Every horseshoe on the Mustang Gold reels carries a number, and none of them pays until a sheriff’s star lands on reel 5. The horseshoes fill reels 1 to 4, and the star has one reel to land on, so plenty of loaded screens clear unpaid. You’ll watch a 5x and a 3x sit on reels 1 and 2, then vanish on the next spin, because the collect symbol never appears anywhere else.
Give the Mustang Gold demo 10 minutes, and you’ll find yourself staring at the last reel more than the first four. Pragmatic Play built its 2019 Wild West slot around that wait, then hung four fixed jackpots and an unlimited free spins retrigger off it.
Reel 5 never shows a golden horseshoe, and no horseshoe pays on its own. Each one shows a multiple of your total bet, or a jackpot label instead of a number, and it only appears on reels 1 to 4. The collect star appears only on reel 5. When the star hits with at least one horseshoe in view, the game adds every horseshoe value on screen and pays the total. Three horseshoes stacked on reel 2 at 3x, 2x and 1x with the star on reel 5 pay 6x. Miss the star and the horseshoes pay nothing, and the next spin replaces them with fresh numbers. The 13 values a horseshoe can show are as follows.
| Values | Notes |
|---|---|
| 1x, 2x, 3x, 5x, 8x, 10x | Multiples of the total bet, paid only with the star on reel 5 |
| 12x, 15x, 18x, 20x, 25x | Same rule, and several can share one screen |
| 30x, 35x | The top two numbers, above any single line win |
| Jackpot label | Opens the pick game instead of adding a number |
Some horseshoes carry a jackpot marker instead of a number. Land one with the star and the reels give way to a leather board holding 12 horseshoes. You pick, each one flips to a jackpot colour, and 3 of a kind pays it. Grand is 1,000x your bet, Major 200x, Minor 100x and Mini 50x, and the banners above the reels show the cash figures for your stake. Two jackpot horseshoes on the same collect screen give you 2 pick rounds, one after the other. It’s the only pick game in this corner of the Pragmatic Play range, and it does slow the pace when you’d rather see the number.
Three campfire scatters on reels 2, 3 and 4 pay 1x your bet and start 8 free spins. The round swaps in special reels that carry more horseshoes and more collect stars, so the reel 5 wait gets shorter and the money screens get fuller. Three more campfires inside the round add another 8 spins, and the rules put no limit on how many times that repeats. The jackpot pick game stays live throughout.
No wild ever lands on reel 1 in Mustang Gold. The logo wild sits on reels 2 to 5 and stands in for everything except the scatter, the horseshoe and the star. Line wins run across 25 fixed lines from the left, with the white mustang paying 20x for a full line. Five white mustangs at the $2 stake pay $40, and a single 20x horseshoe with the star on reel 5 pays the same from one symbol.
New players add up the horseshoes as they land and expect the game to pay the total. The game pays only when the star lands on reel 5 on the same spin. A screen with 4 horseshoes and no star pays whatever the lines pay, usually nothing. A screen with 1 horseshoe and a star pays that horseshoe. Four horseshoes at 5x, 3x, 2x and 1x with a Q on reel 5 pay nothing, and the 11x on screen goes nowhere.
The values on the horseshoes are random each spin, and the same is true of the jackpot markers, so there’s no build-up between spins and nothing to save for later. Free spins change the odds by loading the special reels with more stars and more horseshoes, and 3 campfires on reels 2, 3 and 4 are the only way in. There’s no bonus buy and no ante bet, so the trigger is a straight wait.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Min bet | $0.25 across 25 fixed lines, stepped with the plus and minus buttons |
| Max bet | $250, with no bonus buy and no ante bet to raise it |
| RTP | 96.53% in the demo, with a 95.54% setting also in circulation, so check the rules on any site you play at |
Volatility gets a Medium rating on this page because the collect screens land often, but the four jackpots and the free spins carry most of the return.
The lowest pay on the reels is 0.2x for 3 royals, a fifth of the stake back, and nothing pays for a pair. The table counts in multiples of your total bet, and the cash column in the demo reads at its $2 default, so 0.2x is $0.40. The two horses are the premiums, and the four royals share one value.
| Symbol | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| White mustang | 0.4x | 2x | 20x |
| Black mustang | 0.4x | 2x | 12x |
| Cowboy | 0.4x | 1x | 10x |
| Cowgirl | 0.4x | 1x | 8x |
| A, K, Q, J | 0.2x | 0.6x | 4x |
| Campfire scatter (3) | 1x + 8 free spins |
The horseshoe values (1x to 35x) and the four jackpots (50x, 100x, 200x, 1,000x) sit outside the line table, and a single 35x horseshoe with the star beats any line win the game can make.
Mustang Gold is a collect slot wearing a line slot's clothes. The horseshoes and the reel 5 star carry the game, the free spins with unlimited retriggers carry the return, and the pick game adds four fixed jackpots without a buy option. Solid, good-looking and a touch slow between money screens, so it lands at 3.5 rather than higher.
Wild West Gold, the studio’s other saloon-door slot, pays through sticky wild multipliers on its lines. Mustang Gold barely uses its lines. The white mustang tops out at 20x for 5 across, while one horseshoe can be worth 35x on its own, so the 25 lines exist to keep the reels busy between money screens. Judge it as a collect game with a line game attached, and it makes sense.
The collect maths is the interesting part. Horseshoes land on 4 reels and the star on 1, so most horseshoe screens go unpaid. A screen with 3 horseshoes and no star pays the lines and nothing else. A screen with 3 horseshoes and a star is worth around 6x, as the frame on this page shows. Where does the big return come from, then? Free spins. The special reels pack in horseshoes and stars together, and with retriggers unlimited, a long round can stack collect after collect. That’s the part of the design that earns a Medium volatility rating rather than something gentler.
The pick game is a mixed blessing. A jackpot horseshoe with the star hands you a 12-horseshoe board and asks you to find 3 matching colours. You can’t influence it, and the Mini at 50x is the likely result, so the round mostly adds a pause. On the other hand, a Grand at 1,000x is a real ladder step for a game with no bonus buy, and the reveal has a bit of theatre to it. The frustration is watching the 3x and 5x horseshoes on the first 4 reels wash away, spin after spin, while reel 5 shows a Q.
Pragmatic drew this one in 2019, in its most polished period, and it has not dated. A sunset in pink and orange, a wooden frame, two horses drawn with real care, a cowboy and a cowgirl in matching hats. The royals are stone-cut letters, and the horseshoes glow. It’s a bright, warm screen. The audio is a country guitar loop that you’ll either enjoy or mute within 5 minutes.
The format is Pragmatic’s answer to the hold-and-win idea that Wolf Gold runs as a respin round, done here as a single-spin collect instead. That makes it faster than most jackpot slots but also thinner, since there’s no held-symbol tension. Instead, you get a reel 5 habit and a free spins round that can run long.
If you want a Wild West slot that pays on the lines, Wild West Gold is the pick. If you want the horseshoe chase with four fixed jackpots and no buy button pushing you to spend, Mustang Gold is the one to sit with, and the demo runs it from $0.25 a spin with the same 96.53% return.
