Pirots Slot (Elk Studios) Slot Demo & Review

Pirate-themed slots tend to take quite a silly or jokey tone most of the time, and Pirots is no exception. It doesn’t matter which developer you look at – GONG’s Pirate’s Quest, Slotmill’s Drunken Sailors, or even Foxium’s Boom Pirates, there’s not a single serious pirate-themed game in sight! Comparatively, ELK’s game is perhaps the silliest of all, but it’s also one of the best-looking out of the bunch – especially when playing on mobile. Loading the game on my laptop, everything looked a little bit squashed and out of proportion – I’m not sure if this is an oversight or just something to do with my own kit, but I still thought it was worth a mention.

The unusual payout mechanics of Pirots are most obviously visible on the paytable, where each of the game’s four regular symbols is shown in five different states. Each bird that matches the colour of one or more adjacent symbols will collect them on your behalf but will need to also collect white upgrade symbols to transform them into the higher-paying variations. The Red Symbols are the most valuable of the bunch, as each one you collect pays 15x the total bet. The Purples are next, with a return of 7.5x, followed by the Greens at 5x and the Blues at 3x. The larger a symbol is, the higher its corresponding value, but it will probably take a little time before you can identify exactly which level each symbol has reached at a glance – some small numbers would probably have helped here.

The betting options available in Pirots are frustratingly limited, unfortunately. The minimum and maximum wagers of €0.20 and €100.00 per spin, respectively, should be okay, but there are only a handful of other options in the middle of this enormous range.

I’ve already mentioned that Pirots will take some getting used to; this is one game that most people will probably need to try for themselves before it makes sense. If you’d like to do that, don’t forget that we have a free demo slot of the game available near the top of this page.

Each time you hit spin, the four coloured birds appear in new playfield locations. Every spin starts with a grid size of 5×5, but this can be increased if a bird collects a bomb symbol up to a maximum of 8×8. If one or more birds are positioned adjacent to gems that match their colour, they will move to collect these gems along with any further special symbols that lie in their path.

When gems are collected as part of winning combinations, they will be added to the treasure chest meter shown above the reels. When the meter is filled, a set of treasure chests will be added to the reels in random positions, each of which holds an additional special symbol.

Special Symbols

• Wilds: Substitutes for a coloured gem of the same level that other gems of that colour have reached on the grid.

• Transform Symbols: Transforms a cluster of gems in adjacent positions into the same colour as the bird which collected it. Occasionally, the transformed symbol may create a random number of additional scatters.

• upgrade Symbols: upgrades the level of all gems that match the bird’s colour that collects it. A single upgrade symbol can increase the gem level by up to three steps at a time. If the corresponding gems are already at level five, the level of another gem will be upgraded instead.

• Coins: Each coin has a number displayed on it, indicating the multiple of the current bet it will pay if it is collected.

• Bombs: If a bird collects a bomb during the gem collection phase, it will explode once it has finished, causing a grid expansion and removing all adjacent gems. New symbols will fall in from the top of the screen to fill the resulting gaps, which may trigger further wins.

If your team of birds manage to collect three bonus symbols between them during a single spin, the bonus round is triggered with an initial five free drops.

Free Spins

The bonus round is much more likely to be triggered when you have expanded the playfield beyond its initial size of 5×5. However, free drops are played on the same grid size as when they were triggered, so you may be unlucky and sometimes end up with a smaller grid.

The main advantage of the free spins part of the game is that the treasure chest meter displayed above the reels does not reset between rounds. If you are lucky enough to trigger the bonus with a large playfield, it can seem relatively easy to hit upgrades and re-triggers, and that’s where the big money will undoubtedly be made.

X-iter Bonus Buy

The bonus buy menu has plenty of options to choose from, including a super bonus that is not obtainable any other way:

• Bonus Hunt: Costs 3x the normal price per spin and increases the chances of triggering a bonus round by more than 400%.

• Feature Bonanza: Costs 10x the normal price per spin and guarantees that your birds will have some gems to collect – of course, this does not mean you are certain to make a profit!

• Maximum Grid Size: Costs 25x the normal price per spin and will immediately boost the grid size to the maximum of 8×8 before the next round is played.

• Bonus: Costs 100x the normal price per spin and works identically to the bonus awarded after collecting three scatter symbols during the base game.

• Super Bonus: Finally, a whopping 500x the normal price of a spin will get you the games magnum opus, an enhanced bonus round that offers not just a guaranteed 8×8 playfield size but new super-upgrade symbols that will boost the value of all gems rather than just those of matching colour.