Bonus buy slots: what you pay, and what actually changes when you skip the base game
By Slot Numbers
Most of a modern slot’s return sits in its bonus feature. A bonus buy lets you pay to go straight there instead of waiting for the scatters. The price is a multiple of your bet, commonly 100x, and the feature then plays at that bet. It is the most argued-over mechanic in slots, and most of the argument comes from mixing up two things: what buying does to the shape of a session, and what it does to the cost.
What you pay
The price is quoted as a multiple of the current bet, so it scales with the stake.
| Mode | Price at €1 bet | Price at €2 bet |
|---|---|---|
| 3x (better odds, no guarantee) | €3 | €6 |
| 100x (standard bonus) | €100 | €200 |
| 250x (super bonus) | €250 | €500 |
| 500x (super bonus) | €500 | €1,000 |
The feature’s wins are paid as multiples of the bet, so a bonus bought at €2 pays twice what the same outcome would at €1. That is why the price scales: you are buying a feature sized to your stake.
Two kinds of bonus buy
A direct buy gives you the feature. Hacksaw’s Wanted Dead or a Wild offers its bonus buy for each of its three bonus games separately; you pay and the chosen bonus starts.
A menu of modes mixes direct buys with cheaper odds boosts. ELK’s X-iter is the clearest example. Pirots 5 has five modes: Bonus Hunt at 3x the bet, which gives more than four times the chance to trigger the bonus but does not guarantee it; Mega Hunt at 10x; the chapter’s coin game at 50x; the bonus at 100x; and the super bonus at 250x, played on the maximum grid with a feature chest on every free drop. Pirots X runs 3x, 5x, 25x, 100x and 500x. The cheap modes are not a discount on the bonus; they are a different product, a boosted base game.
What changes, and what does not
Volatility changes. Buying removes the base game. All of your money goes into feature rounds, and the result of each round is decided by what lands inside it. On a high-volatility game, where many features end small and a few end huge, buying concentrates that pattern into a sequence of €100 decisions. Ten buys at €100 can return €300 or €3,000. The volatility guide covers why that matters for a budget.
The RTP does not improve. Providers publish a separate figure for bought bonuses on some games, and it is usually close to the base RTP, sometimes slightly above, sometimes below. ELK states plainly that buying in does not raise the RTP. The casino’s chosen setting still applies, and on reduced settings the bought feature inherits the reduction. So a bought bonus at a casino running Pirots 5 near the bottom of its 87.0% to 96.0% range costs more per €100 than the same bonus at the top.
The pace changes. A session of bought bonuses runs through money many times faster than base-game spins at the same bet. That is the practical reason to set a budget in bonuses, not in time: decide how many €100 rounds you are prepared to lose before you start, and stop there.
Where the button is missing
Bonus buy is restricted in several markets. Casinos licensed in the UK and in Sweden do not offer it, and providers hide the button where it is not allowed, so the same game shows a buy menu at one casino and nothing at another. Our slot pages note “where allowed” for that reason. If you play at a casino where it is available, nothing about the game’s published maths differs from the version without it.
Reading the information panel before you buy
Three things to check inside the game, not on the lobby tile: the price of each mode at your current bet, whether a separate RTP is listed for bought features, and the RTP setting the casino runs. The RTP guide shows where those numbers live.
Questions people ask
Does buying the bonus improve the RTP?
No. Where providers publish a separate figure for bought bonuses it is usually close to the base RTP, and it can be lower. Buying changes how often you see the feature, not what the game pays back over time.
What does 100x mean?
The price of the bonus is 100 times your current bet. At €1 a spin the bonus costs €100; at €5 it costs €500. The feature then plays at that bet.
Why can't I see the bonus buy button?
The feature is restricted in several markets, including the UK and under the Swedish licence, and providers hide it where it is not allowed. The same game shows the button at one casino and not at another.
Is a cheaper mode like 3x a better deal?
It is a different deal. Modes like ELK's 3x Bonus Hunt raise the chance of triggering the feature rather than guaranteeing it, so you pay a smaller premium per spin for better odds, not for a certain bonus.