Pirate Golden Age

Theme and Design

The action in Pirate Golden Age takes place on a Caribbean Beach with azure blue waters and golden sands overlooked by high, rocky cliffs. It looks like the sort of place you might wash up onto after your ship is wrecked in a storm. A huge skull carved into the rock protruding from the cliff face gives a slightly sinister feel to an otherwise idyllic scene and adds a dash of Pirates of the Caribbean to proceedings, though overall the vibe is upbeat. Even the soundtrack has a cheery sea shanty ring to it.

RTP and Variance

Pirate Golden Age has three available RTP settings: 96.49%, 95.29% or 94.34%. The optimum setting of 96.49% is just above average but your casino may choose to run the game at one of the lower settings. We verified the RTP at five UK slot sites to find out what setting the game was on. This is what we found:

• Casumo (independent) – 94.34% RTP
• BacanaPlay (Skill on Net) – 94.34% RTP
• Barz Casino (White Hat Gaming) – 94.34% RTP
• MrQ (Independent) – 96.49% RTP
• All British Casino (L and L Europe) – 94.34% RTP

Not for the first time in our research we found that MrQ from Lindar Media is the only slot site to run a game at its optimum RTP setting. We recommend you play here for the best value on your wagering.

Of course, Pirate Golden Age is also a highly volatile game, rated 5/5 on Pragmatic Play’s own scale. That means high risk for potentially high reward. There will be little to speak of in the base game but it’s all about unlocking the free spins round.

Maximum Win

The top payout available on Pirate Golden Age is just 3,000x. That makes it one of the meanest of Pragmatic’s recent high variance releases. Most high variance games from this developer are capped at 10,000x max wins so this is a very disappointing potential. Want bigger wins? Then check out our guide to Pragmatic’s top 10 highest payout slots.

Symbols and Paytable

Pirate Golden Age is a 5 reel and 3 row slot with 20 active payline in play on all spins. To trigger a win you will need to land at least 3 identical symbols from left to right across one of those paylines, starting on the left most reel.

There are 10 symbols in all with some really good values at the top end of the table. Low value symbols are the cards, Jack through to Ace. Their values range from 1.5x to 3x your bet for five on a line. And there are 6 premiums – the bomb, the anchor, the parrot and the 3 pirate characters wielding cutlasses and revolvers. The highest paying pirate triggers an impressive 75x for five on a payline.

There are also Wilds represented by the skeleton in the 3-pointed hat. These sub in for all other symbols and also pay 75x for five on a payline. And finally, look out for the Pirate Golden Age bonus symbol – it triggers the free spins round when 3 or more land on a spin.

Features and Gameplay

Pirate Golden Age is a really simple slot. In fact, there are NO extra features in the base game. It’s just about hitting paylines and triggering free spins.

Free Spins and Golden Skull Mystery Symbols

To hit that bonus round you’ll need three or more scatters to land at the same time. Once there, a new MYSTERY symbol is added to the reels in the form of the Golden Skull. Now keep an eye on these because when they land they ALL transform into one of the same symbol – which will be either a pay symbol or a wild.

And there is more … Mystery symbols will be COLLECTED in a meter at the side of the reels. That’s important because after every free spin, the total number of accumulated mystery symbols will be added BACK onto the reels.

Of course, more mystery symbols on the reels gives you more chance of winning. And where they are dropped onto an existing mystery symbol, a multiplier or 1x is added. These can keep accumulating - so, if 3 mystery symbols are on one position, then a 3x multiplier is applied to any win that includes that position.

Finally, you can extend the round further because every 5 mystery symbols collected in the meter gets you an extra 1, 2 or 3 more spins, decided at random.