In short: Jack and the Beanstalk is NetEnt's 2011 fairy-tale slot, built around one idea: a walking wild that triples any win it touches and steps one reel left with a free respin each time. Free spins add a key collection that upgrades those wilds into stacked and full-reel versions. It is a good fit for players who like one mechanic with a clear payoff more than a menu of bonus features.
Five reels, 20 lines, one moving wild
The game was released on 12 December 2011 and runs on a 5x3 grid with 20 fixed paylines. Stakes run from 0.20 to 100 per spin in NetEnt's euro figures. Almost everything that matters in the base game comes from the walking wild.
A wild can land on any reel, in the base game or the free spins. After each respin it shifts one reel to the left, and it disappears after its final respin on reel one. Every win that includes a wild is tripled. Where the wild lands therefore decides its value: one on reel five walks across the whole grid and gets four more respins, while one on reel one pays once and is gone.
Free spins and the Treasure Collection
Treasure chest scatters start the free spins. NetEnt does not publish the counts for the 2011 original, but an Ontario operator's game page gives 10 free spins for three or more scatters and 5 more for a retrigger, the same numbers NetEnt publishes for the 2023 Remastered edition.
Inside the round, keys that land on reel five are collected, and every three keys transform the walking wilds:
- 3 keys: a double stacked wild of two money bags
- 6 keys: a triple stacked wild of three golden hens
- 9 keys: an expanding golden harp wild that fills the whole reel
Because an upgraded wild still walks and still triples wins, each step up compounds: a stacked or full-reel wild covers more of the 20 lines on every respin. Timing matters as much as the count. A harp that arrives in the last spins has little room to work, so the rounds that pay best are the ones where keys come early.
RTP, hit rate and the 7,100x ceiling
NetEnt publishes a 96.28% RTP, a 34% hit frequency and a maximum win of 7,100 times the bet. Roughly one spin in three returns something, though many of those returns are smaller than the stake. No official volatility rating is published. The gap between a one-in-three hit rate and a 7,100x ceiling suggests the large results depend on the free spins, where upgraded wilds can walk across a full grid.
Operators can run other RTP settings, and the figure on the game's own info screen is the one that applies; here is why the same slot can have different RTP.
Original, Remastered and the sequel
The Remastered edition, dated 20 July 2023, keeps the 96.28% RTP, 34% hit frequency and 7,100x ceiling, lowers the top stake to 60 and adds a buy option that opens a treasure chest and starts the free spins for 45x the bet, where offered. Jack and the Beanstalk 2, dated 17 September 2026, is a different game altogether: a 5x5 grid, a 96.32% RTP, a 20,000x ceiling and a corporate, crypto-trading theme in place of the fairy tale.
What to watch in the demo
The base game is quiet between wilds, and there is little else going on, which is either restful or repetitive depending on taste. The free demo is the best way to see how much a wild is worth by position: compare the respins from a reel-five wild with one landing on reel two, and in the free spins, note how many keys have arrived by the halfway point. That one number says more about how a round will finish than anything else on screen.
