The Gameplay Experience: Testing the Mechanics
Walking Wild is the mechanic that does almost everything in the base game. If you land the wild anywhere on the reels, it triggers a free respin. It then shifts one reel to the left with each subsequent respin until it walks off reel one, and any win it's part of gets tripled along the way.
We tested Jack and the Beanstalk over 500 spins on desktop at a $1 stake. During our tests, we tracked how many reels a Walking Wild typically crossed before disappearing (since that chain is the closest thing the base game has to a built-in bonus).
Compared with Gonzo's Quest, another NetEnt classic from the same era, the feature felt more predictable because the wild always follows the same path instead of relying on cascading symbols. Starburst, NetEnt's other long-running hit, resolves its own wild feature faster, but Jack and the Beanstalk's version pays out more per hit when the wild actually lands on a winning line.