Buildin’ Bucks

Buildin' Bucks: Slot Overview

One thing separating humans from the rest of the animal kingdom is our ability to construct stuff. Sure, birds make nests, and beavers craft dams, but people have made buildings that kiss the very sky, bridges that span wide stretches of water, and flying machines capable of blazing forth into interstellar space. Let's see another species do that, ay. We are the greatest, we are… oop, got carried away there in a bizarre back-slapping humanistic fantasy. Buildin' Bucks from provider Play'n GO is a slot about building things as well, out of wood, bricks, and gold. It's not a Three Little Pigs game, though three characters do appear to construct houses which award cash prizes.

A jolly construction site has been painted for budding builders' ocular enjoyment. A partly-built wooden house sits to the right, while a partly-built wooden fence sits on the left. As play progresses, Buildin' Bucks' three characters show up in the background, too, from a gruff bearded fellow with bricks, to a moustachioed axe wielder, to a flying fairy lady. Whilst not a leprechaun slot in the strictest sense of the word, Buildin' Bucks has a jolly Celtic, magical feel to it.

A sheet of canvas stretched by lashed-together pieces of wood forms Buildin' Bucks' gaming area which makes use of 5 reels and 243 ways to win. With a rating of 5, Buildin' Bucks is a medium volatile slot, producing a typical RTP range we often see in Play'n GO slots and which makes one wonder whether these slots are all mathematically cloned? In any case, the max RTP comes in at 96.2% and by using a bet slider players pick a wager of 20 c up to $/€100.

Wooden J, Q, K, and A ranks are the lower-paying symbols in Buildin' Bucks, awarding 0.5 to 0.75 times the stake for a 5-matching combo. Next is a saw sawing a log, a trowel, and three character symbols for the high pays. Winning combinations of 5 matching non-royals symbols pay 1.25 to 6 times the stake. Wilds help link wins by replacing any regular pay symbol. Wilds hit on all reels, so all wild wins are worth up to 6x.

Buildin' Bucks: Slot Features

Buildin' Bucks' feature section is built from a prize wheel, instant prizes, character features, respins, and free spins.

Prize Wheel

In the base game, the wheel located above the reels may stop on a random prize. The prize is awarded if a bonus scatter also lands on the middle reel. The prizes on the wheel are 3 character modifiers and 3 instant prizes. The character features are Woody Elf's Spins, Grout Bricky's Spins, and Fairy Mary's Spins. If an instant prize is awarded from the wheel, it immediately pays 30x for the Minor, 50x for the Major, and 100x for the Grand.

Character Modifiers

Triggering one of the character modifiers from the wheel awards 6 respins without the chance of a retrigger. Three of the character's power frames are added to the reels. Fairy Mary's is gold, Grout Bricky's is brick, and Woody Elf's is wood. Landing Hard Hat Scatters transforms them into character frames. Frames can only be upgraded when the grid is full of the character's frame. Wood is upgraded to brick, brick to gold. If the reels are full of gold and a Hard Hat Scatter lands, it pays a multiple of the bet. When respins end, each frame pays a monetary value according to its material type. Wood is worth 2x-5x, brick is worth 6x-12.5x, and gold is worth 15x to 25x the bet.

Free Spins

If 3 or more Hard Hat Scatters land, free spins are triggered. Players get 3 initial wooden frames for hitting 3 Hard Hat Scatters, 4 initial brick frames for hitting 4 Hard Hat Scatters, or 5 initial gold frames for hitting 5 Hard Hat Scatters. A total of 6 free spins are awarded, but extra free spins can be triggered by landing a bonus scatter on the middle reel. The wheel spins to award +1, +3, or +5 free spins.

If a Hard Hat Scatter lands, a wooden frame appears. If a Hard Hat Scatter lands on a wooden frame, it is upgraded to a brick frame, and if a Hard Hat Scatter lands on a brick frame, it is upgraded to a gold frame. If a Hard Hat Scatter lands on a gold frame, it moves to another position on the reels and creates a wooden frame. If no positions are available it upgrades to the lowest frame type. If reels are full of gold frames and a Hard Hat Scatter hits it immediately wards 100x. When free spins are over, the frames transform into houses, which award instant prizes. Wood is worth 2x-5x, brick is worth 6x-12.5x, and gold is worth 15x to 25x the bet.

Buildin' Bucks: Slot Verdict

Like most games, Buildin' Bucks has its ups and downs, but in the long run, the downs overpowered this one. The positive parts of the game are its cheerful audiovisuals, button cute characters and happy-go-lucky atmosphere. The gaming ideas are quite positive as well, with opportunities to add frames to the reels, upgrade frames to more extravagant materials, then collect their monetary rewards. On the face of it, Buildin' Bucks looks quite promising.

During the test session however, Buildin' Bucks' sheen dulled quite quickly. Respins were non-existent, and what was left over after taking them and free spins out of the picture got stale. When in action, okay, fair enough, framing, upgrading and collecting prizes could be enjoyable, plus the game's 5,000x max win is respectable enough. That is until you find out the probability of max exposure is 1 in 360 billion. Unless someone accidentally threw a few zeros on there by mistake or added them for the lols like some sort of accounting trickster spirit, that is a shockingly high number. However, seeing how incredibly rare Play'n GO max wins appear to be, no veteran player will be surprised to see this.

One thing about gambling is that in the long run, generally speaking, the house always wins, and the odds are stacked against gamblers. These games are literally made to absorb players' money, maybe return more to some lucky players, and even max out on rare occasions for the really lucky punters. Fine, but within this reality, players kind of need glimpses of hope, rays of motivation which might give them some fragment of encouragement. When going off the stats on the game sheet, Buildin' Bucks takes any semblance of hope for hitting its full potential and dashes them on the rocks of despair like an old wooden ship from the days of yore shattering into splinters over razor-sharp coral in a tropical hurricane. Even if the probability figure is a typo, meh.