Eager Beavers

Eager Beavers Slot Review

Slot Provider: Thunderkick

RTP: 94.29% | Variance: High | Maximum Win: 10,000x

Our Score: 8.0

Play at Grand Ivy Casino
QUICK LINKS: Game Information | Where To Play | Full Review | Testing Notes | Tips For Players | About The Developer

WHY YOU CAN TRUST THIS REVIEW: The information and opinions on this page are the result of an comprehensive process of information gathering and live game testing by the gambling experts who work at allslotsites.com. Find out more here.

About Eager Beavers

Reviewed by:

Published Date: 2nd August 2024

How We Review Slot Games

We test and rate all slot games across 5 criteria, assigning a score out of 10 for each and an overall score that is an average of the 5. To build an accurate assessment of each game we gather information from the supplier and play in real play or demo mode. Find out more.

Eager Beavers invites you to play on 6 reels and up to 10 rows thanks to its clever expanding reels feature. On the fully expanded grid, this slot offers 1,000,000 ways to win. The RTP of 94.29% and high volatility make this game a better choice for bigger bankrolls, but the potential top payout of 10,000x is a juicy prize. The best part is the Cash Bonus game which is like a cash collect with coins worth up to 100x, upgraders, collects and builders that grow the reel area.

Eager Beavers Game Information

  • Release Date: 21.08.24
  • RTP: 94.29%
  • Variance: High
  • Maximum Win: 10,000x
  • Progressive Jackpot: No
  • Reels: 6
  • Rows: Up To 10
  • Paylines: Up To 1,000,000
  • Minimum Stake: £0.10
  • Theme: Animals
  • Features: Cascading WinsCash CollectsWilds
  • Format: 6-ReelExpanding Reels

Testing Notes: Here’s What Happened When We Played Eager Beavers

IMPORTANT: To give you an accurate assessment of the games we review our writers play 200 spins. Whilst this is a useful tool to help us review games and to give an example of what might happen when you play, keep in mind that 200 spins is only a very small sample and cannot be used to accurately predict what might happen over another 200 spins. The outcome of all slots play is always random.

Boom Or Bust? Our Session By The Numbers

Test spins and results analysis by Mark Wadie.

Results from 100 spins for free on Eager Beavers on Thunderkick’s test servers.

  • Stake Size: 1
  • Start balance: 5,000
  • End balance: 5,117.70
  • Hit Rate: 15% (15 winning spins in 100)
  • Biggest Win: 161x
  • Bonus Round: 1

As expected, Eager Beavers was a rough ride, with a low win rate of just 15% and plenty of dead spins. However, it did finally come good with a bumper 161x win in the bonus round. The base game can be frustrating. Like all cascading wins games with expanding reels, you’re looking to build runs of wins that grow the win ways much higher to give you big cumulative payouts. But it’s hard to do, most sequences stopped after 1 or 2 wins.

And those wild features that are there to help you are rare. I saw 1 of each – Wild Fall, Wild Splash and Wild Rapid – in 100 spins. So don’t expect to see a lot of them. And none of them did anything spectacular, just dropping a couple of extra wilds into play.

Eager Beavers Bonus Round
A 161x bonus round win in Eager Beavers

The free spins round turned out very well though. The special symbols are good and they can really power up the total payout if they land your way. Whilst 161x is miles short of the 10,000x max the game can produce, it’s not a bad result either. The trick is to land the powerful symbols like Super Collects, Super Upgrades and Super Builds. In particular the Super Upgrades worked well for me introducing 3x multipliers that boosted the value of all coins on their reel.

Take Aways? This is a good slot if it goes your way. There is certainly tons of potential in the bonus round. However, its volatility should not be taken lightly. Before that big win I was finding it tough going. So beware.

What We Liked

  • Fun, clever theme with expanding reels up the waterfall
  • Powerful cash collect round with 100x symbols
  • High 10,000x max win
  • Up to 1,000,000 paylines to win on!

What We Didn't like

  • RTP is just 94.29%
  • Can be a tough play due to volatility

Eager Beavers Review Scores

  • Theme and Design 7
  • RTP and Variance 6
  • Maximum Win 9
  • Symbols and Paytable 10
  • Features and Gameplay 8

What Our Reviewer Says ...

"A tough play with high volatility but plenty of power in the cash collect bonus round."

Overall Score: 8.0

Theme & Design

Our Score 7

This slot feels really cohesive. The expanding and contracting grid works perfectly. with the dam-making instincts that beavers have. The golden stone and the dark green fir trees make you feel as though you’re in the American wilderness. The animations are fun but not intrusive. It all works seamlessly together.

Eager Beavers by Thunderkick
Eager Beavers Expanding Game Area

Real Time Gaming and ELK Studios have already made their take on the beaver theme, with Builder Beavers and Dam Beavers respectively and this one definitely shares some of the feel of Builder Beavers. However, it still manages to feel like its own game.

RTP and Variance

Our Score 6

What is RTP?

RTP (Return to Player) refers to the amount a game will pay out in cash prizes expressed as a percentage of all the money wagered on that game. For example, a 96% RTP means a game will pay out £96 for every £100 wagered. This is an average number and will vary from one session to the next.  Read more here.

What is Variance?

Variance refers to how far a game will deviate from its RTP over time. High variance games deviate a lot and produce uneven win distributions and unexpected windfalls. Low variance games provide a more stable and even distribution of wins. Read more here.

With an RTP of 94.29% this isn’t a slot that can score all that highly in terms of RTP. This combined with high volatility means that Eager Beavers will be leaving any beavers with a smaller bankroll a little less than eager. 

Maximum Win

Our Score 9

What Is Maximum Win?

Maximum win refers to the maximum amount a player can win from one spin. It is expressed as a multiple of the stake. For example, where the maximum win is 100,000x, from a £1 stake, the maximum win would be £100,000.  

The top payout of 10,000x your stake is a large enough carrot to attract most players, even with the ‘unfriendly’ RTP. Sure, there are a handful of other games that promise bigger top prizes, but beyond sticking a progressive jackpot on it, this max win is pretty excellent.

Symbols and Paytable

Our Score 10

Played on a 6-reel grid that dynamically adjusts to display 2 to 5 symbols per reel, this slot starts with between 64 and 7,776 ways to win, potentially expanding to an impressive 1,000,000 ways when all reels reach full height. Wins are formed by landing 3 or more matching symbols in adjacent positions from left to right, with no gaps in between.

Eager Beavers Paytable
The paytable with 5x for.6 top paying premiums

The game features 14 pay symbols in total, along with Wild and Scatter symbols. The low value symbols are J, Q, K, A, and four fruits. 6 of a kind pays between 0.4x and 0.5x the bet. The premium symbols consist of various beavers in different colours: purple, green, orange, and red. 6 of a kind pays between 1x and 5x the bet. 

Wild symbols can substitute for any regular pay symbol and, if you land 6 of them, they award 5x the bet. Scatter symbols, represented by gold nuggets, trigger special features that we’ll come onto next.

Features and Gameplay

Our Score 8

Eager Beavers has a bunch of great mechanics, mostly revolving around different special wilds. Let’s take a look at how all of the features work.

Wild Symbols

Wild symbols can substitute for all other symbols except scatters and special wilds. This enables you to make more wins. 

Cascades

Every time you make a win the symbols involved in the win are removed and then new symbols drop into the empty spaces from above. Every time a win is made from a cascade, an extra symbol appears at the top of each reel that was part of the winning combo. The cascades continue until no new wins are made, while the reels continue expanding until no new wins are made or they reach a maximum height of 10 rows.

Special Wild Features

There are two different special wild features in the game and whenever one of them is part of a winning way its feature triggers. Special wild features don’t have an effect on scatters, wilds, or other special wilds. The following are the special wilds:

  • Wild Splash (fish): picks a random symbol on the reels and transforms all of that symbol into wilds.
  • Wild Fall (log): causes a random number of wilds to land on the reels. They can be single or stacked.
Eager Beavers Wild Fall
Wild Fall Feature

Wild Rapids

Another fun feature that’s packed with wilds is Wild Rapids. This can occur randomly, when it does, placing a random number of wilds at the top of at least one reel. 

Cash Bonus Game

If you land three scatter symbols – the one with BONUS written across it – then this triggers the cash bonus game. Ordinary reels are replaced by special reels that can only land special symbols. The special symbols work as follows:

  • Cash Values: these are worth 1x the bet up to 100x the bet.
  • Collect: these collect all cash values on the current reel and then removes them.
  • Super Collect: these collect all cash symbols from all reels and then removes them.
  • Upgrade: these multiply all cash values on the current reel by x2, x3, x4, or x5.
  • Super Upgrade: these multiply all cash values on all reels by x2, x3, x4, or x5.
  • Build: these increase the height of the current reel by a random number (up to a max of 10 rows).
  • Super Build: these increase the height of all reels by a random number (up to a max of 10 rows).

At the end of the round, once ALL positions are filled, then the total number of coins is added up and the value paid out.

Eager Beavers Upgrade Feature
Upgrade feature in the bonus round

Bet+

There are three different options where you can increase your stake in order to become more likely to trigger the bonus game. The RTP range for this option is from 94.35% to 94.44%. 

  • Bonus Boost: costs an additional 30% but makes each spin twice as likely to trigger the bonus game. 
  • Bonus Boost Plus: costs an additional 120% but makes each spin five times as likely to trigger the bonus game.
  • Bonus Boost Ultra: costs 350% of the bet but each spin is ten times as likely to trigger the bonus game. 

The Final Verdict

Eager Beavers takes the lovable beaver and encourages its dam building to great effect with its expanding reels. During the Cash Bonus game there’s room to make some huge wins (up to 10,000x your stake) thanks to the special symbols which can multiply, upgrade, and collect your wins. However, it’s not all about the bonus round. The special wilds can land in the base game and offer some big payouts themselves, triggering more wilds to land and transforming symbols into wilds to help you make use of the 1,000,000 win ways this game offers. 

The high volatility and pretty low RTP of 94.29% are a bit of a downer, but if you’re the kind of player who enjoys high paying mechanics and the chance to shoot for a generous top prize, that shouldn’t get in the way of you trying out Eager Beavers.

Useful Tips When Playing Eager Beavers

Remember, online slots are games of chance, there is NO strategy that can improve your odds of winning. However, reading our review and following these tips will help you get the most out of your time playing this slot game.

1. Expand The Reels Upwards

Every win and subsequent cascade grows the reels by 1 row. The more rows in play, the more win ways available – up to 1,000,000!

2. Look For THREE Bonus Scatters

That will get you into the powerful bonus round with cash symbols worth up to 100x.

3. Play Low Stakes

This is a very volatile slot and it can burn you. Play at low stakes – from just 10p – to avoid exiting too quickly!

4. Play At Our Recommended Slot Sites

We have chosen the sites on this page because they all scored high in our reviews and they are licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. That makes them fair and safe places to play slots.

Who Made Eager Beavers?

  • Name: Thunderkick
  • Established: 2012
  • UK License: 40165
  • Total Games: 55
  • Known For: Quirky, eccentric slots with fun features and distinctive designs
  • Popular Slots: Pink Elephants 1 and 2, Flame Busters, Birds on a Wire
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