Santa’s Stack

Theme and Design

Retro Graphics And Upbeat Christmas Sounds

Santa’s Stack is full of the joys of Christmas with a festive atmosphere created by the snowy street backdrop with fairy lights and candy canes. The design style is 8-bit computer graphic making it look attractively retro, if a little low budget. Think Flame Busters by Thunderkick and you’ll know what we’re talking about. The approach works especially well with the 8×8 grid layout, which lends itself to simpler imagery to avoid looking too cluttered. And the soundtrack is definitely from 80s computer world, reminiscent of the Atari of Spectrum games from that era. It’s an ususual mix for a Christmas slot but that’s why we like it.

RTP and Variance

The first point to mention here is that Santa is no push over in this game – don’t expect big gifts to come flying off the sled too often. This is a volatile slot with an uneven win distribution. Although it kicks out wins roughly every 4 to 5 spins they will mostly be very small in size, and you’ll be waiting a while before any of those big payouts.

That said, the RTP is at 96.27% which is favourable and there are no other rates so you will play at 96.27% whichever UK slot site you choose.

Maximum Win

The maximum payout on one spin is set at 20,000x stake which is very enticing. It’s about average for a high risk slot from Relax but they do have higher paying games. Check out our list of Relax Gaming’s highest paying slots to find out more.

Symbols and Paytable

This is a cluster pays slot with a game grid of 8 colums and 8 rows. Clusters are made up of 5 or more identical symbols on horizontally or vertically adjacent positions.

There are 7 symbols in the table. They are 3 lights in blue, green and red, valued at from 0.2x for 5 blues up to 1,250x for 60 or more reds; and 4 Christmas characters – reindeer, elf, old lady and Santa, valued at from 0.5x for 5 reindeer up to 10,000x for 60 or more Santas.

There is also a Wild symbol, represented by the letter W, that will substitute for any pay symbol to complete a cluster.

Features and Gameplay

Santa’s Stack is not a feature-packed game but it doesn’t need to be. The cluster pays mechanic and clever use of mystery symbols means the gameplay is interesting at all times. And of course, with handy multipliers, there is the potential to win really big too.

Secret Santa Re-spins With Mystery Symbols

When a Wild symbols lands as part of a winning cluster, a re-spin is awarded.

Before the re-spin occurs all symbols in the winning cluster are converted into mystery symbols, showing a ‘?’. These are held in place for the re-spin. If a new winning cluster forms covering positions adjacent to the mystery symbols, the new cluster also converts into mystery symbols and another re-spin is awarded.

This continues until no new winning clusters occur adjacent to winning clusters or no new wins occur featuring a Wild. Then, all mystery symbols convert into the same pay symbol before wins are calculated and paid out.

Free Spins With Guaranteed Wilds

Landing at least 3 bonus symbols – displaying the word BONUS - will trigger the Free Spins round. You get 5 Free Spins plus one extra spin for each extra bonus symbol above the three.

The round is super-charged because wild symbols are guaranteed to land on each free spin, which may trigger the Secret Santa Re-spins. On the first free spin, ONE wild is guaranteed to land. On the second, its TWO. And so on.

And finally, landing a bonus symbol during the free spins round awards either an extra Free Spin, a 1+ Multiplier – or both!