Xterminate

Theme and Design

Anarchy On The Streets As A Baying Mob Rise Up ...

Whilst the theme of Xterminate appears to be riots, anarchy and kicking back against some kind of controlling societal force, Thunderkick have chosen not to give us a narrative of any kind. Never mind, because sometimes it's more fun to fill in the gaps yourself. The urban setting of the game, and the wild scenes behind the reels show a riot in full affect with fires raging and a baying mob waving flags and screaming defiance. The paytable includes both instruments of rebellion like baseball bats and spray paint cans, and also a robot-like head with red laser eyes. So perhaps this is rebellion against an army of AI robots, a glimpse into the future.

Whatever is going on, Thunderkick are out on a limb here with a game theme that is unlike anything they have done before. To me it’s more like something Hacksaw Gaming or Nolimit City might produce. But fair play, because its top quality with superb visuals and an ominous, slow building electro soundtrack behind the scenes. Top marks!

RTP and Variance

Thunderkick’s Xterminate slot has two RTP settings, both of which are disappointingly low. The optimum setting is just 94.12%, which we hope is not a sign of things to come from this game provider. The lower setting is the very unappealing 87.14% which is to be avoided at all costs. Not many online slot sites will try to run a game at that rate but some do, so beware. You can easily check the RTP before you start spinning by hitting the ‘i’ link (top right) and scrolling through the info screens until you find the Return to Player.

I recommend playing at Casumo or Barz Casino (from White Hat Gaming) which mostly run slots at their optimum rate.

The volatility in Xterminate comes with a warning that it is HIGH – ‘brace yourself, this game is not for the faint of heart’ – is what it actually says. I don’t recall seeing that warning on a Thunderkick slot before and they certainly mean it as testing showed. Expect a rough ride with the potential for some crazy moments, and some dead periods too.

Maximum Win

In keeping with that high volatility, Xterminate comes with an unusually high potential for a Thunderkick game at 25,000x. You can find more games like this in our article on slots with the highest maximum wins.

Symbols and Paytable

Xterminate is played on a 6x6 grid and as a scatter pays slot it pays out for 8 or more identical symbols landing ANYWHERE on a spin.

There are 9 pay symbols to match with. The 5 low payers are the cards, 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace. These are valued at from 1x for 8 or 9 10s up to 3x for 12 Aces. The premiums are the symbols of anarchy – spray paint can, spikey baseball bat, gas mask and robot head. These are valued from 2x for 8 or 9 spray cans up to 7x for 12 robots.

There are wilds in this game too which substitute for all pay symbols to complete wins. They remain on the reels until their lives are used up, as explained below.

Features and Gameplay

Xterminate has an unusual format which feeds into its volatile maths model as we will find out. Important things to know are that there is NO free spins round; but there are avalanche wins, and they always trigger multipliers. Here is how it works:

Avalanche Wins and Xterminate Multiplier

First of all, Thunderkick have applied the basic Avalanche Wins mechanism to the game. So, after every win, winning symbols are removed from the grid, remaining ones drop down to fill the gaps, and new ones drop down from above to fill any remaining spaces.

Meanwhile, after the first win from a spin, the win value is displayed above the grid as the Xterminate Multiplier. This progressive multiplier is then applied to every subsequent win in the sequence of avalanches that follows. And it can grow fast, because each win in the sequence is also added to the Xterminate Multiplier. It’s like a progressive multiplier on steroids and will make sense once you start playing.

Exploding Bombs Cause More Avalanches

Watch out for the bomb symbol. This can land anywhere at any time but only becomes active when no winning combinations occur. When this happens the bomb explodes to remove ALL pay symbols, EXCEPT the most common ones (by number, or by value if there are the same number of two symbol types). Charged Wilds and other bombs are also protected in the explosion.

What does this mean? It means on a losing spin where a bomb is present, then you get a second go as the explosion causes an avalanche.

Charged Wilds With Extra Lives

The final element of this deceptively simple slot is the Charged Wilds. These wilds act as any wild does by substituting for any pay symbol to complete a win. But they also come with a random number of lives set between 1 and 3.

Each time a Charged Wild is used during an avalanche win, it loses a life. And it remains on the grid, effectively a ‘Sticky Wild’ until its lives are used up. Then it disappears in the subsequent avalanche.

Bet+ Options To Improve Your Odds

If the super high volatility in this game is grinding you down then you do have the option of the Bet+ feature to improve your odds. There are 3 settings here

• At 2x your base level stake you can choose the Win Boost that will double your odds of winning on each spin. This will increase the RTP to 94.25% from the default RTP rate.
• At 5x your base level stake you can choose the Win Boost Plus that will increase your odds of winning by FIVE times on each spin. This puts the RTP up to 94.35%.
• At 10x your base level stake you can choose the Guaranteed Wild mode where you are GUARANTEED a win on each spin. This puts the RTP up to 95.45%.