Milk the Cow: Slot Overview
According to a quick net search, dairy cows produce around 28 litres of milk per day, which seems like a lot? Lucky for farmers these days, they’ve got machines to help extract milk instead of having to squirt it into buckets by hand, though the modern method arguably reduces much of the rural romance. Anyway, it’s a farm we’re heading to with Swedish software provider Thunderkick that produces a selection of crops alongside the precious white liquid. The slot is Milk the Cow, a game which incorporates elements of farming into its features, culminating in a unique hold ‘n’ win round with grass, fencing, farmers, upgradable cows, and bales of hay.
Milk the Cow operates a hold ‘n’ win mechanic, which is slightly different from the norm, but you might not suspect that at first glance. This is because Thunderkick has recreated the sort of classic agricultural environment that shows up in numerous farming slots. You know, a big red barn, rolling green hills, and a big blue yet slightly cloudy sky hinting at a burst of rain later to water the fields. It’s the sort of place where farming is just gosh darn fun. However, the situation humorously changes when the bonus round is in play when the grid is flanked by butts and udders.
Played on a 5×5 gaming area, Milk the Cow is a highly volatile slot that makes use of a cluster pays win system. Players may stake 10 c to $/€100 per spin, and when doing so, the theoretical RTP is 94.17%, changing slightly when buying features or using the BET+. As well as regular betting, the BET+ option provides two choices – the Bonus Boost at 1.5x the bet or the Bonus Boost Plus at 5x the bet, where each spin is 2 times or 5 times more likely to trigger the bonus game, respectively.
As a cluster pays slot, winning combinations are created when 5 or more matching pay symbols are connected on the grid horizontally or vertically. The payout value depends on the size of the winning cluster. The pay symbols are aubergines, carrots, corn, watering cans, rakes, and bottles of milk, awarding 0.2x to 1x for 5 OAK up to 40x to 1,000x for 25 OAK. Wild bulls land anywhere to substitute for any regular pay symbol. If the grid fills with wilds, 1,000x the bet is paid.
Milk the Cow: Slot Features
Milk the Cow’s main feature is its unique hold ‘n’ win bonus game, Wild Field, Field Day, and three feature buys.
Wild Field
The Wild Field feature triggers when 2 wilds land, creating the largest possible rectangle on the grid with them and transforming all symbols inside the rectangle into wilds. Additional wilds can land, up to 5, one per reel.
Field Day
The Field Day can trigger in the base game, and when activated, 2 scatters land to create a field. A Farmer symbol moves from left to right across random rows. If the Farmer lands inside the field, a fenced Premium Field is created, adjacent Hot Zones are added, and the bonus game triggers. If the Farmer does not land in the field, the base game continues normally.
Hold & Win Bonus Game
Players receive 3 free spins when the bonus game triggers, where only valueless Hay Rolls, Cows, or Farmer symbols may appear. Cow symbols lock in place when they land, resetting the spin count to 3. The bonus game ends when all spins are used or all positions are filled with Cow symbols. When a Cow lands on the grass in the Premium Field, it grazes on each spin, filling its progress meter. Cows start on Bronze level, and when they fill their attached progress meter, they can upgrade to Silver, and then Gold. The Premium Field expands if a Farmer lands in a Hot Zone, adding adjacent Hot Zones if possible while also resetting the free spins counter. Cow symbols only upgrade if they are inside the Premium Field, and at the end of the feature, each Cow awards a prize depending on their level. Bronze are worth 0.5x to 2x, Silver 5x to 15x, and Gold 25x to 100x.
Grand Jackpot
The Grand Jackpot triggers when all 25 spaces on the grid are filled with Cow symbols during the bonus game, awarding 5,000x.
Feature Buy
Three options are available at Milk the Cow’s feature buy menu. They are 20x to buy the Wild Field, 30x to buy Field Day, and 80x to buy the bonus game.
Milk the Cow: Slot Verdict
Milk the Cow is not your usual hold ‘n’ win slot. A lot of them, you can comfortably launch into the bonus round without reading the rules and have a pretty good idea of what’s going on. Milk the Cow was less so. Sure, it only takes a moment or two reading the paytable to form a clear picture of what is going on, but kudos to Thunderkick for contributing something a bit original to the hold ‘n’ win space for fans of this style of gambling to sample. And, like any slot, Milk the Cow is able to tease, frustrate, and delight.
One reason why is that Milk the Cow runs a specific set of rules, and a specific set of criteria must be fulfilled to progress further in the game. For starters, getting into the bonus round requires scatters creating a field, which a Farmer has to land in to create a Premium Field. Then, to tally up bigger rewards, Cows need to graze inside the Premium Field, while hopefully, hot zones are added to the Premium Field, creating more space on the grid for Cows to graze so they can upgrade to Silver or Gold. Sounds a bit fiddly, maybe, and it is more convoluted than just landing money symbols and collecting them at the end. But it might also be quite fun when the Premium Field is growing, and Cows are upgrading. Not saying this is anything like real farming, but with a smidge of imagination, players might get a small glimpse into a successful milk production business.
That might be stretching reality a little bit, but good games often let the imagination run wild. Milk the Cow is a pretty decent one, too. Thunderkick has integrated the theme with some original mechanics quite well, topped it all with a 5,000x max win, and packaged it in an optimistic farm setting. It ultimately sits in a sort of mid-tier hold ‘n’ win level, and the RTP is the usual letdown from this developer, but there is a certain amount of one-of-a-kind entertainment to be had from Milk the Cow.
Write a comment