Buffalo Link vs Buffalo Gold: Which Casino Floor Cabinet to Play

Two cabinets, two ideas of a big win

Buffalo Gold and Buffalo Link are both Aristocrat cabinets found on US casino floors, and both carry the classic Buffalo free games. Beyond that, they reward different habits.

Buffalo Gold, from around 2013, puts its weight on the free games. Three, four or five coin scatters award 8, 15 or 20 free games, wilds carry 2x or 3x multipliers, and gold buffalo heads collected during the round turn picture symbols into Buffalos, one upgrade for every three heads up to 15. A long round with retriggers can end with a screen full of Buffalos.

Buffalo Link, from 2021, puts the Buffalo theme on the Hold and Spin engine of Lightning Link and Dragon Link. Eight or more Buffalo symbols start the feature with 3 respins, and every new Buffalo resets the count. Cash awards sit on the reels, the fifth reel can carry multipliers, and filling all 20 positions awards the Grand jackpot. Classic Buffalo free games are still there too: 8, 15 or 20 games with 2x and 3x wilds.

Which suits which player

A player who likes to watch a feature build should sit at Buffalo Gold. Each head that falls changes the reels for the rest of the round, and the payoff is a gradual one.

A player who chases jackpots should sit at Buffalo Link. Its four prizes run from fixed Mini and Minor awards to progressive Major and Grand pools, and the Hold and Spin round makes every new Buffalo a small event. Wizard of Odds surveyed one cabinet with the Grand capped at $20,000 and the Major at $1,000, with the Minor at 10,000 credits and the Mini at 2,000; other machines are set differently.

Twenty Buffalo symbols is the whole 5x4 grid, so the Grand on Buffalo Link is a full-board prize. Booming Games’ online Buffalo Hold and Win uses the same idea on a smaller grid of 15 positions, with a fixed 1,000x Grand in place of a progressive one.

Buffalo Link also has a feature Buffalo Gold does not: the Buffalo Free Feature, a must-hit-by award. One free feature is awarded before the collected-Buffalo meter reaches 1,800, so the meter on the screen shows how close the next one is. Buffalo Gold’s free games have no equivalent; they arrive when the scatters do.

Bets, returns and denominations

Neither cabinet has a single published RTP. Each casino sets the return from the options Aristocrat offers, and two machines with the same name can pay differently. Bet levels and denominations are set per casino as well.

The one recorded configuration for Buffalo Link comes from Wizard of Odds: 1 to 5 cent denominations, 100 to 1,000 credits, and $1 to $50 a spin. Buffalo Gold has no published range at all. Progressive jackpots on Buffalo Gold depend on how the cabinet is linked.

Finding each game online

Buffalo Gold’s idea did make it online, under a different name. Buffalo Gold Collection is a separate title at BetMGM in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan and West Virginia, with a 95.5% RTP, and Buffalo Gold Revolution brings the same collection online in New Jersey with a jackpot wheel added.

Buffalo Link has no confirmed online release. It has two floor relatives: Buffalo Cash builds on it, and Lightning Buffalo Link (2023) is a separate cabinet. For the respin format online, the Hold and Win hub covers the buffalo games from Playson and Booming that use it.