Pirate Bonanza

Theme and Design

The pirate theme is perhaps a little tried and tested, with some great slots that use this theme including the ever-popular Pirots game. However, Pirate Bonanza manages to stand on its own two feet with some truly stunning graphics. The background is a deserted and beautiful beach with inviting teal seas, red cliff formations and the fronds of palm trees.

A stern pirate stands guard over the reels with a highly decorated cannon, and a chest overflowing with treasure flanks the other side. It’s classic, right down to the pay symbols, but if you’re after a quintessentially ‘pirate’ flavoured slot, then you can’t do much better.

RTP and Variance

The default RTP of 96.31% is really solid, offering a potentially good return on your wagering. However, you should watch out as there are two different RTP rates, the other being 94.26% which is less than ideal. If you head to the game rules page after loading up the game at your chosen slot site, you’ll be able to see which one applies for you. We recommend playing at MrQ where the RTP rates in Hacksaw slots are always at the highest level.

The variance is pretty high in this slot too, so the win distribution will likely be uneven when you play - expect larger wins interspersed with some dry spells.

Maximum Win

A top payout of 10,000x your bet is nothing to be sniffed at, especially when combined with that nice RTP rate. If you’re a player on a slightly smaller budget looking for a bigger win then this is a good slot to choose. However, there are other slots with a pirate theme that can offer a higher top payout, Dead Man’s Trail from Relax Gaming for example has a max win of 50,000x your stake.

Symbols and Paytable

Pirate Bonanza is played on 6 reels and 5 rows, but does not have traditional paylines. Instead it has a scatter pays mechanic which means you just need to match at least 8 symbols anywhere on the reels to win. 

There are 9 pay symbols as well as a scatter, and a cannon, which we’ll cover a bit later. The low value symbols are the gems (purple, blue, red, orange, and green). These are worth up to 50x the bet if you land 19 or more. The premium symbols are a flask (of rum we suspect), a treasure map, a compass, and a pirates hat. For 19 or more of these, expect payouts between 200x and 400x your bet.

Features and Gameplay

Pirate Bonanza is positively bursting with features that help to take this gameplay more than a couple of notches above the competition. Let’s take a look at them.

Cascade

Every time a win is created it activates the cascade feature. This removes the symbols that made the win from the reels and allows new symbols to fall from above to take up their places. If the new symbols make wins then they are removed and the cascade restarts. The cascade will continue until no new wins can be made. 

Cannon Feature

If the cannon symbol is present at the end of any spin then the Cannon feature is triggered. 

Now, multiplier bombs are placed on every highlighted square (the winning positions from the last round) and all the bombs explode to reveal multipliers which are added to or multiplied by the total multiplier for the spin, depending on the bomb. After this, the value is applied to the win from the last spin and then a pay out is made.

Multiplier Bombs

The multipliers that can be revealed in the Cannon Feature are as follows:

• Low Value: this bomb can be 2x, 3x, 4x, or 5x the win and is added to other multipliers
• Medium Value: this bomb can be 10x, 15x 20x, or 25x the win and is added to other multipliers
• High Value: this bomb can be 50x, 75x or 100x the win and is added to other multipliers
• Golden Value: this bomb can be 2x, 3x, 5x, or 10x the win and is multiplied with other multipliers

Load the Cannons

If you land four scatters during the base game then you’ll start this feature with 10 free spins. You can retrigger the feature by landing 3 scatter symbols during the game, which awards an additional 5 free spins. 

During this feature there is an increased chance of landing a Cannon Symbol, which will start the Cannon Feature explained above.  

Fire At Will

If you land five scatter symbols during the base game then you’ll start this feature with 10 free spins. If you land 3 scatter symbols during the feature then you’ll get an additional 5 free spins. 

During this feature there’s a better chance of landing a Cannon Symbol, triggering the Cannon Feature. Plus, any highlighted squares will remain highlighted throughout.