Gold Hunter slot review

Will you join the gold rush and search for vast riches in Gold Hunter? This 5-reel, 3-row slow with 10 paylines is developed by Booming Games and brings to the fore an interesting mechanic. The 5th reel is always a multiplier wild and it can go up to x50.

When you think about it, it’s quite a mind-blowing feature and it means that getting 5-of-a-kind isn’t all that hard as you only technically need to match 4-of-a-kind. Add to that the multiplier and you’re guaranteed some real excitement with every spin.

Set on a dark background deep inside a mine, the slot features vibrant tiles and a western-inspired soundtrack. The FX have a modern twist and the Yeehaw shout you will hear when the 5th reel is activated will certainly keep you on the edge of your seat.

Symbols

There are only 7 symbols in play bar the wild, the scatter and the multipliers. Three high-paying symbols are depicted by a gold miner, a piece of gold and a lamp. Low-paying symbols take the form of card suits.

The symbols, from highest to the lowest consist of:

• The scatter tile will only appear on reels 1, 2, 3 and 4. With 3 or more scatters the free spins round is triggered, awarding free spins depending on how many scatters land on the reels.
• The Wild tile is a dynamite stack and substitutes for all symbols bar the scatter.
• The Gold Miner yields 8x with 5-of-a-kind on a payline.
• The Piece of Gold yields 4x with 5-of-a-kind on a payline.
• The Oil Lamp yields 3x with 5-of-a-kind on a payline.
• The Ace yields 1.5x with 5-of-a-kind on a payline.
• The King yields 1.2x with 5-of-a-kind on a payline.
• The Queen yields 1x with 5-of-a-kind on a payline.
• The Jack yields 0.8x with 5-of-a-kind on a payline.

Features

• Wild Multiplier Reel

The 5th reel is the wild multiplier reel and consists of multipliers ranging from x2 to x50. All 4-of-a-kind wins will automatically trigger the wild multiplier reel resulting in a 5-of-a-kind win with whichever multiplier is on the active payline.

• The Bonus Round

Scatters only appear on reels 1 to 4. Three or more scatters will reward the player with 3 free spins whilst 4 scatters will yield 7 free spins. During the bonus round, only the 3 high-paying symbols, the scatter tile and the wild tile are active on the first 4 reels meaning there’s a greater chance of high-paying combinations.

In conclusion

From the offset, this game delivered excitement. Having the 5th reel with a wild multiplier always active does keep you glued to the screen hoping you do hit the 4-of-a-kind symbol and then the x50 multiplier. This did happen once during the base game and I managed a 60x win which is more than I managed to get in the bonus round.

It took me around 150 spins to get into the bonus round and I only managed 3 scatters (which means a measly 3 spins). Even though only the 3 high-paying symbols were in play I only managed a 34x win. However, you can see the potential here, especially if you manage to land 4 scatters and receive the 7 spins.

With so few tiles in play I expected more wins but these didn’t come as often as I thought. Whilst I started really well and scored a few good wins in the base game thanks to the multiplier reel, I did see my funds getting drained quite quickly. This is definitely a highly volatile slot and even though you can see how some big wins are within reach, the max win of 2,320x somehow doesn’t feel worth it.