Pirots X (Elk Studios) Slot Demo & Review

It’s been quite the adventure following the Pirots over the years, first witnessing them as pirates in the original Pirots release, then among dinosaurs in the Pirots 2, and finally, in Pirots 3, chewing tobacco in the Wild West. It seems they’ve gone full circle, as they’re now back on their home island following a Treasure Map to locate treasure chests. If you were wondering what the X in the title represents – X marks the spot, of course!

As for our very own treasures, the Pirot X paytable is our map, as it tells us that top 15+ Clusters of the Red Pirot symbol are worth 50x the stake. The Purple Pirot pays up to 25x, the Green Pirot rewards up to 20x, and the Blue Pirot has a maximum return of 15x. The Red, Purple, Green, and Blue Gems provide the slot’s smaller rewards of 10x, 8x, 6x, and 4x, respectively, for clusters of 15+ in size. 

You can get into the action on Pirots X from just 0.20 a spin, with the maximum bet size reaching 100.00. That’s a standard betting range found across all Pirots games and most Elk Studio releases, in general.

Probably the biggest shock about Pirots X is that it’s the first slot in the series to abandon the innovative CollectR mechanic that all others were built around. Instead, a cluster pays mechanic pays out whenever five or more matching symbols land in clusters (connected horizontally or vertically) anywhere in view across the 5×5 grid matrix. 

All winning symbols are removed from the reels, a wild symbol appears in one of the vacated positions, and new symbols drop in to fill the remaining positions. The process starts over again if the resulting re-drop creates more winning combinations.

The Pirots

The Pirots now take their place at the top of the reels, watching down on the action rather than doing their previous job of chasing the same coloured symbols across the playing grid. That said, there’s still a little bit of that going on. 

Whenever a Nest symbol lands anywhere in view, one of the four Pirots will perch himself in it. Once regular pays have been calculated, the Pirot will collect any same colour symbols it can reach, increasing a global multiplier for each collected. Low-value symbols increase that multiplier by 1x, while high-value equivalents increase it by 2x. The global win multiplier applies to all wins on the spin going forward.

Big Symbols & Wilds

All regular paying symbols and wilds can appear on the reels sized 1×1, 2×2, 3×3, or 4×4. If there are any vacant positions below big symbols on the reels, they’re filled with the same symbol type.

As for wild symbols, these are substituted for all regular symbols as standard. However, if a single Wild contributes to multiple winning combinations simultaneously, it splits to award another wild symbol for each cluster in which it played a part. If multiple wilds contribute to the same cluster, they merge and hold a multiplier value the same as the total number of wilds that merged. That value applies to future winning clusters the wilds contribute to, while the global multiplier applies to the payout afterwards.

Random Pirot Features

On any given spin, the Pirots above the reels can randomly trigger one of three features:

• Bomb Feature: The Pirots can release a Bomb onto the reels, which, as you’d probably expect, explodes. All regular symbols nearby are removed when it does, while the explosion also causes the gaming grid to expand to 7×7 in size. 
• Feature Release: When this triggers randomly, a random number of symbols on the reels are replaced by feature symbols. They could be wild symbols, bombs, scatter/super scatters, or nests. 
• Big Drop Drops: This drops a random big symbol on the reels. All symbols that are not the same type as the bigger one or feature symbols are crushed and removed from the reels. 

There are two free bonus games to aim for when playing Pirots X, and you’ll need to land a combination of scatter symbols to trigger 5 spins on either. 

Free Spin Features

• Regular Free Spins Bonus Game: You receive this bonus if three of the regular bonus symbols land on the gaming grid. The global multiplier from the triggering spin carries over and remains persistent until the end of the bonus. You receive additional spins whenever the free drops symbols appear. 

• Super Free Spins Bonus Game: Triggering this bonus game requires two regular scatters and one super scatter to appear as a result of a spin. This bonus is played on the fully unlocked 7×7 reels, and every spin is guaranteed to reveal a feature chest. 

X-iter Bonus Buy

• Bonus Hunt: For 3x the cost of the current spin, you will spin with more than 3x the chance of triggering a free spins bonus.
• Big Symbol: For 5x the stake, spins play out on a 6×6 grid and guarantee a big symbol.
• Feature Release: This gives you spins with a guaranteed feature release at a cost of 25x the stake per spin.
• Regular Bonus Game: Triggering this bonus game costs 100x the current spin bet.
• Super Bonus Game: 500x gives you the Super Free Spins Bonus.