Description
Yo, ho ho and a bottle of rum! Powered by Yggdrasil Gaming, Pirates – Smugglers Paradise is played over five lines and as many rows, with, as the title suggests, a piratical theme. It was released in March 2020 and is a Cluster Pays slot, meaning wins are based on groups of similar symbols rather than standard Paylines.
Join the team of hearty buccaneers as they set sail for tropical waters and a secluded bay. Look forward to multipliers, dropdown wins and a trio of free spins perks. Help the crew put the pieces of a map together and find treasure in Skull Cave, Paradise Cove or Hellfire Island, the free spins locations.
The ship is the setting here, although you’re not far out from shore, so a lush island is in view. Expect some cartoonish graphics with this game as a crab with a hooked pincer watches from the bottom right-hand corner. The reels spin against a ship’s sail.
How to play
Play this one from 20p a go or for up to £100 a pop on your device of choice from mobile to tablet or PC.
Symbols on the reels kick off with the lower-value playing-card suits in green, red, purple and blue and include bottles, pistols, hooks and cutlasses. You’ll find these alongside three different crew members (the most rewarding icons and incorporating a deckhand, quartermaster and ship’s captain), plus exotic parrots.
The Cluster Pays element means you need at least six of the same symbols in a group and next to each other for a win. Once you’ve achieved this, the dropdown wins bonus applies. This means all winning symbols, including those which are not part of the cluster, stay in place as the others vanish from the reels. The process repeats until no more winning icons show up.
Should you land two (or more) clusters, the lowest-paying one converts into higher-paying symbols for better wins.
Special features
Special symbols
You won’t find a Wild symbol in Pirates – Smugglers Paradise. However, there is a special icon in the shape of the treasure map.
Bonus features
Multiplier feature
This is another great perk in Pirates – Smugglers Paradise. Each time you fill up a row with winning icons, you get separate multipliers for every dropdown win, as follows:
- 1x multiplier for one row filled
- 2x multiplier for two rows filled
- 3x multiplier for three rows filled
- 5x multiplier for four rows filled
- 10x multiplier for five rows filled
Free spins
Land three treasure map icons on one spin or set of cluster win to scoop seven free whirls. Any extra freebie showing up awards you a 10x stake cash prize; at which point you take your pick from these great free spins features:
- High Seas: Head to Hellfire Island, where all lower-paying icons are taken off the reels, leaving only higher-value ones remaining
- Multiplier Madness: Make for Skull Cave, where all multipliers get added to the top of the reels and apply to every dropdown win throughout the feature
- Win Fall: Head to heavenly Paradise Cove, where two additional winning icons will be added to the reel as each spin starts
Jackpot
There’s no progressive jackpot here; the maximum win from one spin is 1,243x initial bet.
Return to Player (RTP)
Pirates – Smugglers Paradise falls around the medium mark on the variance spectrum, which should help lengthen your playing sessions. RTP or Return to Player is a perfectly decent 96.3%.
Verdict
You don’t need us to tell you that there are stacks of other pirate-themed slots out there. But this one’s colourful, vibrant and with lots going on plus some inventive gameplay – and it cracks along at a brisk pace.
You may find the relatively low winning potential of 250x initial stake on one spin sequence somewhat uninviting, but overall this is a fun and highly entertaining slot.
Give it a go in free mode first of all – and let us know if it floats your boat – or pirate ship!
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