Slots Like 6 Wild Sharks: Choose Your Own Locked Wilds
6 Wild Sharks pairs a straightforward 6 reel, 4 row grid with 4,096 ways to win and one of 4ThePlayer’s more distinctive ideas, the WILD CHOICE mechanic that lets a player lock up to six shark wilds onto the board before a single free spin fires. Classic Mode runs at 96.5% RTP, rising to 97% if the Advanced Mode toggle is switched on, and this is a high volatility game with stakes running from 10p up to £50 a spin and a ceiling of 10,368 times the bet. Locking a wild onto reel 1 or 2 pays out more often for less, while a wild caged on reel 5 or 6 sits in the part of the board 4ThePlayer built for the bigger numbers, so the whole round is shaped by a decision made before the reels even move. Anyone who enjoys that kind of upfront control, or who already keeps a shortlist of slots like 6 Wild Sharks on hand, should find the trade-off between guaranteed wilds and spin count genuinely worth thinking through.
Where to Play
18+ only. T&Cs apply. Please gamble responsibly.
How the Game Works
Reviewed by Brian TaylorPublished: July 2026
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The board sits underwater, six reels by four rows, with a diver’s Wild Zone marked out on reels 1 and 2 and a second one on reels 5 and 6. A great white shark acts as the wild here, substituting for every paying symbol except the scatter, and it is this shark that gets locked into place when the WILD CHOICE screen appears. Card royals from 10 through Ace fill the lower paytable, while tuna fish and a hammerhead ray carry the next tier up, an octopus above that, and a wetsuited scuba diver sitting just below the top symbol, a surfer heading out with her board. Six of her in a row is worth 30 times the stake, easily the biggest single payout on the base paytable.
Before any bonus round starts, the game hands over the WILD CHOICE screen itself. Scattered sharks along the top and bottom of reels 1, 2, 5 and 6 can each be tapped to add a locked wild for the coming free spins round, and every shark added subtracts from the number of spins on offer. Skip the choice entirely and the round opens with 15 free spins and an empty board. Lock all six sharks in place instead and the round drops to a single spin, but that spin plays out with six guaranteed wilds already sitting across the highest paying zones. It is a genuinely unusual piece of design, closer to a wagering decision than a typical bonus buy, and it means no two players ever quite play the feature the same way twice.
Advanced Mode changes the maths rather than the interface. Switching it on lifts the RTP to 97% and opens up the same locked wild choice during the base game itself, at a cost that scales with how many sharks are added, pushing the effective stake up toward £1,600 at its most extreme setting. Classic Mode keeps things simpler and is the version most operators default to, and it is the one this review’s figures are based on unless stated otherwise.
Symbols and Paytable
The surfer is the top paying symbol, worth 30x stake for six, 10x for five, 5x for four and 1x for three. Below her, a scuba diver pays 6x, 4x, 3x and 0.6x across the same run of six, five, four and three, followed by an octopus at 4x, 3x, 2x and 0.5x. A hammerhead ray and a shoal of tuna fish sit level with each other at the next tier down, both paying 2.5x, 2x, 1.5x and 0.4x. Card royals from 10 to Ace fill out the rest of the paytable at smaller values, and the shark wild substitutes for all of the above except the scatter, which is what actually triggers the free spins.
Bonus Features Explained
The WILD CHOICE Free Spins Feature
Landing scatter symbols on reels 3 and 4 at the same time opens the WILD CHOICE screen and starts the countdown into free spins. Add zero locked wilds and the round begins with 15 spins on a clean board. Add one and it drops to roughly 12, and so on down the scale until adding all six locks the board with wilds on every Wild Zone position but leaves just a single spin to cash in on it. Landing two further scatters at any point during the round adds another 3 free spins on top, with no stated cap on how many times that can happen.
Front and Back Wild Zones
4ThePlayer split the Wild Zones deliberately. Reels 1 and 2 sit at the front of the board and tend to complete more winning combinations more often, since a wild there can pair with symbols across the rest of the grid more easily. Reels 5 and 6 sit at the back, closer to where the highest value symbol runs are more likely to land, so a wild locked there contributes to fewer total combinations but a bigger one when it hits. Reading the paytable’s own advice on this before committing to a WILD CHOICE combination is worth doing, since the two zones genuinely play differently.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- The WILD CHOICE mechanic hands genuine strategic control to the player rather than dressing up a fixed feature
- A 10,368x ceiling gives the high volatility rating real teeth
- Front and back Wild Zones behave differently enough to matter, not just cosmetic labelling
- Advanced Mode’s higher 97% RTP rewards players willing to learn the extra layer
- Uncapped scatter retriggers mean a strong free spins round can keep extending itself
Cons
- The WILD CHOICE trade-off takes a few rounds to fully understand before it feels intuitive
- Locking all six wilds for a single spin is a genuine gamble that can easily backfire
- Classic Mode’s 96.5% RTP is only average once Advanced Mode’s 97% is available for comparison
- Base game symbols outside the bonus round pay modestly on their own
- Advanced Mode’s scaling stake cost can push a single spin a long way past the usual £50 ceiling
Game Screenshot
Demo Play
The demo below runs on the same engine as the real money version, so the WILD CHOICE screen, the pace of the reels and every feature behave exactly as they would for real stakes. 18+.
Game Information
Expert Take
Reviewers who cover 4ThePlayer’s catalogue tend to single out WILD CHOICE as one of the more thoughtful bonus buy alternatives on the market, since it hands the player an actual decision rather than just a discounted way to skip the wait. The two Wild Zones behaving differently gets picked out as a smart touch too, giving the choice screen real weight instead of being a cosmetic flourish. Where opinion splits is on how quickly newcomers pick up what each combination of locked wilds is actually worth, since the game does not spell out the exact odds shift, only nudging players toward the general idea through the paytable text.
Similar Slots to Try
Other high volatility, shark and ocean themed picks worth lining up next to 6 Wild Sharks.
Push Gaming’s own great white makes the leap to a fixed-line grid rather than a ways format, but keeps the same appetite for high volatility and a locked wild multiplier at its centre once the free spins land.
A Pragmatic Play release that swaps the WILD CHOICE control for a simpler stacked wild feature, useful for comparing how two studios handle the same shark-infested waters.
Trades the ocean for sand dunes but keeps a shark as the wild symbol, running a free spins round without anything like the front and back Wild Zone choice found here.
About the Developer
6 Wild Sharks comes from 4ThePlayer, the independent British studio founded in July 2018 and now distributed through partners including Relax Gaming and Gaming Realms. This particular title had a limited release in late August 2020 before a wider network release on 10 September 2020, and it remains one of the clearer examples of the studio’s habit of building a genuine player decision into the bonus round rather than a single fixed trigger. See more on our 4ThePlayer slots page.
A separate fishing release from the same studio, leaning on Yggdrasil’s Gigablox giant symbols rather than the locked wild idea built into 6 Wild Sharks.
A Norse-themed 4ThePlayer title built around a Lightning Ways multiplier and a random strike feature, a very different route to the studio’s usual high volatility ceiling.
One of the studio’s earliest releases, a zombie-themed PLUS+WAYS title that shows how much 4ThePlayer’s feature design has evolved since 2019.
A casino-glitz sequel built around fusing X symbols into a stacking multiplier, another example of the studio giving players more than one lever to pull.
6 Wild Sharks Key Stats
6 Wild Sharks slot information last reviewed: July 2026
| 6 Wild Sharks Slot Info | |
|---|---|
| Name: | 6 Wild Sharks |
| Provider: | 4ThePlayer |
| Developer Rank: | One of the studio’s more strategy-driven releases, sitting among its higher volatility, higher control titles rather than its simpler classics |
| RTP: | 96.5% in Classic Mode, rising to 97% in Advanced Mode (some operators may run a reduced configuration, check before playing) |
| RTP Category: | High |
| RTP Rank: | Comfortably inside the top RTP band offered across the site’s 4ThePlayer catalogue |
| Feature Description: | WILD CHOICE lets players lock up to six shark wilds onto the Wild Zones on reels 1, 2, 5 and 6 before the free spins round, trading spin count for guaranteed wilds, and Advanced Mode adds a configurable version of the same choice to the base game. |
| Feature Categories: | Shark and Ocean Themed, High Volatility, Player-Choice Wild Mechanic |
| Reels: | 6 |
| Rows: | 4 |
| Paylines: | 4,096 ways to win |
| Volatility: | High |
| Volatility Rank: | Among the more aggressive titles on the site, in line with its 10,368x ceiling |
| Min Bet: | £0.10 |
| Max Bet: | £50 in Classic Mode (Advanced Mode stakes scale higher as locked wilds are added) |
| Max Win: | 10,368x stake |
| Release Date: | September 2020 |
| Slotslike Rank: | 1,340 out of 4,200+ games (View Top 100) |
Slots with the Same Features
A couple of other directions worth exploring beyond 6 Wild Sharks itself.
More Shark Themed Slots
Other predator-themed titles that take a simpler approach to the same setting.
An older Novomatic-style shark title with a simple free games round, a good baseline for how far the genre has moved on since.
A cartoonish take on the same predator theme, running scatter-triggered free spins without any locked wild choice to speak of.
High Volatility Slots
Different studios chasing the same steep risk and reward curve.
A different studio’s take on high volatility, built around a stacking multiplier tower rather than anything to do with sharks or wild choice.
A tumbling-reel high volatility release that shares the same steep risk profile as 6 Wild Sharks without any of the locked wild mechanics.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the WILD CHOICE bonus work in 6 Wild Sharks?
Before free spins begin, players can lock up to six shark wilds onto the Wild Zones on reels 1, 2, 5 and 6. Adding more locked wilds increases the guaranteed wild coverage but reduces the number of free spins awarded, from 15 spins with no wilds locked down to a single spin with all six in place.
What is the RTP of 6 Wild Sharks?
Classic Mode runs at 96.5% RTP, and switching on Advanced Mode raises this to 97%. Some operators may offer a reduced configuration, so it is worth checking the in-game information before playing.
What is the maximum win on 6 Wild Sharks?
The game can pay out up to 10,368 times the stake, achieved through the right combination of locked wilds and symbol landings during the free spins round.
How volatile is 6 Wild Sharks?
It is rated high volatility. Wins can be infrequent between rounds, and the WILD CHOICE decision adds an extra layer of risk on top of the base game’s own swings.
What are the best slots like 6 Wild Sharks?
Razor Shark, Shark Bite and Desert Shark all share the high volatility, predator-themed setup, though none replicate the WILD CHOICE mechanic exactly. 4ThePlayer’s own catalogue, including 21 Thor Lightning Ways and 10000x Gold 2, is the closest match for that studio’s habit of layering player choice into its feature rounds.
Can I play 6 Wild Sharks for free?
Yes, the demo above uses the same game engine as the real money version, so every feature including WILD CHOICE plays out identically without any stake involved.
Who makes 6 Wild Sharks?
4ThePlayer, the independent British studio founded in 2018, released the game through a limited launch in late August 2020 followed by a wider network release on 10 September 2020.
Our Verdict on 6 Wild Sharks
6 Wild Sharks earns its place among 4ThePlayer’s better ideas by handing the player a real decision rather than a dressed-up trigger. The WILD CHOICE screen, split across two differently behaving Wild Zones, gives every free spins round its own shape depending on how much risk a player is willing to lock in beforehand, and a 10,368x ceiling backs that decision with a genuine reason to care. It takes a spin or two to properly understand the trade-off between guaranteed wilds and spin count, and the base game outside the bonus is fairly ordinary on its own, but the feature itself is inventive enough to make this one worth a look for anyone who likes having a say in how their bonus round plays out.
SlotsLike rating: 8/10