Cossacks

Cossacks Slot Review

Dusk on the Ukrainian steppe, wheat sheaves and knotted red drapes strung along a rough-hewn timber frame, a thatched cottage hunkered into the grass below. It’s a softer backdrop than the name promises, and the game underneath is the same way: nearly everything Cossacks has to offer sits inside one repeating loop, and if that doesn’t hook you, nothing else here will.

Cossacks, from Champion, is an unapologetically old-fashioned build: a 5×3 grid with ten fixed paylines, a 97% RTP, one respin mechanic and one free spins round. That RTP is the standout in an otherwise modest spec sheet, and it’s doing a lot of the work here. The rest of the maths is plain: fixed lines, left-to-right wins, and a top symbol worth 150x the total bet.

A simple ride, then, and one worth taking slowly.

The Reels and Their Symbols

Wins read left to right across ten fixed lines: a line pays when matching symbols sit anywhere along it, starting from the leftmost reel, and only the highest combination on each line counts. The lines can’t be switched on or off, so every spin covers all ten. Pay values are multiples of the total bet on screen, not the line bet.

The paytable splits into four tiers, each worth the same as the tier beside it. A woman in headwear leads the table on her own, with the horse and a crown on pillow sharing the second rung and military hardware filling the third. The lowest tier is made up entirely of period props rather than card royals, which keeps the steppe mood intact even on small wins. The values, as multiples of the total bet:

• Woman (headwear) – 15x for three, 30x for four, 150x for five
• Horse – 10x for three, 20x for four, 100x for five
• Crown on pillow – 10x for three, 20x for four, 100x for five
• Shield/swords – 5x for three, 10x for four, 75x for five
• Cannon – 5x for three, 10x for four, 75x for five
• Borscht soup – 2x for three, 5x for four, 50x for five
• Saddlebag – 2x for three, 5x for four, 50x for five
• Scroll – 2x for three, 5x for four, 50x for five
• Lute – 2x for three, 5x for four, 50x for five

The gaps between tiers are wide, so a single upgraded symbol changes a line’s value by a factor of three. Three-symbol wins are where most lines start, and the bottom tier pays enough on a three-match to keep the balance ticking over between feature hits.

Two symbols break the usual pattern. The Wild is a man with a mace, appearing on every reel except the first, and it substitutes for everything except the Scatter. The Scatter is a lute player, also absent from reel one, and it carries the free spins trigger rather than paying cash of its own. Because both special symbols sit on the same four reels, the first reel never contributes anything but ordinary symbols.

In play, that split between ordinary and special symbols is what the eye follows. The leftmost reel decides whether a line can start at all; everything to its right decides how far it runs. A line with a strong symbol on reel one and a locked wild behind it is where the money lives.

Wild Respins

The Wild respin is the mechanic that gives the base game its pulse, and it runs on a simple loop. In order:

1. A single Wild lands anywhere on reels 2 to 5
2. The Wild expands to cover its entire reel and locks in place
3. The other reels respin
4. If the respin reveals at least one more Wild, that Wild expands and locks too, and the respins continue
5. The run ends when a respin brings no new Wild

Chains like this are where a ten-line game finds its bigger base wins, since a couple of stacked wild reels can complete lines across the whole board at once. An expanding wild covering reels 4 and 5, for instance, leaves the left side of every line to ordinary symbols. Any matching pair in front of it becomes a paying combination.

Because the Wild never appears on reel one, the leftmost reel is always ordinary symbols, which caps how often a chain starts and how far it reaches. There’s no stated limit on how long a run can last, either. Each new Wild only has to appear once for the run to keep going, so a lucky sequence can fill four of the five reels with locked wilds before it stops.

Free Spins

Four Scatter symbols, one on each of reels 2, 3, 4 and 5, award twelve free spins. That’s the only route in, and it’s a demanding one: all four eligible reels need to cooperate on a single spin, and the Scatter doesn’t pay on its own, so there’s no consolation for a near miss. The round itself has to deliver the value.

Inside the round, the Scatter disappears entirely. No Scatters means no retrigger, so twelve spins is the whole visit, and whatever wild chains land during them is all there is to win. The expanded Wild respin mechanic stays active throughout, which is what the round hangs on.

With Scatters gone and the Wild kept off reel one, the free spins round is really just the base game with one symbol type removed. What changes is concentration: every spin that pays is paying through the respin loop, so the round lives or dies on how often the wilds arrive. A run of two or three locked wild reels inside those twelve spins is the difference between a forgettable bonus and the best result the game can produce.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7/10

Playing Cossacks is a patient business: long stretches of small three-symbol wins on ten lines, with the whole game pausing whenever a wild lands and the respin loop takes over. That loop is the reason to choose it. A run of two or three locked wild reels is the one moment this game genuinely moves, and it’s a good one.

Its strength is honesty. The 97% RTP is well above where most five-reel games sit, and it makes a modest paytable quietly generous over a long session. The weakness is that there’s nothing above the paytable: the free spins round is the same game minus a symbol, so the ceiling is whatever the wilds happen to build on the day.

This is a game for players who like steady maths and don’t need a showpiece bonus round, not for anyone chasing the big one. As an evening on a warm steppe, it’s comfortable, unhurried company.

Cossacks FAQs

• What is the RTP of Cossacks?

  Cossacks runs at an RTP of 97%, which sits comfortably above the average for online slots.
• How do you trigger free spins in Cossacks?

  Twelve free spins are awarded when four Scatter symbols appear on a single spin, one on each of reels 2, 3, 4 and 5. There’s no other way into the round.
• Can free spins be retriggered in Cossacks?

  No. The Scatter symbol doesn’t appear during free spins, so the round can’t be retriggered. Twelve spins is the full award.
• What does the Wild symbol do in Cossacks?

  The Wild, a man with a mace, substitutes for all symbols except the Scatter. It appears on every reel except the first, expands to cover its whole reel, and locks in place to trigger a respin that continues while further Wilds appear.
• How does the Wild respin mechanic work?

  When a single Wild lands, it expands to cover its entire reel and locks in place. The other reels then respin, and the respins continue for as long as at least one more Wild appears and is revealed. The run ends when a respin brings no new Wild.
• Which reels do the Wild and Scatter appear on in Cossacks?

  Both the Wild and the Scatter appear on all reels except the first, so only reels 2 to 5 can carry them. The first reel is always ordinary symbols.
• How many paylines does Cossacks have?

  The number of lines is fixed at ten. Winnings are awarded by matching symbols anywhere on the line from the first symbol on the leftmost reel.
• What is the grid size of Cossacks?

  Cossacks plays on a 5×3 grid, five reels and three rows.
• Who makes Cossacks?

  Cossacks is made by Champion. Its release date is 8 January 2024.