives.

Behind the Reels: Pragmatic Play

Pragmatic Play has been making casino games since 2015, including slots, live casino titles and game shows. Players on PokerStars may already recognise slots like Big Bass Bonanza 1000 and Gates of Olympus 1000. Out of the Woods is very different from those games, but no less entertaining.

Big Bass Bonanza 1000

Big Bass Bonanza 1000 puts the fisherman back on a 5×3 grid with 10 fixed paylines. Fishing rods, tackle boxes, floats and dragonflies appear alongside the fish Money symbols. During Free Spins, the fish can carry values of up to 1,000x the bet. A fisherman Wild collects those showing on the reels. Every fourth fisherman adds another 10 spins and raises the multiplier, which can climb as high as 10x. This slot game has a maximum payout of 20,000x the total bet.

Gates of Olympus 1000

Gates of Olympus 1000 fills the screen with crowns, rings, goblets, hourglasses and coloured gems, while Zeus watches from beside the grid. He can throw multiplier symbols worth between 2x and 1,000x onto the reels.

This slot game uses tumbling symbols instead of fixed paylines. A payout needs at least 8 matching symbols, which are then removed before new ones fall into their spaces. Several Zeus multipliers can appear during the same tumble, and their values are added together. Landing 4 or more Scatters starts 15 Free Spins, with more Scatters able to extend the feature. The maximum payout of Gates of Olympus 1000 is 15,000x the bet.

Final Thoughts: Multiplier Wilds Lurking in the Woods 

Most of Out of the Woods focuses on the moving Multiplier Wild reel. When the respins continue, higher values enter from above and the stack gradually slips out through the bottom. The Free Spins round keeps the highest multiplier reached for the next stack. This stops each Wild reel from returning to the opening values whenever another one shows up.

There aren’t many other features beyond the golden-rimmed Wild and the Free Spins round. Once they have both appeared, the rest of the spins follow the same general pattern. The theme of this PokerStars slot really stands out. Pragmatic Play has filled the forest with hooded figures, campers and an enormous owl, giving Out of the Woods a much darker look, while still keeping the humour expected by the studio.

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