Pirots X

Theme and Design

After heading out on adventures to the age of the dinosaurs (Pirots 2) and then the Wild West (Pirots 3), the Pirots are back in familiar surroundings, searching for pirate treasure on what looks like a Caribbean island with lush vegetation, rocky cliffs and turquoise ocean waters in the background. This group of pirate parrots are one of the ELK’s most charming creations, bringing humour and thrills to the reels in equal measure, and there has been no drop in production quality as the series progresses. In short the game looks and sounds great.

RTP and Variance

Pirots X has an RTP of 94% which is standard for ELK Studios games. Whilst is it a little under the best RTP rates found in online slots (96% and upwards) it is fixed, so you will play at 94% wherever you load up Pirots X. That is good news as many games now have a range of RTP settings and some operators set them to as low as 90% or less.

Like the first 3 Pirots games this is a high variance slot so it may blow cold for long periods before kicking out an exciting win. You need patience and bankroll to see it through!

Maximum Win

There is also continuity with the max payout from the first games in the Pirots series, capped at 10,000x. That means you can win up to £1,000 with a 10p bet. Not a bad haul but if you want to play for even bigger prizes, check out our list of slots with the highest max wins.

Symbols and Paytable

The big difference between Pirots X and the games that came before is that the CollectR format has been dropped in favour of a cluster pays one in this case. That means you need to land clusters of 5 or more identical symbols on horizontally or vertically adjacent positions to trigger a win. The game area is 5 reels by 5 rows, expanding to 7x7 at various phases in the game.

There are 8 symbols in the pay table to work with. The low value ones are the four gems – blue, green, purple and red. These are valued at from 0.1x for 5 blues up to 10x for 16 or more reds. The Pirots themselves make up the higher value symbols, valued at from 0.3x for 5 blue Pirots up to 50x for 16 or more red ones.

Wild symbols – a golden W – substitute for any pay symbol to complete a cluster. Their role is enhanced by multipliers and the ability to merge and split as explained in the features part of our review.

Features and Gameplay

The relentless antics of the Pirots who moved around the reels collecting symbols as they went were what made the original Pirots 1, 2 and 3 so fascinating. It was a real deviation from the classic slots format. For Pirots X ELK have returned the creatures to a more traditional model – Cluster Pays – but they still pull off some unique tricks to help drive wins.

This is how the game works:

Cascades Follow Each Win

The cluster pays mechanic works in tandem with a classic Cascading Wins. After each win, winning symbols are removed from the grid. Remaining symbols and new ones drop down to fill the gaps left behind. If new clusters are formed then the process repeats. And so on, until no new wins are created.

Pirots Collect Symbols To Increase The Win Multiplier

In Pirots X the Pirots appear at the top of the grid at the start of each spin. Their role is to help you to grow the win multiplier displayed at the top of the screen. They do this by flying down to land on any nest that appears on the grid and from there, collecting any adjacent symbols of their color. Each time they collect a symbol the multiplier grows by 1x if it’s a low paying gem, or 2x if it’s a high paying Pirot.

The Pirots can also trigger features at random from their positions at the top of the grid. There are 3 features of this kind:

Bombs – a bomb dropped onto the reels will explode all adjacent pay symbols to cause a re-drop AND expand the grid to 7x7 size for the chance to create bigger clusters for bigger wins. The grid remains expanded until the round ends.

Feature Release – you may see one of the Pirots opening a chest at the start of a spin. This is the feature release and causes a random number of pay symbols on the grid to be replaced with either wilds, bombs, nests, scatter or super scatter symbols.

Big Symbols – one of the Pirots may drop a super-sized symbol of its own color onto the grid. It will drop down, removing any pay symbols of the same color on its way. It then acts as a cluster the size of the number of positions it covers.

Wilds Split, Merge and Carry Multipliers

The wild is important in Pirots X too. It doesn't just perform the standard function of substituting for pay symbols to complete clusters. It does more ...

Firstly, if more than one wild appears in a cluster then they merge to form a multiplier wild whose value is the same as the total number of wilds that merged. The multiplier value is then applied to the total cluster value, before that number is multiplied by the global multiplier for the final payout.

And … if a wild connects two clusters then it will split in two, awarding one wild for each of the two clusters.

Two Free Spins Rounds

There are two versions of the free spins rounds in Pirots X.

The standard free spins is triggered by landing 3 bonus symbols – the anchor with the word BONUS on it. The super free spins is triggered by landing 2 bonus symbols and one super bonus symbol – the anchor with the words SUPER BONUS on it.

The key difference between the free spins rounds and the base game is that the global multiplier appearing at the top of the screen is persistent between spins. In the super free spins the grid expands to 7x7 to give you the chance to create bigger clusters. AND .. one of the Pirots is GUARANTEED to open a feature chest at the start of each spin.

During both rounds landing a free drops symbol will extend the round by 1 spin.