The Wild Life does not include a bonus buy option. IGT designed this title around a scatter-triggered free spins round, and no version of the game lets players pay extra to skip straight to it.
- No buy menu exists in the paytable or settings screen
- Free spins are reached only by landing three or more Africa scatters
- No operator-side variant of this title adds a purchase feature
Why The Wild Life Has No Bonus Buy
The Wild Life dates back to March 2017, a period when bonus buy mechanics were only beginning to appear in a handful of studios' catalogues and had not yet become a standard feature request from operators or players. IGT built the game around a conventional trigger structure instead, and nothing in the paytable, help screens, or operator listings suggests this was ever revisited for later releases of the title.
Games without a purchase option rely entirely on the base game's scatter distribution to deliver the bonus round. In The Wild Life, that means three, four, or five Africa map symbols landing anywhere on the reels, with no minimum bet threshold or side-wager needed to improve the odds. The frequency of that trigger is not published, so players cannot calculate an expected number of spins between rounds the way they might estimate cost-per-trigger on a bonus buy title.
The absence of a buy button also means the free spins round in The Wild Life carries no separate RTP allocation of its own to disclose. Titles with a purchase feature typically publish (or are required to publish) a distinct return percentage for the bought version, since the odds of landing certain symbol combinations shift once the trigger is guaranteed. Because The Wild Life has only one path into the bonus, its overall RTP figure already accounts for the natural hit rate of the scatter feature.
This puts the game in a different category from many contemporary IGT and rival releases that added bonus buy panels retroactively. Players who specifically look for a purchase option to control session pacing or target the free spins mechanic directly will not find that flexibility here — the sticky expanding wilds and retrigger mechanic can only be experienced through organic scatter hits.
Volatility Without a Shortcut
high
With no way to force entry into the free spins, the game's high volatility rating carries more weight than it would on a bonus buy title. Swings between the base game and the bonus round are shaped entirely by natural symbol distribution, so bankroll planning has to account for potentially long stretches without a scatter trigger, followed by the sticky-wild sequences that drive the bigger payouts.
How This Compares to Bonus-Buy Slots
| 50 Lions (Aristocrat) | Another animal-themed classic without a purchase feature; bonus reached only through scatters, similar to The Wild Life |
|---|---|
| Roaring Wilds | Shares the safari theme but relies on a different wild-expansion pattern, and also lacks any bonus buy panel |
| Modern IGT bonus buy titles | Newer IGT releases with a purchase option let players skip to free spins for a fixed multiplier of the stake — a mechanic absent from The Wild Life |
| Video slots with a variable-cost buy menu | Those titles publish a separate return figure for the bought feature; The Wild Life has no such split, since only one entry path exists |
Reaching the Bonus Without a Buy Button
Since a direct purchase is not on the table, the only lever available to a player is bet size and patience. The Africa scatter symbols can land on any reel position, and three anywhere are enough to open the door to 10 free spins, with four or five extending that to 15 or 20. Betting higher does not change the odds of a scatter landing, since paylines and scatter frequency are fixed by the reel strips rather than by stake. What does change with the base bet is the value of each spin during the bonus itself, since free spins pay according to the same total bet in effect when the feature was triggered.
The Wild Life at a Glance
- ProviderIGT
- Reels5
- Paylines10 fixed paylines, pays both ways
- Volatilityhigh
- RTP96.16%
- Max win2500x
- Bet range1 – 2000
- Released22 March 2017
Bonus Buy: What Its Absence Means
| What works | What does not |
|---|---|
| Overall RTP stays simple, with no separate bought-feature percentage to track | No way to control session length or target the free spins mechanic on demand |
| Bonus round retains its full retrigger unpredictability instead of a fixed guaranteed entry | High volatility combined with a purely random trigger can mean long gaps between bonus rounds |
Bonus Buy Questions
Can I pay to skip straight to the free spins in The Wild Life?
No. There is no purchase option in the paytable or game menu; the free spins round can only be reached by landing three or more Africa scatters during regular play.
Does raising my bet improve my chances of triggering the bonus?
No. Scatter frequency is fixed by the reel strips, not by stake size, so a higher bet does not change how often the Africa symbols appear.
Is there a hidden bonus buy option on some Canadian-facing casinos?
No credible operator listing or review describes a purchase variant of this title; every version reviewed uses the same scatter-only trigger.
Why would a slot from 2017 not have a bonus buy feature?
Bonus buy mechanics only became common industry-wide well after this title's release, and IGT never retrofitted the game with one.
Does the free spins round pay differently because there's no buy option?
No separate payout structure applies. Because there's only one entry path, the game's published RTP already reflects the natural rate at which the bonus triggers.
If I can't buy the bonus, does that make the sticky wilds less valuable?
The sticky expanding wilds during free spins work the same regardless of how the round was entered; their behaviour is unaffected by the lack of a purchase option.
Are retriggers guaranteed if there's no bonus buy to extend spins?
No. Extra scatters landing during the free spins add further spins, but this still depends on random symbol landings, not on any purchase.
Should I avoid The Wild Life if I specifically want bonus buy slots?
If a purchase option is a requirement, this title will not meet it — players looking for that mechanic should consider a different, newer release.
Verdict on Bonus Buy
Recommended for Players comfortable with a purely scatter-driven bonus and who don't need a purchase shortcut to reach the free spins.
Harder to recommend for Players who specifically seek titles with a bonus buy panel to control pacing or guarantee entry into the feature.
The Wild Life offers no bonus buy in any form, and nothing in its history or current operator listings suggests one has ever existed for this title. Players are left with the standard scatter trigger as the sole path into the sticky-wild free spins round.