The Dog House Megaways 1000

What the numbers say

Pragmatic Play’s dog series has always run on the same parts: kennel wilds on the middle reels, a feature where you choose between wilds that stay and wilds that fall in at random, and in the Megaways edition, six reels producing up to 117,649 ways. The Dog House Megaways 1000 keeps all of that and rewrites the maths. Each wild now carries a value somewhere between 1x and 1,000x, and when more than one sits on a winning way, those values are multiplied by each other. In the earlier Megaways game, wilds showed 2x or 3x and were summed.

That one rule is the reason this is a separate release. It takes the published ceiling to 25,000x the bet, and it arrives with two Super Bonus tiers opened by Super Scatters and a list of special bets and buys costing up to 2,500x the stake. The studio states a 96.5% RTP, and the game’s own rules screen rates the volatility Medium, 3 bars out of 5.

1,000 versus 25,000: two different limits

The number in the title is not the top award. The studio’s game page talks about wild multipliers wilds holding up to 1,000x, while its launch announcement separately gives prizes reaching 25,000x the bet. One figure caps a single wild; the other caps the whole game.

Since wilds combine by multiplication, their product could in theory run far beyond 25,000x. The 25,000x limit is therefore what actually bounds any spin.

Rule summaries give eight possible wild values. Six are modest (1x, 2x, 3x, 5x, 10x and 25x) and two are enormous (100x and 1,000x). The frequency of each has not been made public, but the shape is clear enough: a gentle climb to 25x followed by two huge leaps.

Multiplying wilds, worked through

This is the point where the 1000 parts company with earlier games. The figures below are straightforward arithmetic on the published rule, not results from actual spins.

Now bring in the paytable. Six rottweilers on a way are listed at 7.5x the bet. Run that way through a single 10x wild and it pays 75x. Put a 25x wild on the same way as well and the combined multiplier becomes 250x, so the way returns 1,875x. One 1,000x wild alone would lift it to 7,500x.

With wilds possible on four reels, a single way can cross four of them. Four 1,000x wilds would multiply to one trillion, which is exactly why a hard ceiling is needed. In practice the 25,000x limit catches every such case, and because the top values sit at the extreme end of the scale, spins that line several of them up on a premium way are, by design, extremely rare.

Multiplication changes the bottom end too. A 1x wild leaves a product unchanged, so it behaves as a plain substitute. Compared with a summing system, the low end is softer and the high end much steeper.

Six reels, changing heights: the base game

On every spin, each reel draws a height of two to seven symbols. Multiplying those six heights gives the number of ways live on that spin, up to 117,649 when all six show seven (seven to the power of six). As in other Megaways titles, wins are built from matching symbols on neighbouring reels, starting from reel 1.

The paytable splits into two groups. The five card ranks (A, K, Q, J and 10) return between 0.5x and 1x the bet when six line up. The premium group, a bone, a collar and several breeds of dog, returns 1.5x to 7.5x when six line up, with the rottweiler at the top on 7.5x. Some builds name the breeds differently; the paytable screen shows whichever artwork is in use.

Those values are kept low on purpose. When tens of thousands of ways are live, any individual way win stays small and the wild multipliers carry the weight. The hit rate is widely given as 23.75%, about one winning spin in every 4.21. Put plainly, around three spins in four pay nothing, and most of the remainder are small way wins that a wild occasionally turns into something larger.

The kennel wild is confined to the four middle reels, 2 to 5. It can replace any paying symbol, though never the scatter or the Super Scatter. With no wild ever on reels 1 or 6, every winning way has to start with a genuine symbol on reel 1.

The bonus round and its two wild modes

Scatters set the length: three give 7 free spins, four give 12, five give 15 and six give 20. Six scatters therefore deliver close to three times the spins of three. That matters most with Sticky Wilds, because every additional spin is one more go for the wilds already held. A mode is chosen before the round starts.

Sticky Wilds

• Selected after the trigger.
• Reel heights are redrawn on each spin, just as in base play.
• Any wild that lands on reels 2 to 5 is held in position along with its multiplier; according to rule summaries, a held wild changes size to suit the reel heights.
• Every following spin is evaluated with all held wilds in place, and values multiply wherever a way passes through several.
• Play stops after the final spin, with no retrigger described in the published summaries.

The attraction is that value accumulates: a wild that lands on the second spin keeps working on all the spins after it. The weakness: if wilds are slow to arrive, there are not many spins left for them to build on.

Random Wilds

• Selected after the trigger.
• Every spin, up to six wilds are placed at random on reels 2 to 5; Pragmatic’s page refers to “up to six wild multipliers” arriving on each spin.
• Each of those wilds draws its value from the identical scale, 1x through 1,000x.
• Where a way crosses more than one, the values multiply.
• The placed wilds are removed before the next spin, and there is no retrigger.

Six wilds spread over just four eligible reels means some spins put two on the same reel, raising the number of ways that pass through several wilds together.

In the earlier Megaways game, the random choice (named Raining Wilds there) was compensated with longer rounds: 30, 25, 18 or 15 spins where the sticky choice gave 20, 15, 12 or 7. This game’s published counts are just the sticky-style set, and Random Wilds has no separate figure.

Three ways into the feature

The Super Scatter is new in this edition and decides which of three bonus tiers you reach. Summaries of the rules describe them as follows:

Pragmatic Play’s own description is briefer: Super Scatters open two tiers of super bonus, each able to include both sticky and random wilds. Rule summaries add that these tiers guarantee wilds on every spin and keep every wild held. The studio has not published how many wilds are guaranteed per spin; check the rules screen in the game.

With multiplication in play, that combination is significant. Wilds arrive on every spin and stay, so ways passing through several of them multiply every value along the way. It is the most direct path the game has to its ceiling.

Special bets and buys, priced two ways

Prices appear both in two forms: a multiple of the stake, and a count of 20-coin base bet units. Dividing the coin figure by 20 gives the multiple, so both columns show the same costs.

The Super Spins are an unusual trade: no feature can trigger, but each base spin is certain to carry wilds. As for the buys, the 100x standard option costs the same as in The Dog House Megaways. No separate RTPs are published for these options, so it is unsafe to assume each returns exactly 96.5%.

RTP builds and a medium volatility rating

The default build is 96.5%, with 95.5% and 94.5% also listed. RTP is a long-run design figure: over an enormous sample of spins, the default build averages 96.5 units back per 100 staked, and the 94.5% build averages two fewer. Neither tells you anything about one session. The distributor decides which build runs, and the information screen shows it.

A two-point gap between 96.5% and 94.5% does not alter what you see. Rules, wild values and the ceiling are identical. Only the long-run average moves, which is why a quick look at the information screen before playing is worthwhile.

Pragmatic Play’s rules screen inside the game rates the volatility Medium, 3 bars out of 5, although the product page does not show it; outside labels run from medium to high. The rules are more informative than any label:

1. A win about once every 4.21 spins means small returns come often.
2. The feature needs three scatters or more, so long gaps between bonuses are normal.
3. The wild scale leaps from 25x to 100x and then to 1,000x, and values multiply, so the outcomes at the top are scarce but huge.

Taken together, these describe a game that pays mostly through frequent small wins and occasional features, with rare, very large outcomes produced when high wilds multiply.

Four places a 25,000x result can start

No feature is labelled as the max win route, but the rules identify four places where big multiplier products can form, from least to most direct:

1. Base game. A pair of strong wilds crossing a premium way can create a large win without any bonus; the least likely source.
2. Sticky Wilds feature. Held wilds accumulate across 7 to 20 spins.
3. Random Wilds feature. As many as six fresh wilds per spin across four reels.
4. Super Bonus tiers. Wilds both arrive and stay, the most direct route.

Whichever route, payouts stop at 25,000x the bet. Getting there comes down to which values the wilds draw and where on the reels they land; no previous run of spins makes the next one more or less likely to reach it.

How the 1000 relates to the earlier kennels

The Dog House (2019) is the original 5×3 game with 20 lines. Pragmatic’s page mentions multiplier wilds confined to the three central reels, and wilds that stick during free spins. Rule summaries add that three paw scatters, which appear on the odd-numbered reels (first, third, fifth), lead to a reveal setting the spin count somewhere from 9 to 27, and that no buy is offered.

The Dog House Megaways took the concept onto changing-height reels and first offered a choice of sticky or raining, offsetting the non-persistent raining wilds with extra spins. It is widely listed with a 12,305x top award and a 100x buy.

The 1000 keeps that layout and that choice but replaces the summed 2x/3x wild with a multiplying wild from 1x to 1,000x, extends wilds over four reels and adds the Super Bonus tiers. Its 25,000x ceiling is about twice the Megaways edition’s and nearly four times the original’s.

Strengths and drawbacks

For

• Wilds worth up to 1,000x that multiply each other take a known format as high as 25,000x.
• Players still choose sticky or random, and the two Super Bonus tiers blend both mechanics.
• With a reported hit rate of 23.75%, roughly a quarter of spins pay out.
• Wilds span four reels rather than the original’s three.

Against

• The volatility rating (Medium) appears only inside the game, not on Pragmatic’s product page.
• It is not always obvious when a 95.5% or 94.5% build is the one running.
• Way wins in the base game are small (a six-symbol way pays between 0.5x and 7.5x), so results depend heavily on wilds and features.

Which players it fits

Players already at home with the Dog House series get familiar decisions and a much broader spread of results. Picking sticky or random feels the same, yet it carries more weight once a single wild might hold 1x or 1,000x. Anyone who likes testing a game’s arithmetic will also enjoy it: the product rule is easy to check by hand and the hit rate is widely published.

It fits less well with players who prefer the simple 20-line original or dislike long spells without a feature. With three or more scatters needed and small individual way wins, a lot of time is spent in base play waiting for wilds.

Dog House Megaways 1000: reader questions