Jin Chan’s Pond of Riches

Theme and Design

A Sumptous Design And High Class Thunderkick Production

Jin Chan’s Pond of Riches Oriental theme is beautifully invoked in the rich design style that Thunderkick use throughout this slot. The reel set sits against the backdrop of an Oriental garden with lush foliage. Take a moment to look beneath the reel set and you’ll see the gently moving surface of the pond itself. And a kind of temple frames the reels with cool ornamental designs down the sides.

It looks superb and has a zen-like quality too, augmented by the serene far Eastern soundtrack. Occasionally that spell is broken by the sound of a Wild or Scatter Coin slamming into place on the reels. But otherwise, this is a serene experience. And for the record, Jin Chan translates as Money Frog, and he sits at the top of the paytable!

RTP and Variance

Jin Chan’s Pond of Riches RTP is 94.27%. This is lower than average and an odd deviation away from Thunderkick’s standard 96.1% RTP. It is unclear why the RTP is so low, but if you are looking for better return then there are a few other games in the Thunderkick catalogue that you could try - 1429 Unchartered Seas (98.6% RTP), Barber Shop Uncut (97% RTP), Tiki Time (97.1% RTP).

The variance is very high, much like other Thunderkick games like Beat the Beast Quetzalcoatl’s Trial or Triple Royal Gold. That tells you payouts will be unpredictable but it can produce some knockout moments thanks to a combination of wild multipliers and free spins explained below.

Overall, the maths isn’t bad but is let down by that surprisingly low RTP.

Maximum Win

The high volatility is also reflected in the maximum payout which is 10,000x. You won’t find many games from this studio with a potential to match that, although Big Fin Bay at 15,040x and Gods of Rock at 20,000x are both higher.

Symbols and Paytable

The reel configuration on Jin Chan’s Pond of Riches is a classic one with 5 reels, 3 rows and 15 paylines. Wins are triggered by landing 3 or more identical symbols across a payline from left to right.

What impressed me most about this part was the symbol value with some very nice potential at the top end of the table.

The low paying symbols are the cards 9 through to Ace, valued at from 1x for 3 9s up to 6x for 5 Aces.  The premiums are where the good stuff happens. These are the animals – turtles, fish, king fisher and frog. These are valued at from 3x for 3 turtles up to a massive 50x for 5 frogs.

There is also a Wild that can land anywhere and substitute for pay symbols to complete win lines.

Features and Gameplay

There is nothing complicated about the gameplay in Pond of Riches. It’s all about Wilds, Free Spins, Scatters and Multipliers. Here is how they work.

Wilds ALWAYS Include Multipliers

Every wild that forms part of a payline has a multiplier applied to it. The multiplier value is the same as the reel it appears on. So a wild on reel 3 has a 3x multiplier for example. The nice part is, these multipliers multiply together when more than one wild appears on a payline. So, if you had 3 wilds on one line, on reels 1, 2 and 3, then the multiplier would be 6x (1x2x3).

Scatters Award Free Spins With Sticky Re-Spins

There is a scatter symbol that looks like a coin and can appear on any reel. If you land 3 or more on one spin, you will trigger the free spins round as follows:

• 3 scatters – 8 free spins
• 4 scatters – 12 free spins
• 5 scatters – 16 free spins

That is simple enough and once into the free spins round there is a cool progressive style to the gameplay. First, any additional scatter landing during free spins gets you 1 extra free spin. Then, every THIRD scatter gets you a random Wild added to the reels for the remaining spins. You can add up to 3 Wilds this way.

Finally, there is also a Sticky Re-Spins Feature in the Free Spins round. So, after each win, the winning symbols LOCK for a re-spin. And they remain locked if another win is triggered. New winning symbols also lock at this point. And this continues until no more wins are triggered.