Among the selection of casino games offered by online casinos, slots are easily the most popular. Slot games are enjoyed by both beginner and advanced gamblers as there is little strategy involved and still a good chance for a healthy payout. Bonus buy slots are an addition to the slot genre whereby players can buy into a bonus round for an increased stake on their original bet.
Within this article, newcasinos.io will uncover how the bonus buy feature works within a slot game and provide our viewers with a promising selection of the best slots that give you instant or improved access to the bonus round!
What is a Bonus Buy Slot?
Oftentimes the most alluring feature of a slot game lies within the bonus rounds offered. Many players often seek these bonus rounds as they provide gamblers with large multipliers which draw in some rather notable wins.
Software providers have come to notice how sought-after these bonus rounds are within slot games. For this reason, many of the top software providers in the industry have implemented a bonus buy feature whereby players can choose to immediately opt into the bonus round of a slot game for a certain fee, of course!
These bonus buy slots allow players to skip the base game altogether and directly opt into the bonus game by redeeming the bonus buy feature.
Therefore, players no longer need to place a great number of spins while waiting for the perfect scatter to land on the reels and take them to the bonus game. The main premise of the bonus buy feature is by paying a fee, players hope to win much more due to the combined features within a bonus round of a slot game.
The Most Popular Bonus Feature and Bonus Buy Slots
- Dead or Alive 2 - NetEnt
- Money Train 2 - Relax Gaming
- Buffalo Rising Megaways - Blueprint Gaming
- Punk Rocker - Nolimit City
- Ramses Revenge - Relax Gaming
Dead or Alive 2 - Top Rated Bonus Buy Slot
Dead or Alive 2 is of course based on the original NetEnt hit slot. Here players are engulfed in a western theme with some truly crisp graphics. Dead or Alive 2 is a 5-reel, 3-row video slot that offers scatter wins, sticky wilds, wild substitution and 3 different free spins games which include Old Saloon, High Noon Saloon and Train Heist each of which offer different multipliers, wild symbols and a different RTP. With Dead or Alive 2 players are provided with 9 paylines that are always active, additionally, the free spins offer an incredible win potential where players can hit x111,111 their original bet. This altogether makes Dead or Alive 2 possibly the best bonus buy slot in the industry.
Provider | NetEnt |
Release Date | 2019 |
RTP Percentage | 96.82% |
Bet Range | £0.09 - £9 |
Bonus Buy Cost | 66x Stake |
Volatility | High |
Layout | 5 - 3 |
Money Train 2 - Best Payout Bonus Buy Slot
Money Train 2 is another hit western-themed video slot that provides players with a thrilling gameplay experience and impressive payouts. Money Train 2 by Relax Gaming is a 5 - reel, 4 - row video slot that provides scatter wins, wideners, wilds, multipliers, respins and most importantly a buy bonus feature. Money Train 2 offers players free spins and a respins feature as well as a whopping 40 fixed paylines. Money Train 2 separates itself from other slots by offering players a maximum win potential of x50,000 which is provided through the Money Cart Bonus feature. The original Money Train is considered the pioneer of the respins bonus feature since its release this feature has become extremely popular amongst slot providers.
Provider | Relax Gaming |
Release Date | 2020 |
RTP Percentage | 96.4% |
Bet Range | £0.10 – £20 |
Bonus Buy Cost | 80x Stake |
Volatility | High |
Layout | 5 - 4 |
Buffalo Rising Megaways - Best Megaways Bonus Buy Slot
Buffalo Rising Megaways is a fantastic addition to Blueprint Gaming’s Megaways series. Part of what makes the Megaways mechanics within a video slot so appealing is the great variety of ways to win. Buffalo Rising Megaways offers players an immense 117,649 paylines with each and every spin. The immense number of paylines within this slot is provided through its interesting layout which is often the case with the Megaways game engine. Buffalo Rising Megaways features a layout of 6 - reels and between 2-7 - rows. Buffalo Rising Megaways offers scatter wins, wilds, multipliers, and 4 different free spins rounds each with different a volatility and RTP percentage. Buffalo Rising Megaways provides a maximum win potential of x10,000.
Provider | Blueprint Gaming |
Release Date | 2018 |
RTP Percentage | 96.4% |
Bet Range | £0.10 – £10 |
Bonus Buy Cost | 100x Stake |
Volatility | Medium/High |
Layout | 6 - 7 |
Punk Rocker - Best Bonus Buy Slot For Graphics
There aren’t many video slots that engulf players into its atmosphere the way Punk Rocker does. From the graphics to the brilliant audio Punk Rocker perfectly captures its UK punk theme. Punk Rocker offers 2 different free spins rounds seen in the Anarchy Freespin and the Civil War Freespin rounds. Additionally, Punk Rocker provides players with scatter wins, wilds, multipliers, wideners, mystery symbols and respins. This video slot offers 243 paylines in the base game and can even reach up to 46656 paylines within the bonus features. Punk Rocker also offers a considerable maximum win potential of x15,072. The most prevalent feature Punk Rocker has to offer is its notable 46656 paylines which are provided through the Nolimit City xWays feature, this mechanic expands symbols and increases the winning ways.
Provider | Nolimit City |
Release Date | 2020 |
RTP Percentage | 96.01% |
Bet Range | £0.10 – £100 |
Bonus Buy Cost | 80x and 238x Stake |
Volatility | High |
Layout | 6 - 4 |
Ramses Revenge - Best Bonus Buy Slot For Multipliers
The Ramses Revenge video slot is one of the fieriest slots within Relax Gaming’s arsenal. Here players embark on an ancient Egyptian journey filled with wilds, multipliers, scatter wins and mystery symbols. Ramses Revenge provides players with 2 bonus rounds through the Mystery Sandstorm and free spins feature. Players are offered an alluring 4,096 paylines. Besides the many winning ways, Ramses Revenge provides its players with a maximum winning potential of x49,996. Altogether the walking wilds and increasing multipliers allow for an extremely thrilling gameplay experience and present players with a rather commendable winning potential this makes Ramses Revenge another fantastic bonus buy slot.
Provider | Relax Gaming |
Release Date | 2020 |
RTP Percentage | 96.15% |
Bet Range | £0.10 – £20 |
Bonus Buy Cost | 80x Stake |
Volatility | High |
Layout | 6 - 4 |
How Do Bonus Buy Slots Work?
Bonus buy slots work in the same way that regular slots do, however, with one main fundamental difference. Within the gameplay of a regular slot game players are required to land a certain number of scatters across the reels of a slot, after achieving the specified number of scatters players would then be rewarded with a bonus.
When a slot game offers the bonus buy feature players can opt to pay a premium and be instantly taken to the bonus round. The main allure of a slot that offers a bonus buy feature, lies within these bonus rounds. Oftentimes the bonus rounds within a slot game provide players with the best payouts.
The Mechanics of a Bonus Buy Feature:
Overall the buy bonus feature is simply an additional function implemented within regular gaming software. The buy bonus feature doesn’t change the initial reel spinning gameplay. It’s also extremely easy to make use of a buy bonus feature, the main concern for players is selecting a video slot with a buy bonus feature that suits their specific needs. Take a look at our short description of how to activate the buy bonus feature:
- Step 1: Click the activation button.
- Step 2: Choose your desired bonus options.
- Step 3: Set the base bet to calculate the price of the feature.
- Step 4: Agree to the terms & conditions.
- Step 5: Pay for the selected bonus.
The Cost of a Bonus Buy Feature:
Each video slot will come with its own bonus buy fee. While the most common ranges of a bonus buy fee lie between 50x and 100x your stake. Some video slots offer even smaller bonus buy fees, however, this is extremely rare. Additionally, video slots can provide immensely high bonus buy fees some of which greatly exceed 100x your stake.
Examples of a high bonus buy fee can be seen in Nolimit City’s Deadwood slot which provides players with a bonus buy fee of 750x on their stake and the highest bonus buy fee lies within Nolimit City’s San Quentin video slot which offers a bonus buy fee of 2000x your stake.
Not all bonus buy slots come with such a hefty fee. A good example of a video slot that offers a rather low bonus buy fee is Big Time Gaming’s White Rabbit video slot. While the initial bonus buy fee comes at 100x on your stake, White Rabbit’s token collection feature allows players to collect tokens and in turn lower the cost of the bonus buy fee. If you pocket enough tokens, you might even get to opt into the bonus buy feature for free.
The Pros & Cons of a Bonus Buy Feature
While the bonus buy feature within a slot game can certainly lead players to bigger payouts at a faster rate, like anything in our world there are both advantages and disadvantages. Here’s a short description of the pros and cons involved with a bonus buy feature so players can decide whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages or vice versa:
Pros
When making use of a bonus buy feature players can immediately skip the base game within a video slot title and get straight to the bonus rounds which often provide higher payouts. The bonus buy feature is particularly advantageous when video slots have bonus rounds which are inherently difficult to trigger.
The many players that argue in favour of the bonus buy feature often claim that it will be less costly to buy into a bonus round as opposed to activating the bonus round in the traditional method. Additionally, the RTP percentages within the bonus round of a slot game are often higher than that of the base game, simply meaning that your overall chance of winning is increased.
Cons
The main disadvantage of buying into a bonus round lies within the bonus buy fee. Often times the bonus buy fee will be around 50x to 100x your stake. This runs a risk of burning through your bankroll at an alarming pace.
Furthermore, when buying into a bonus round, substantial wins aren’t guaranteed. Entering the bonus round of a slot game through the bonus buy feature is almost exactly the same as entering the bonus round through traditional methods. There is no guarantee you will win an amount exceeding the bonus buy fee, often times wins within a bonus round come just shy of the bonus buy fee.
Tips For Using a Bonus Buy Feature
When coming across a bonus buy slot players may inadvertently be drawn to activating the bonus buy feature. However, before you activate a bonus buy feature it would be wise to take certain aspects into account. Here are a few tips that may lead you to better use of a bonus buy feature:
Investigate The Bonus Frequency
Some video slots have bonus rounds that are easier to traditionally activate than others. It would be of no use to pay a premium for a bonus round if the bonus round is activated frequently. In this instance, players should rather opt to activate the bonus round by simply playing the base game.
While playing video slots in its demo version is a great way to discover the bonus frequency of a particular slot title, players can also make use of websites that provide tools in order to check the bonus frequency of a slot. Slot Tracker is a tool used by many experienced gamblers that displays how often the bonus round is triggered in any given slot title!
Analyze The Rewards Within a Bonus Round
While the bonus rounds within a video slot often reward players with greater payouts it would be wise to first analyze just how rewarding the bonus round is compared to the base game. Again, one of the best ways to review how rewarding a bonus round is within a particular slot title would be to first play the demo version. In the end, this will help players decide whether buying into the bonus round is worthwhile, or to the detriment of their bankroll.
Use The Bonus Buy Feature in Moderation
As we mentioned previously, coming across a bonus buy slot may draw players to inadvertently buy into the bonus round. However, considering that the average bonus buy fee sits between 50x and 100x your stake it’s not difficult to understand why using the feature in moderation is a necessity.
Often times the best way to avoid quickly burning through your bankroll when playing a bonus buy slot would be to set a budget or a loss limit. If you’ve made a loss a few times in a row when using the bonus buy feature, we certainly recommend you give the feature a break for the next couple of spins.
Are Bonus Buy Slots Legal in The UK?
Here’s a brief history lesson surrounding bonus buy slots in the UK. Initially, Big Time Gaming launched White Rabbit in 2017. White Rabbit is an innovative video slot that was the first to allow players to buy into its bonus round. Evidently, this slot title became extremely popular among slot lovers around the world.
However, in 2019 the UK Gambling Commission banned the use of bonus buy slots within the UK. The main reason for the ban revolved around responsible gambling issues. The argument put forward by critics pertained to putting vulnerable gamblers at risk as there was a possibility for players to spend hundreds or even thousands in a very short period of time. Following the ban of bonus buy slots within the UK, software providers had to get rather creative. This led to the creation of feature buy slots.
What Are Feature Buy Slots
Feature buy slots work very similarly to bonus buy slots however, instead of allowing players to opt directly into the bonus round, feature buy slots allow players to pay for an added feature or an increased chance of activating the bonus round.
With feature buy slots there is absolutely no guarantee that players will activate the bonus round, there is simply an increased chance for the activation. As an example, a feature buy slot may allow players an increased chance of activating the bonus round by adding a required scatter to the reels.
Some slot games offer what is known as an Ante-bet feature or a Big Bet feature. This allows UK players to still have an increased chance of triggering the bonus round for a higher stake. Other slot games may allow players to gamble on the bonus round for a chance of earning more free spins, or to buy an upgrade once you’ve triggered the bonus round.
It’s important to note that as long as the bonus round is not guaranteed, these feature buy slots are still completely legal for UK players.
Feature Buy Slots vs Bonus Buy Slots
The emergence of feature buy slots has sparked a great debate among online gamblers as to what option holds more value for money. There is one massive advantage to bonus buy slots, players are guaranteed to trigger the bonus round when making use of the bonus buy feature. However, with this considered the average bonus buy fee is around 100x your stake. This means a bonus buy feature is likely to be far more expensive than a single feature buy.
The feature buy fee is vastly cheaper than a bonus buy option, most often the cost of a single feature buy will be an added 25% of your stake. Therefore if the bet you place is valued at £20 then the total cost of a single feature buy would be £25. With this considered, the feature buy is still a large gamble as there is no guarantee you will trigger the bonus round, however, using the feature buy option sparingly will indefinitely be less expensive than a bonus buy feature.
All things considered, slots are inherently random and therefore accurately comparing a bonus buy feature against the feature buy option is almost impossible. In reality, bonus buy slots are as much a gamble as feature buy slots and therefore players should carefully consider all elements of a video slot before opting for either of these options.
Alternative Options To Bonus Buy Slots
UK punters that are intrigued by the bonus buy feature may feel rather left out after the ban of bonus buy slots. There’s really nothing to worry about as there are a number of alternative options to these kinds of video slots and the newcaisnos.io team has you covered! Apart from video slots that offer feature buy options, there are other options that have great bonus features to make up for the lack of bonus buy slots.
Slots With Multiple Bonus Game Options
There are a variety of video slots that offer multiple bonus rounds and even different RTP percentages for each of the bonus rounds. A fantastic example of one such video slot is Dead or Alive 2. As we mentioned previously Dead or Alive 2 provides players with 3 different bonus rounds each of which has a different level of volatility and RTP percentage.
- The first free spin round is the Old Saloon feature, here all wins are multiplied by 2 and when one or more of the sticky wilds land on each of the 5 reels players are awarded 5 extra free spins. Landing 2 sticky wilds on the same reel will turn each wild into multiplier wilds.
- The second free spin round is the High Noon feature, in this bonus round whenever two Wild symbols land on the same reel, they transform into 2x multiplier wilds and when three wilds land, they transform into 3x multiplier wilds. Furthermore, multiplier wilds multiply with each other when contributing to a win.
- Finally in the Train Heist feature whenever a wild symbol lands anywhere on the reels, the multiplier increases by 1, and 1 additional free spin is added. When the multiplier reaches x16, 5 additional free spins are awarded including the usual free spin per multiplier!
Slots That Have an Easily Activated Bonus Round
Generally speaking there isn’t a surefire way to find which video slot provides bonus round hits frequently. This is simply because slots are random by nature and therefore it’s almost impossible to accurately calculate which slots hit bonus rounds often without placing many spins.
However, the newcasinos.io team has done some intensive research within two popular gambling forums to uncover the general opinion as to which slot hits its bonus round most frequently. After reviewing many comments made by slot lovers around the world our team came to the conclusion that Play’n Go’s Wild North hits bonus rounds most frequently.
Wild North is a 5 - reel, 4 - row slot offering an RTP percentage of 96.5%. Wild North also offers a whopping 7 bonus rounds and 40 fixed paylines. Here players are offered a maximum winning potential of 2500x. While Wild North has an easily triggered bonus round, players usually only get 1 to 3 spins in this feature which often pay very little.
Slots With Multi-Level Bonus Rounds
Another alternative option to bonus buy slots are video slots that have various levels within the bonus rounds. Oftentimes progressing through the multiple levels will award players with bigger payouts.
One of the most popular slots that offer multiple levels within its bonus rounds is Blood Suckers 2 by NetEnt. Within Blood Suckers 2, if players are able to land at least 3 Golden Door bonus symbols on consecutive reels the Hidden Treasure bonus game will be activated. Players will then have to select between coffins and chests, the contents of each will decide their fate.
Within the Hidden Treasure bonus game, there are 3 different symbols. The first is the red rose scatter, after finding three players will activate the free spins feature. The second is the key, which takes players to the next level within the bonus round and after reaching the final level as well as defeating the demon players can win 670x their stake. The final symbol is the demon, finding this symbol will end the bonus game.
Slots With Rewarding Bonus Rounds:
Unfortunately, not all bonus rounds are considered equal among video slots. In order for UK punters to make the most of slots without a bonus buy feature, they should try to find video slots with extremely rewarding bonus rounds.
One of the most notable slots in the industry in terms of its maximum win potential is Nolimit City’s San Quentin video slot. In order to gain access to the Lockdown Spins bonus game players will need to land 3 or more bonus symbols across the reels.
Following this players will then activate the Lockdown Spins bonus game and the bonus game will begin with 1, 2 or 3 jumping wilds. When a jumping wild lands on a reel with a Razor Split enhancer it will double its multiplier, which will stay for the remainder of the feature. The maximum multiplier for a jumping wild is 512x which can lead players to an enormous maximum win potential of 150,000x their base bet.
Conclusion to Bonus Buy Slots
Since the release of Big Time Gaming’s White Rabbit video slot, the bonus buy feature has become extremely popular among software providers and slot lovers. The main allure of the bonus buy feature lies within the opportunity to completely skip the base game of the video slot and opt into the bonus game for a specified premium. The bonus rounds within a slot game often award players with much larger payouts, better RTP percentage and added features.
While the use of buy bonus slots had been banned in the UK in 2019, UK punters can still make use of feature buy options and alternative slot options for increased rewards. The newcasinos.io has just handed you absolutely everything you need to know about bonus buy slots and a handful of the best bonus buy slots in the industry. Don’t let us keep you waiting, the slots won’t spin themselves!
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best bonus buy slot casinos?
There are a great number of online casinos that offer bonus buy slots, therefore players are spoiled for choice. However, newcaisnos.io always recommends our viewers to only play at fully licensed online casinos. This will help ensure your safety and the enjoyment of your online gambling experience.
What is the best bonus buy slot title?
There is no clear answer as to what slot title is the best, this mainly comes down to personal preference. When deciding upon your most preferred slot title, players should consider several features. This includes RTP percentages, maximum win potential, the bonus buy fee, bonus features, bet ranges and of course graphics and audio.
How to buy bonus on slots?
Buying a bonus round within a slot title is as simple as clicking the bonus buy feature, selecting the bonus options, setting your base bet to calculate the price of the feature, following this players should decide if they are happy with the conditions and finally, you can then buy the bonus.
Are bonus buy slots worth it?
There are many conditions that affect the worth of a bonus buy slot. As we mentioned previously, opting to buy into the bonus round of a slot will usually cost between 50x and 100x your stake. This is rather expensive so players need to research whether the bonus round within a slot is rewarding enough to fork over the premium. Gamblers can use tools such as Slot Tracker to review the worth of bonus round and even play demo versions of a slot title to decipher its value against the bonus buy cost.