Gold Volcano

Travel to the faraway island Cash-a-Mundo to witness the eruption of the Gold Volcano on the slot from Play’n GO. Watch symbols rise like lava from the bottom on a dynamic game grid with cluster pays and hit consecutive cascades to trigger modifiers that will keep the symbols flowing in. Charge up the Eruption meter and enter the free spins on the maximum grid size to be showered with gold and wins of up to 10,000 times your bet.

Slot Details

Gold Volcano is a grid slot with 8 reels in a 3-4-5-6-6-5-4-3 format in the base game, featuring cluster pays and symbol cascades. The game window will increase to an 8×8 size in the free spins. Wins are awarded for four or more matching symbols landing horizontally and/or vertically connected. You can witness the volcano eruption on desktop or mobile from 0.20 to 100 credits per spin. The game has medium to high volatility (7/10) with a default RTP of 96.20%. Alternatively, it might be offered with secondary RTP settings at 94.20% or 91.20%.

You won’t get to see much of the faraway island other than the smothering volcano with mountain formations and dark clouds in the distance. The symbols literally flow in from the bottom of the volcano, accompanied by some dramatic sounds. The crater will fill up as you score winning clusters and erupt once you trigger the free spins.

The pay symbols start at the low end with the card suits – green diamonds, red clubs, purple spades and gold hearts, awarding 2.5x to 5x your bet for clusters of 30 symbols or more. They are followed by more valuable gems in purple, red and green colours as well as a gold nugget. Hit clusters of 30 or more symbols to win 25x to 1,000x your stake. The game has two wilds, the standard wild and an x2 multiplier wild, both substituting for all regular pay symbols. A piece of volcanic rock marked with the world itself acts as the scatter.

Gold Volcano Slot Features

Play’n GO us undoubtedly the uncontested grid slot champion. They have continuously developed the concept ever since they released Troll Hunters and Energoonz in 2013 and are today considered to be the masters in the craft of this type of slot. While many creations share a good number of commonalities, they also added new twists and features over the years. With Gold Volcano, they introduce yet another twist that we have not seen so far in any other slot. Time to take a closer look and put the modifiers and features in the best chronological order.

Core to the gameplay is still the cascading symbol mechanic with cluster pays. Only that on this creation, instead of symbols dropping from the top, they rise from the bottom to fill the default 3-4-5-6-6-5-4-3 grid just like lava would. Any cluster of four or more matching symbols landing horizontally and/or vertically connected is a winner. All symbols from a winning combo will shatter and disappear for new symbols to flow into place. The process is repeated as long as more winning clusters land after a cascade.

Play’n GO added two random features to help you on your way to the volcano eruption. Every time a winning combo is removed, there is a chance for the Pressure feature to trigger, placing a wild on a random empty position before new symbols flow into the empty spaces. The wild can randomly turn into an x2 multiplier wild. More than one x2 wild in a cluster will multiply each other, potentially further boosting your winnings from a spin sequence.

The action can randomly heat up on a losing spin or after a cascade that does not produce new winners. Once triggered, the Dormant feature will activate one of three modifiers. Each can only be played once per spin, in any random order, with a total limit of three per spin sequence.

• Rumble: All symbols will be reshuffled, plus one will be replaced by a scatter and added to the Crystallisation meter (more to that shortly).
• Lava: An additional layer of any symbol or wilds but not scatters is created, increasing the grid to a 4-5-6-7-7-6-5-4 layout.
• Excavate: Between 3 and 5 wild symbols are added to the grid in random locations.

Keep an eye on the Crystallisation meter to the left of the grid as filling it up with scatter symbols will gradually upgrade the premiums to the top-paying gold symbol. For every three collected scatters, the premiums will transform into gold symbols in the order purple, red, green gem for the remainder of the round. The scatter symbol will be removed from the game once all premiums have been upgraded. In the base game, the collection meter and transformations will reset at the end of a spin sequence unless you trigger the Eruption feature. Then any progression is carried over and the meter will not reset.

Hitting six successive symbol cascades within one spin sequence will trigger the Eruption feature with initially five free spins. Before the round starts, the game grid expands to an 8×8 size with the two central columns pushing symbols outwards to fill symbol positions outside the volcano. Symbols push up and slide sideways but cannot cross the visible border between the inside/outside of the volcano although winning clusters can land crossborder. Symbols inside the volcano will flow in from the bottom as usual.

The Crystallisation meter is active throughout the free spins and scatters are added until all three premiums have been transformed into gold symbols. It will not reset until the end of the round. Plus the random Pressure feature can trigger at any time to add a standard or x2 wild. Hitting six consecutive symbol cascades within one free spin will award +1 free spin. There is no limit to the additional spins unless you hit the maximum win which is capped at 10,000 times your bet.

Final Verdict

Punters expecting another run-of-the-mill grid slot from Play’n GO will be pleasantly surprised just like I was after getting the first look at Gold Volcano. The Swedish studio shows yet again why they are one of the top tier developers by turning the concept literally on its head and aligning the entire gameplay with a volcano eruption. An intense game with ample features and double the usual win cap of 5,000x bet.

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