Jungle Spirit: Call of the Wild is a NetEnt video slot released on 18 March 2017 that places players deep inside a rainforest inhabited by tigers, elephants, bears, crocodiles and cobras. The base game runs on a 5×3 grid with 243 ways to win, a medium volatility model and a declared RTP of 96.47%. A spin costs between R0.20 and R100, and at an R1 bet the slot provides a balanced way to test Symbol Expansion, Butterfly Boost and the Free Spins round.
The headline ceiling is 7,700× the bet, which equals R7,700 from an R1 stake. Free Spins expand the grid to 5×4 and unlock 1,024 ways to win, while five animal idols let the player dial in volatility directly before the bonus starts.
Reel Layout and Betting Mechanics
The main game uses a five-reel, three-row configuration and pays by bet ways rather than fixed paylines. Matching symbols landing on adjacent reels starting from the leftmost count toward a win regardless of their row position, which keeps winning combinations visually varied. Only the longest matching combination per symbol is paid.
With three rows on each reel, the base game offers 3×3×3×3×3 = 243 ways. During Free Spins the grid stretches to four rows and the total grows to 4×4×4×4×4 = 1,024 ways. That grid shift is the single biggest mechanical change between modes.
Bet size scales from R0.20 up to R100 per spin. An Autoplay option is available for longer sessions, and the bet ways structure means the cost of the spin already covers the entire grid — there are no side bet toggles, no ante bets and no Bonus Buy.
Symbols and Payouts
Jungle Spirit splits its icons into three groups. Medium-tier animals pay the most, with the tiger leading the ladder, followed by the elephant, bear, crocodile and cobra. The low-tier ruins-style A, K, Q, J and 10 share an identical payout schedule. All values below are multipliers of the chosen bet — at an R1 spin, five tigers return R7.50.
Medium-tier symbols:
| Symbol | 3 on reels | 4 on reels | 5 on reels |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tiger | R2.50 | R4.00 | R7.50 |
| Elephant | R2.00 | R3.00 | R5.00 |
| Bear | R1.50 | R2.50 | R4.00 |
| Crocodile | R1.25 | R2.00 | R3.50 |
| Cobra | R1.00 | R1.50 | R3.00 |
Low-tier symbols (identical schedule for A, K, Q, J and 10):
| Symbol | 3 on reels | 4 on reels | 5 on reels |
|---|---|---|---|
| A / K / Q / J / 10 | R0.50 | R1.00 | R1.50 |
The lotus flower works as the Scatter. Three or more Scatters anywhere on the reels trigger Free Spins. Four Scatters also pay an instant 15× bet, and five Scatters pay an instant 50× bet on top of the bonus trigger. There is no separate Wild symbol in the game — the Symbol Expansion mechanic replaces it.
Symbol Expansion and Butterfly Boost Features
Both core mechanics revolve around butterflies that land on the reels and mark specific symbols.
Symbol Expansion marks any symbol except the Scatter with a small swarm of butterflies. If that butterfly-marked symbol then takes part in a winning combination, it expands to cover the entire reel it lands on. This works identically in the base game and in Free Spins, and it is the primary way large hits are built on both modes.
Butterfly Boost is a random feature that fires during a winning spin in the base game, but only when no Scatters or already butterfly-marked symbols are on screen. Butterflies then fly onto the reels and tag one to three symbols that are guaranteed to be part of a winning combination. Those symbols expand to cover their full reels, stacking extra bet ways on top of the original hit.
The combination of these two features is what gives the base game its upside. A single high-paying animal that expands across its reel instantly multiplies the number of winning ways for that symbol, and Butterfly Boost can compound the effect by expanding up to three reels at once.
Free Spins Mode and Animal Selection
Landing three, four or five lotus Scatters anywhere on the main reels activates the Free Spins round. Four Scatters add a 15× bet instant prize and five Scatters add a 50× bet instant prize on top of the bonus trigger — at an R1 stake that is an extra R15 or R50 paid out before the bonus even begins.
Inside the bonus the grid grows to 5×4 and the game runs on 1,024 ways. Before the spins start, the player picks one of five animal idols, and each option sets both the number of spins and the dominant medium-win symbol for the round.
The five options work as follows:
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Tiger — 4 Free Spins. Highest volatility and the biggest win ceiling; the tiger becomes the only medium-win animal on the reels.
Elephant — 8 Free Spins. Still high variance with strong payout potential.
Bear — 12 Free Spins. Balanced middle ground between risk and consistency.
Crocodile — 16 Free Spins. A steadier, more frequent-hit profile.
Cobra — 20 Free Spins. Lowest volatility and the most consistent payout rhythm.
Whichever animal is chosen becomes the dominant medium symbol for the entire bonus, so the hit density on that specific animal rises accordingly. Symbol Expansion stays active throughout, which means a butterfly-marked dominant animal can cover several full reels and deliver the deeper Free Spins wins. Trying the Jungle Spirit: Call of the Wild demo first is a reasonable way to compare how each animal idol actually plays out before committing a real-money session to a particular pick.
Payout Mechanics & Math Profile
The math in this slot rests on one structural fact — it is a bet ways game, so every extra symbol stacked on a reel multiplies the winning combinations rather than adding them. In the base game, three rows per reel give 3×3×3×3×3 = 243 ways. When Symbol Expansion turns one reel into a vertical stack of the same animal, that reel's contribution grows from one matching symbol to three. A three-reel expanded combination therefore jumps from one way to 27 ways for the symbol that triggered it — the combinatorial leverage is where most of the feature's RTP actually lives.
Butterfly Boost is the second structural driver, and its design concentrates RTP cleanly. Because it only fires on spins that are already winning, every Butterfly Boost event is pure upside with no wasted activations. The feature can expand one to three symbols at once, which stacks directly on top of the base combinatorial leverage described above.
The Free Spins architecture does not change the underlying RTP target — it redistributes variance. Five animal options trade spin count for payout density: Tiger at 4 spins concentrates the RTP into very few high-ceiling outcomes, while Cobra at 20 spins spreads it over many smaller hits. The quietly clever part is that the chosen animal also becomes the only medium-win symbol on the reels during the bonus, so it is the one most likely to appear butterfly-marked and expanded. Picking the Tiger therefore concentrates both the variance and the peak payout ladder (Tiger pays 7.50× at five-of-a-kind versus the Cobra's 3×) onto the same icon.
The grid shift from 5×3 to 5×4 in Free Spins adds a further layer. The number of bet ways grows from 243 to 1,024, a 4.2× multiplier on combinatorial density, and that directly scales the value of every expanded reel inside the bonus.
| Metric | Structural Value | Mathematical Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Bet ways (base / bonus) | 243 / 1,024 | Free Spins raise combinatorial density by ~4.2×, scaling up every expansion |
| Expansion Combinatorial Leverage (custom metric) | Up to 27× per three-reel expanded hit in base, up to 64× in Free Spins | Converts single-way hits into stacked-reel wins; the primary RTP lever in the game |
| Butterfly Boost trigger window | Only on winning spins with no Scatter or butterfly icons present | Pure positive-EV feature, zero wasted activations |
| Scatter instant prize | 15× at 4 Scatters, 50× at 5 Scatters | Adds a direct RTP contribution to Free Spins triggers independent of the bonus outcome |