Arrrr me’ hearties, it’s time for another pirate-themed slot review courtesy of our comrades at Pragmatic Play Island! You will consume thy review, lest I’ll have you walk me’plank and feed you to the sharks! Ahem, sorry – I was getting a tad carried away for a moment there. It won’t happen again, probably. Now, where was I? Ah yes, Sky Bounty – a fifty-line machine with a 96.05% RTP percentage alongside a top jackpot of 5,000x pieces of eight!
Pragmatic Play can usually be relied on to build plenty of features into their slots, although some of those ideas will often be ‘borrowed’ from their previous creations. Because of that, sometimes even a new release can end up feeling strangely familiar to dedicated fans of their games – and that’s certainly the case here. Sky Bounty includes random expanding wilds, which can appear in all sizes from 2×2 up to an entire screen of 6×6 positions. During the free spins feature, the expanding wilds are given an adrenaline shot with every bonus symbol that lands in view – collect enough of them, and you’ll be guaranteed a full screen of matching symbols on every remaining free spin. That sounds amazing, of course, so you’ll probably be pleased to hear that bonus bet and bonus buy facilities are available to boost your odds of making it to those juicy jackpot-generating free spins!
Are ye’ land lubbers ready to take on me’ Sky Bounty demo slot challenge? It’ll cost ye’s a barrel of grog and fifty pieces of eight! You’ll find that machine available to play below deck… Arrr!
| Provider | Pragmatic Play |
| Reels | 6 |
| Rows | 6 |
| Paylines | 50 |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.25 - 300 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 5,000x |
| Bonus Buy | Yes |
| RTP | 96.05% |
| Our Rating | 6.5 |
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Sky Bounty Demo Slot
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Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
My two sisters are both devoted fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, although I must be honest and say that I didn’t entirely share their passion for Jack Sparrow and his shipmates. Pirate-themed slots, on the other hand – now that’s something that I can get behind wholeheartedly! I had a blast reviewing GONG Gaming’s Pirate’s Quest, giggled at Captain Glum Pirate Hunter, and sighed with disappointment at Pragmatic Play’s own Pirate Golden Age. Whilst real-life pirates are a terrifying concept, the vision of them that we are sold in popular culture is typically fun, humorous, and entertaining – the trouble is, Sky Bounty isn’t any of those things. Whatever else might be good about this machine, the “pirate theme” is severely lacking… I guess I can stop it with the ridiculous lingo now then. Arrr.
And now the real question – does it matter? To answer that, let’s begin by exploring the game’s paytable. The highest-paying symbols are the Wild and Crossed Swords, which return up to 20x the total bet when a full payline of six of a kind forms on the playfield. The Cannons will pay you 12x the current stake for all six symbols, whilst the boat’s Turning Wheel and a Bottle of Rum are a little less valuable at 8x and 6x, respectively. That’s the lot as far as the premium-paying symbols are concerned – the remainder of the paytable comprises seven low-paying gemstones, which seems a little unfair given that there are only four symbols in the high-paying group. The Red, Purple, and Yellow stones share equal returns of 3x the total bet, whilst the Orange, Green, Blue, and Pink stones can only pay up to 2x each.
As for the betting range, the majority of Pragmatic Play’s machines allow players to take advantage of a fairly wide spread of potential wagers, but this game takes things further than most. The minimum/maximum limits have been set at €0.25 and €250.00 per spin when the game is in its default configuration, increasing slightly to €0.30 and €300.00 if you decide to play with the ante bet facility switched on.
Base Game & Modifiers
The base game of Sky Bounty utilises a relatively huge reel set comprised of six columns and six rows. Most games that feature a grid of this size tend to use payways, scatter pays, or cluster pays rather than traditional paylines, which makes Pragmatic Play’s choice to use the latter somewhat unusual.
This unusual combination of mechanics would typically cause a game to return a lot of dead spins, but the developer has done their best to avoid this by arranging symbols in large stacks on all six reels. Nevertheless, you’ll still need to catch three or more matching symbols on adjacent reels starting from the left to score yourself a win.
Random Expanding Wild
During base gameplay, you’ll immediately spot a square outline moving around the playfield from spin to spin. This outline will mostly appear around a block of 2×2 symbols but can also grow to surround 3×3, 4×4, 5×5, or 6×6 random positions.
If a wild lands inside the outlined area, it will expand to fill the entire area. After expansion, the created wild symbol will assume a multiplier equal to the number of symbol positions it covers (e.g. 4, 9, 16, etc.).
Ante Bet
Turning on the ante bet option will increase the cost of each round by 20% in return for increased odds of triggering the bonus round. There is a very slight increase in the game’s RTP when using the ante bet.
Sky Bounty Slot Bonus Features
Landing three or more bonus scatter symbols will activate the free spin bonus round, which always starts with six free spins regardless of the number of triggering symbols. There is a small cash premium for hitting more than three symbols, but it’s so tiny that it’s barely worth a mention – even a six-scatter trigger will only award you 4x the total bet.
Free Spins
In this mode, the square outline is guaranteed to stay on the reels for every free spin. Every bonus symbol that lands during the feature will be collected, and every third symbol will cause the outline to grow to its next possible size – 3×3, 4×4, and so on. Whenever the outline size is increased, you’ll also receive two additional free spins on your remaining counter.
Your bonus symbol collection will receive a head start if the feature was triggered with more than three scatter symbols – one bonus symbol for each additional scatter.
Bonus Buy
As ever, the free spins are by far the most exciting (and lucrative) part of playing Sky Bounty. If you want to skip straight to the best part of the game, you can do so for 100x the normal price per spin. The number of triggering scatters is determined randomly at the time of purchase.
Pros
- An unusual combination of mechanics makes for an interesting online slot.
- The wild expansion feature can occasionally throw out a massive win, even during the base game.
Cons
- The pirate theme is poorly executed – a purple crustacean in a pirate hat does not make a pirate slot!
- Maximum win drops when playing with the bonus bet enabled – what’s that all about?
Final Thoughts
Sky Bounty combines aspects of several previous Pragmatic Play releases into a single online slot – that should be a recipe for success, but unfortunately, the real-world result is a bit of a mess. I especially dislike the fact that the top win drops to 4,167x instead of 5,000x when the bonus bet is turned on, which negates the advantage of playing with it turned on in the first place.
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