Shifting Seas

Theme and Design

Shifting Seas is a great looking game. It is set in an idyllic-looking archipelago with little islands with sandy beaches sitting under pale blue skies. There is a pirate theme here with treasure chests, girls in pirates hats, ship mates, old sea dogs and cutlasses represented on the reels too. There is a lot of important animation in the game as well as the reel set expands and shrinks and it is all very well executed with slick movement and smooth edges.

In terms of overall artistic style this is a classic Thunderkick game and easy to spot if you are a fan of theirs. They are well-known for quirky-looking games with a distinct artistic style and original features and that is exactly what you get here.

RTP and Variance

Shifting Seas has four RTP settings – 96.15%, 94%, 92% or 90%. The optimum level of 96.15% is good value, but the lower levels are to be avoided. We verified the RTP at 5 well known UK casinos. This is what we found:

• Casumo (Independent) – 96.15% RTP
• BacanaPlay (Skill on Net) – 92.13% RTP
• Barz Casino (White Hat Gaming) – 94.18% RTP
• MrQ (Independent) – 96.15% RTP
• Pub Casino (L and L Europe) – 94.18%

We recommend you play at Casumo or MrQ where the optimum RTP setting has been chosen by the operator. This will give you the best chance of positive return for your wagering.

Shifting Seas is also a high variance slot like most of Thunderkick’s best games. It can be unpredictable but there is room for some big payouts in the free spins round.

Maximum Win

The top payout in Shifting Seas is 15,000x which is higher than most other Thunderkick games. It means for a £1 bet you can win up to £15,000. If you like that kind of potential you should also check out our list of the highest max win slots.

Symbols and Paytable

Shifting Sands has an unusual and interesting reel and pay model.

To start, the 6 reels are set up with rows of 4-4-3-3-2-2. On each spin, wins are scored by landing 3 or more identical symbols on adjacent reels, regardless of their position.

As we shall see, with successive wins, the reel set expands to the left, adding more reels with more rows and expanding the number of paylines until it reaches the magic 117,649.

The values in the paytable are not all that high, but you can score big wins when more paylines are in pay and when multiple wilds and other features come into play. 

The low value symbols are represented by the cards, Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10 and 9. These pay at 0.5x to 0.8x your bet. There are mid-range symbols represented by the Parrot, the Pirate, the Buccaneer and the Captain set at 1x to 8x for six on a payline. The Treasure Chest is the highest paying icon at 5x.

There are also 3 wilds which substitute for all other symbols to form wins and have additional properties too – they are Wild Surge (green), Symbol Rush (purple) and Boost Shift (blue).

And then there is the Pirate Ship scatter which unlocks the bonus round AND pays up to 5x for 6 on a line.

Features and Gameplay

Every Win Triggers an Avalanche and Bigger Reels

Shifting Seas is all about the expanding reels and avalanche wins combining.

First, every win is an Avalanche Win. Here, winning symbols are removed from the reels and new ones drop in to replace them. If a new winning combination occurs, the process repeats. Until no more wins land.

At the same time, with Shift Wins, the right-most reel drops off the end and a new reel is added to the left. Each new reel is one higher than the last, up to a maximum of 7 rows high.

Once all 6 reels are 7 rows high you have 117,649 paylines.

Wilds Have Special Powers

Wilds are super-important here too. Outside of free spins they are your best ticket to bigger wins and I got some tasty payouts with these extra features.

First, if one of the three wilds appears in a win OR if it is pushed off the grid by a Shift Win, then it is activated, and one of three events occurs.

In a Boost Shift, the reel added to the left side of the reel set will clone the previous left most reel to give you more chance of completing lines.

In Symbol Rush, between 4 and 8 symbols on the reels are transformed into new, identical ones.

And in Wild Surge, between 1 and 3 symbols on the reels are turned Wild.

Free Spins With Wild Reels and Progressive Multipliers

I love the free spins round in Shifting Seas. Its clever and builds beautifully with a combination of re-triggers, reel expansions and progressive multipliers for the chance to really kick out some big payouts.

To start, you’ll need to find a BONUS SYMBOL on the reels. If you do, and it drops off in a Shift Win situation, that’s your Free Spins trigger.

That gets you 8 spins, with 4 added each time another bonus symbol drops off the reels.

During free spins random WILD REELS may land with 1x multipliers. This is important because each time a Wild Reel drops off the right of the grid, it comes back in on the left, this time with its multiplier increased by 1x AND another free spins is added!

Now, imagine 2 or 3 wild reels on the board, each with 2x or 3x multipliers generating more free spins and bigger payouts each time! That’s to dream of …