Lines, Wilds and nudging seaweed

You drop to the ocean floor, where sharks and hidden treasure lurk among the seaweed. The seaweed is the element you end up watching: it covers whole columns and hides what’s underneath, which can be any regular symbol or a golden shark. Sharks do real work too. One is the Wild, and golden ones trigger the base game’s main feature.

The grid is 5×4 with 20 fixed paylines, and wins count from the leftmost reel, with matching symbols needed in an unbroken run. The great white shark is the Wild. It substitutes for regular symbols and is also the top-paying symbol on the paytable.

Mystery Stacks contain four mystery symbols and can land on any reel. After the reels stop they reveal matching paying symbols or golden sharks. On the next spin the stack drops one cell and reveals again, until it leaves the screen. A revealed regular symbol pays only as part of a qualifying line from the leftmost reel; the stack itself guarantees no win.

After its first reveal a fully visible stack remains for three further spins, covering three, two and then one cell. A partially visible stack leaves sooner. Different stages can reveal different symbol types. Retained stacks are a real game state between spins, without making the next reveal predictable.

Razor Reveal: coins and scatters

Golden sharks trigger mini-reels only on mystery positions. They show coins worth 1x–2,500x the stake or scatters. Coins add: illustrative 2x, 5x and 10x give 17x before any bonus multiplier. More visible mystery cells mean more mini-reels; one remaining cell cannot give more than one coin. Value weights and feature frequency are unpublished.

Reveal scatters count with regular ones towards Free Games entry. A golden shark alone does not open the bonus: mini-reels may not supply the required scatter count. Exact regular-symbol values are in the game’s paytable.

Free Games until the final stack leaves

Three scatters trigger Free Games. Reels 2 and 4 start the round filled with mystery symbols, which nudge down one step per spin. Every nudge raises a win multiplier that applies to everything: line wins and Razor Reveal prizes alike.

The round has no fixed length. It runs as long as part of a stack is still visible, and new Mystery Stacks keep it going. Extra scatters beyond three push the starting stacks higher, so the round lasts longer and the multiplier has more time to climb.

New stacks during the bonus delay its end and bring fresh reveals. An extra position above the grid adds another nudge step; exact initial stack heights by scatter count and the multiplier increment are unspecified. For instance, notional coins totalling 20x at a 7x multiplier pay 140x; this is arithmetic, not a confirmed seventh-spin multiplier.

RTP, maximum and sequels

Builds have 96.70% and 94.06% RTP, high volatility and an overall 50,000x maximum. It concerns the payout total, rather than one coin. Maximum probability, hit rate, bonus frequency and termination at the limit are undisclosed. Coins combined with a growing multiplier offer a route to large totals, without establishing the only route to the cap.

2023’s Razor Returns uses a 5×5 grid and 40 lines, 96.55%/94.49% RTP, a 100,000x maximum, a buy and Push Bet adding 10% to the stake. Coins reach 5,000x, collectors and converters are added, and extra scatters can raise the starting bonus multiplier. Big Bamboo reveals mystery bamboo, with golden bamboo leading to instant prizes.

Push Gaming continued the range with 2024’s Razor Ways at a 25,000x maximum and Razor Shark Jackpots on 3 June 2026. Wolf Gold is a line-game alternative with medium volatility, 25 lines and different bonuses.

Forty lines and five-symbol stacks

The Push Gaming release of 4 July 2023 uses a 5×5 board, forty fixed lines and stakes of 0.1–100. Matches of at least three count from the leftmost reel. Four low objects are an anchor, compass, periscope and helmet; four premiums are sharks. Wilds on any reel replace paying symbols, but not Mysteries, torpedoes or instant prizes. The coefficients below use the total stake.

An all-Wild board before a feature multiplier pays 40×12.5 = 500x. This prices ordinary lines rather than setting the whole game’s ceiling. Five Mysteries can stack on any reel, revealing an ordinary symbol, a Wild or Golden Shark. Line wins pay immediately. In regular play, the following nudges occur on paid spins: after full visibility, four, three, two and one cells remain before the stack leaves. A nudge itself awards no free spin.

Razor Reveal: reveal and refill

Each golden position becomes a mini-reel. Instant prizes are 1,2,5,10,25,50,100,250,500,1,000,2,500 or 5,000 bets. Multipliers of 2x,3x,5x or 10x boost every visible prize and collector, then disappear and free their positions for respins. A collector gathers other prizes and becomes their sum at the end of the respin; collected cells refill too. All remaining prizes and collectors add together at the end.

A converter selects one ordinary type and turns every matching symbol into a golden position, continuing the reveal; they revert to ordinary symbols on the next round. A torpedo Scatter counts towards free spins and the existing field’s total. Nudge Up appears only in the feature and raises stacks by one position.

Illustrative example: prizes ten and five, a converter affecting four compasses, new prizes twenty-five and two, a 3x multiplier and a collector. Boosted values become thirty, fifteen, seventy-five and six; the collector gathers 126. This is an intermediate amount because cleared positions respin. The collected thirty, fifteen, seventy-five and six cannot be added to the same collector again.

Free spins and the starting-multiplier wheel

Three, four or five torpedoes set starting multipliers of 1x,5x or 25x. In free spins, reels two and four fill with Mysteries. Each shared downward nudge adds one to the overall multiplier rather than one per stack. It applies to the entire win at spin end and persists between spins. The final nudge that removes the stacks does not increase it. New Mysteries and Nudge Up can extend the round.

From a 5x start, without new stacks or Nudge Up, the five successive spins show 4→3→2→1→0 cells and multipliers of 6x,7x,8x,9x,9x. Before the round, the wheel offers a gamble of the whole feature: failure forfeits it, while success raises the start and permits another gamble, up to five successful steps. The ladder is 1x,5x,10x,25x,50x,100x; sector weights are undisclosed.

Push Bet, buys and mode RTPs

Push Bet increases spin cost by 10% and improves free-spin probability by an unspecified factor; pays use the base stake. It is unavailable above the maximum and switches off before a buy. The bonus buy options below apply to the 96.55% build.

The 94.49% build’s prices, in the same order, are 108x,190x,562x,200x and 510x; its exact buy RTPs are not listed. Gambling reduces RTP for all five table options, including Razor Reveal from 96.68% to 96.66%. Main-game pairs for the 96.55%/94.49% builds are: no Push Bet or gamble,96.55%/94.49%; Push Bet without gambling,96.55%/94.74%; no Push Bet with always-gamble,96.24%/94.20%; both,96.16%/94.37%. Always-gamble describes a calculation mode rather than one wheel attempt’s RTP.

The ceiling and other sharks

The 100,000x round ceiling is included in theoretical RTP through trimming of excess awards; an operator may impose a lower limit. Early termination is not described. A 5,000x prize under a 20x feature multiplier arithmetically reaches the cap, without proving an exclusive route or its frequency. Volatility is high; hit and feature rates are unspecified. Other limits appear in the max win rankings.

The 2019 original Razor Shark used 5×4, twenty lines, four-high stacks, coins up to 2,500x and a 50,000x cap, without buys or Push Bet. Big Bamboo supplied the collector, converter and multiplier ideas. Razor Ways has up to 46,656 ways; Shark Jackpots followed in 2026. Other releases appear on the Push Gaming page.

A changing grid and regular fish

The fisherman and cash-tagged fish keep the series’ simple British presentation without story interludes. Matches on consecutive reels from reel one pay regardless of row. Six reels up to five symbols tall give 5⁶ = 15,625 ways; heights of 3,4,2,5,3,4 give 1,440. These describe geometry rather than long-combination probability. Wilds replace regular symbols; the in-game table prices fish and cards. BTG’s licensed engine is familiar from Bonanza.

Outside the bonus, fish act like ordinary symbols. They pay for matches on adjacent reels, and their cash tags do nothing. That is worth grasping early: a bright fish with a big number on its tag looks like a prize, but without a fisherman it is just part of a combination.

Every fisherman collects every tag

Fisherman Free Games start when at least three scatters land. During the round, every fisherman on screen catches all visible fish and collects the cash values on their tags, paid on top of regular wins. Several fishermen landing with lots of fish produce the biggest payouts.

Illustrative tags of €2,€5,€1,€10 total €18. One fisherman adds €18, two €36, three €54 on top of regular wins. Fishermen do not split the catch. Fish without a fisherman retain only their regular role; a fisherman without fish adds no collection. Coincidence alone does not guarantee recovery of a bonus price: values and the full result matter.

In an illustrative round at €0.50, one fisherman with €1,€2.50,€0.50 tags collects €4, then two with a €12 catch add €24. Collection totals €28 or 56x, plus separate regular wins whose exact amount is unspecified. Removing the second collection leaves €4 plus the same regular awards. This illustrates calculation rather than the proportion of rounds decided by one spin.

Three RTP builds and Bonus Bet

96.10%,95.02% and 92.00% refer to the whole regular-play configuration rather than the base component excluding free spins. Operators choose the build with identical artwork; the studio publishes build identifiers, including the number in the 92% version’s name. Read the active what RTP is in the rules. Bonus Bet has separate 96.60% or 95.50% RTP; the 92% figure is unavailable.

Also on offer is the Fishin’ Frenzy Bonus Bet for direct entry to the bonus. It costs 10 to 1,000 against a main-game stake of 0.1 to 10, which works out at 100x the stake. Whether a bonus buy is available depends on the jurisdiction.

Higher purchase RTP does not guarantee profit from an individual round. Volatility is high; a 10,000x limit is given without confirmation on Blueprint’s official page. Its exact restriction, maximum layout, bonus frequency, initial free-spin count and retrigger rule are unspecified in the supplied description. Do not import the original’s up-to-twenty count or The Big Catch’s ladder.

Different Fishin’ Frenzy branches

Fishin’ Frenzy — Grid: 10 lines; Key feature: Up to 20 free games, red/black gamble; RTP on Blueprint’s page: 90% to 96.12%.

Fishin’ Frenzy Megaways — Grid: up to 15,625 ways; Key feature: Fishermen collect tags, 100x Bonus Bet; RTP on Blueprint’s page: 92%, 95.02% or 96.10%.

Fishin’ Frenzy The Big Catch Megaways — Grid: 15,625 ways; Key feature: Every 4 fishermen upgrade the fish and add 5 spins; RTP on Blueprint’s page: 92% to 95.50%.

Fishin’ Frenzy The Big Splash — Grid: lines; Key feature: Pick upgrades before free spins, 4,000x max win; RTP on Blueprint’s page: 93% or 95%.

Fishin’ Frenzy The Big Catch appeared in 2021. Its 2022 Megaways branch upgrades the smallest fish to the next size and adds five games after every four fishermen. The Big Splash from 2023 offers upgrade choices before the round and a 4,000x maximum. The original has a post-win card-colour double; the description does not establish such a mode in this Megaways release.

Big Bass Bonanza from Pragmatic Play extends its feature and raises the collection multiplier after every fourth collected fisherman. No such ladder is described for Fishin’ Frenzy Megaways: every simultaneously appearing fisherman collects the whole screen. Big Bass Bonanza and Big Bass Splash compares two Pragmatic branches. Other releases are on Blueprint Gaming.

Grid expansion and ways

The bottom of the reels holds three rows that are always active. Above them sit three more locked rows, and they open one at a time. Expansion happens each time a cascade or an Instant Prize win occurs: the grid then grows by one row. At the start of a new round the reels return to their initial state.

Combinations run from reel one through matching cells of adjacent reels. The exact symbol scale and each minimum length are absent. A full grid has 64 times more ways, without establishing the same increase in hit probability: symbol types and distribution matter. A full Wild reel contributes more matching cells on an open grid without guaranteeing a pay.

Wilds, Converter and Mystery symbols

A regular Wild substitutes for regular-play symbols. Expanding Wilds arrive directly or from Mystery symbols: they cover open reel rows in regular play, but unlock and fill the whole reel in the bonus. Possible x1, x2, x3 and x5 values apply to winning combinations containing that Wild; combining several coefficients is unspecified.

The Converter can drop onto the field or be revealed by a mystery symbol. On arrival it spins through the paying symbols lying on the unlocked rows of the current round. When a paying symbol lands, all symbols of that type turn into Wilds, the Converter included. The producer calls it the most volatile of the wilds: it can make many Wilds at once, or even a whole wild line.

Seaweed-covered Mystery symbols reveal a paying type, Wild, Expanding Wild, Converter or Golden Shark. New Mystery symbols on active rows reveal a result different from the initial reveal, except Golden Sharks. Selection weights are absent. Exact Converter operation inside the bonus is unestablished in the description.

Razor Reveal and free spins

The feature starts when mystery symbols land on three or more consecutive reels, and sometimes at random. During Razor Reveal a player can win instant prizes, multipliers, collector symbols, converters and, in the base game, scatters as well. A separate Row Unlocker symbol appears only during a bonus buy.

Instant prizes reach 5,000x; feature frequency is unnamed. At least three Scatters start the bonus, with their count determining initial grid and global multiplier. Extra Scatters add spins, a multiplier for following pays and open the grid, but numerical scales are absent. The global multiplier applies to all wins, unlike an individual Wild coefficient.

Glowing Mystery symbols also charge a level: five give another stage with an increased multiplier and spin count. The producer describes them as able to grant Razor Reveal. Initial spins, increments, level cap and excess-charge carry-over are unspecified and cannot be reconstructed from the starting grid.

Push Bet, buying and published maths

Prices correspond to x3, x1.4 and x4 of the original stake. Modes increase cost without guaranteeing a win. Exact Scatter uplift and mode RTPs are undisclosed. Eight buys include Converter, Razor Reveal and enhanced versions, different free spins and a reduced-price random entry; the complete list, costs and buy RTPs are absent.

Regular RTP builds are 96.36% and 94.32%, with Medium–High rated risk. The 25,000x figure is the highest observed win, rather than an established hard cap. Hit, bonus and observed-maximum frequencies are absent, as is a theoretical limit. Immediate round termination at the observed figure therefore cannot be asserted.

Razor Shark from 2019 has 96.70% RTP and a 50,000x limit; Razor Returns from 2023 has a 5×5 grid with 40 lines, 96.55% RTP and a 100,000x limit. Both have high rated risk. Razor Shark Jackpots arrived on 3 June 2026. The ways-versus-lines difference does not establish a hit-frequency ranking without separate data.

Ten symbols on ten lines

Combinations are counted starting at the leftmost reel and running through neighbouring reels, and a line pays only its biggest prize, while wins from other lines are joined in. The table uses the demo’s pay data, with coin amounts divided by 10 so each number is a fraction of the whole stake.

First — 3 symbols: 5x; 4 symbols: 20x; 5 symbols: 200x.

Second — 3 symbols: 3x; 4 symbols: 15x; 5 symbols: 100x.

Third — 3 symbols: 2x; 4 symbols: 10x; 5 symbols: 50x.

Fourth — 3 symbols: 2x; 4 symbols: 10x; 5 symbols: 50x.

Fifth — 3 symbols: 1x; 4 symbols: 5x; 5 symbols: 20x.

Sixth — 3 symbols: 0.2x; 4 symbols: 2.5x; 5 symbols: 10x.

Seventh — 3 symbols: 0.2x; 4 symbols: 2.5x; 5 symbols: 10x.

Eighth — 3 symbols: 0.2x; 4 symbols: 1x; 5 symbols: 5x.

Ninth — 3 symbols: 0.2x; 4 symbols: 1x; 5 symbols: 5x.

Tenth — 3 symbols: 0.2x; 4 symbols: 1x; 5 symbols: 5x.

The best symbol additionally pays for two: 0.5x the stake. The text data contains no symbol names, hence numbered tiers. The Wild can stand in for anything but the scatter and the money symbols. The paying fish in this game double as money symbols.

Fish with a price tag: eleven values

Every paying fish on screen when a spin lands is given a money value that the free spins can pay out. Per the rules the set runs 2x and 5x, then 10x, 15x, 20x and 25x, after them 50x, 100x, 200x and 500x, and finally 5,000x the total bet. Every spin draws a new value.

The top position, 5,000x, equals the game’s maximum win, so a single such fish gathered by a Wild could bring the round to the ceiling by itself. The scale is stretched hard: eight values stay at or below 100x, while the upper edge holds 200x, 500x and a leap straight to 5,000x. How often each value appears is not reported in open data.

Choosing a mission: two roads to the bonus

Three, four or five scatters give 10, 15 or 20 free spins respectively and offer one of two missions to pick. If you buy entry, the mission is chosen right at the purchase.

Free spins — How the round runs: First a pick of modifier files, then spins in which the fisherman Wild collects money from fish; Length: 10 to 20 spins, up to 58 with restarts; Biggest single value: 5,000x fish; Booster: Progression levels x2, x3 and x10.

Stack the Cash — How the round runs: A special grid where only fish coins land and robo-crabs collect the payout; Length: Four respins, reset by every new coin; Biggest single value: 25x coin; Booster: Bombs double the values on a reel.

The first mission is longer and more varied: rare huge values and a stepped multiplier. The second is shorter and more uniform: many small coins and frequent doubling. Scatters open both roads but do not promise the same result.

Files before the free spins

Choosing free spins brings up a screen of secret files. The player opens them one at a time until a download turns up, and that download is a boot. Finding it closes the picking and launches the round with everything collected so far. The rules list what can be found:

• more fish: more fish symbols on the reels during the round;
• more fishermen: more Wild symbols;
• more dynamite, hooks and bazookas: a higher chance of the matching end-of-spin features;
• +2 spins: the round begins with two extra spins, and two more are added at every restart;
• start at level 2: the round begins on level two of the progression, meaning an x2 multiplier.

The rules name neither the odds nor the number of files, and the picking is settled by chance, not skill: the earlier the boot turns up, the fewer modifiers are gathered. The press release sums it up as a round of 10 to 22 spins. The lower bound is three scatters with no modifier, the upper is 20 spins from five scatters plus two.

The fisherman and a ladder of four levels

In the free spins a fisherman Wild appears on the reels. It stands in for anything but the scatter and money symbols, and takes the values of every money symbol showing. On each spin the Wild gathers whatever it sees, so the size of the payout depends on coincidence: fishermen and fish must end up on the field together. Every Wild that lands during the round is counted until the round ends.

On every fourth Wild banked, the feature begins again: the restart brings 10 spins and lifts the multiplier on collected money. The 4th Wild moves the round to level two with x2, the 8th to level three with x3, the 12th to level four with x10. The new spins wait for the current batch to finish and then play at the raised multiplier.

After the fourth level there are no restarts, so the round has a hard limit: 20 starting spins with five scatters, plus three restarts of ten, which is 50. With the +2 modifier, two are added at the start and two more for each of the three restarts, another 8 in all, and the maximum is 58. That takes 12 collected Wilds. The modifier that begins at level two leaves only two restarts.

The level multiplies every collected value. A 500x fish at level four gives 500 x 10 = 5,000 bets, exactly the ceiling; two 200x fish and one 100x fish gathered together do the same. So the maximum can be reached without the 5,000x fish. At level two the same 500x haul becomes 1,000 bets, at level three 1,500.

Three random features after the reels stop

During the free spins the game now and then adds features as a spin closes, adjusting the layout.

• The hook. With fish on screen and no fisherman, the hook yanks a random reel up, and a fisherman appears on it.
• The bazooka. If fishermen are present but no fish, the bazooka changes every symbol on screen except the fishermen.
• The explosive spin. If the screen shows only fishermen, money fish may appear in random positions.

Their frequency is not disclosed, but the “more dynamite, hooks and bazookas” modifier raises the odds of these features already at the file-picking stage.

The Stack the Cash mission

The second road is built quite differently. Ordinary symbols vanish for the round, and only fish coins and empty spots remain on the strips. A robo-crab appears under every reel. The round starts with four respins, and each time a fish coin lands it stays on screen while the respin counter returns to four.

Coin values run from 1x to 10x in single steps, with 25x added on top, all measured against the total bet. When coins fill a reel completely, the crab beneath it takes all their values and the reel is cleared. The round ends when the respins run out, and at the end all crab values are added up and paid.

Every time at least one new coin lands, a bomb falls on a random reel and doubles the values of all coins on it and of the crab beneath. Repeat hits on the same reel double what is already doubled: a 25x coin hit by seven bombs would grow to 3,200x, close to the game’s ceiling. How many bombs actually land on one reel is down to chance, but every new coin also brings a new bomb.

The mechanic is close to the hold and win format: coins lock in place and the respin counter refreshes on every arrival. The difference lies in the robo-crabs, which turn a filled reel into a payout.

A Stack the Cash round written out

The numbers are invented. The first respin brought three coins: 2x, 5x and 10x, with the 5x and 10x on one reel and the 2x on another. A bomb fell on the reel holding 5x and 10x: they are now 10x and 20x. All four respins are restored.

The next respin brought a 1x coin onto the same reel. The reel is full, the crab collects 10 + 20 + 1 = 31, and the reel is cleared. The bomb this time hit the other reel with the 2x coin, which became 4x. After a few blank respins the round ended: the first crab had paid out 31, 4x remained on the second reel, and the total came to 35 bets. Big sums here come only through chains of doublings: a single 25x coin, even doubled twice, gives just 100.

The base game: when there are two scatters

While there is no bonus, the slot pays on lines. The one notable feature of the base game concerns scatters. With a pair of scatters showing and no third, the game may attach one of its random features. The first works as a shift: if both scatters can drop one cell without leaving the grid, the reels holding them slide down while the remaining reels spin once more. The second: the hook hauls one reel upward and brings one more scatter into view.

Both features aim at completing the missing symbol. They are not guaranteed and arrive at random, so they do not cancel the long wait for the bonus: the rules class the slot as high-volatility, and the bonus frequency is not published. They do turn a spin with two scatters into a small piece of suspense.

Ante, buy and the 5,000x limit

There are two bet multipliers: 10x in regular play and 15x with the ante. The ante makes a bonus likelier, adds extra scatters to the reels and switches the purchase off. A bonus buy costs 100 times the bet, and you choose the mission yourself instead of waiting for the pick after scatters. One RTP figure is listed everywhere: 96.50%, in plain play, with the ante or buy in.

How the scatter count on a purchase relates to the number of spins is unknown: the rules only say that three to five scatters appear in the triggering spin, and for free spins that means 10, 15 or 20. Buying removes the wait but not the spread of results inside the round: even a purchased mission can end without big fish.

The ceiling on any single round is 5,000 times the stake. Once a total reaches that line, play ends at once, the win is paid and whatever remained is lost. The demo’s info block gives this outcome at one case per 3,132,477 rounds. In the ante game the limit reads 3,334 against the raised stake, equal to the same 5,000 base bets, with a different estimate of one case per 1,774,033 rounds.

Place in the Big Bass series

On return, Mission Fishin’ sits between Big Bass Amazon Xtreme (19.06.2023, 96.07%, a 10,000x cap) and the 96.71% siblings Big Bass Splash (23.06.2022) and Big Bass Halloween 2 (21.10.2024). Both of those share its 5,000x ceiling, half the cap of Amazon Xtreme.

The studio’s press release agrees with the in-game rules on all the main points, but the details of the mechanics come only from the rules. The release calls the game an extension of the series and places it beside the recent Medusa’s Stone and Sweet Bonanza 1000. The studio keeps a trial version on its own server, open to all.

Rich is the Wild, Cat is the Scatter

The 5×3 grid uses ten fixed paylines, read from left to right. The number of lines cannot be changed. Rich substitutes for regular symbols and pays for two or more matching symbols. Cat has no standalone payout: her Scatters trigger free spins. The ordinary Shield of Athena is a premium paying symbol; the Wild Shield of Athena also activates a feature.

The paytable expresses wins as multiples of the total stake. The rules sheet lists them in coins, against a stake of ten coins:

Medusa Re-Spin locks shields and wins

A Wild Shield of Athena landing on any spin is enough to trigger the feature. All shields turn Wild and stay in place alongside current winning combinations. The reels spin again. New shields or wins lock and award another re-spin. The chain ends when neither appears, and the locked wins are paid.

Wilds and Scatters become Wild Shields of Athena during the chain. A Scatter on a re-spin therefore neither starts nor retriggers free spins: it becomes a shield. Payouts depend on paying combinations rather than simply the number of locked symbols.

Shields persist only within their current chain. They do not carry into the next ordinary spin or free spin once the chain ends. There is no bonus-wide Wild accumulation, and an early shield does not keep helping until the round finishes.

Medusa’s Gaze and retriggers

Three, four or five Scatters award 10, 12 or 15 free spins respectively. Medusa Re-Spin remains active during Medusa’s Gaze: a Wild Shield starts the same kind of chain as in the base game.

New sets of three, four or five Scatters add the corresponding number of spins. Retriggers have no numerical limit, but the total payout limit still applies. The bonus has no multipliers: results grow through wins locked within individual chains and through extra spins.

The maximum and differing volatility ratings

The payout limit is 10,000x the stake. The rules sheet places the chance of reaching maximum exposure below one in a billion. This figure does not describe an ordinary bonus result.

The studio page rates volatility at eight out of ten, while the rules sheet gives ten out of ten. Both sources are official; the reason for the difference is not established. Hit and bonus frequencies are unpublished, so the waiting time for a feature cannot be calculated from these ratings.

Listed RTP configurations are 96.25%, 94.25%, 91.25%, 87.26% and 84.26%. The rules sheet shows 87.25% rather than 87.26%. Check the rules of the actual build for its return rather than choosing a figure from the general game page.

The shield’s place in the Wilde series

Book of Dead arrived on 14 January 2016 and began the series, with a 5,000x maximum and high volatility. Legacy of Dead, released on 2 January 2020, retains both figures.

Rich Wilde and the Tome of Madness arrived on 27 June 2019, with medium volatility and a 2,000x maximum. Rich Wilde and the Amulet of Dead, released on 1 April 2021, is close in atmosphere but uses a different mechanic, with high volatility and a 5,000x maximum. The shield game differs by building its wins through locked combinations in re-spin chains.

Sunset over the water and puffed-up letters

The action unfolds beneath the surface of a lake. The upper part of the screen is bathed in an orange sunset, below it lies deep blue water with bubbles along the edges of the grid. The card symbols are drawn as inflated, three-dimensional letters: a purple A, a blue K, a red Q, a green J and a yellow ten. Beside them lie a fishing rod with a reel, a tackle box, a dragonfly and a float. Above reels two to five runs a horizontal strip, lit in gold.

The intro screen brings on the hero: a bearded fisherman in a knitted hat and green shirt holds a rod while a huge bass leaps from the water behind him. In small print at the bottom the developer is named as Reel Kingdom.

Six reels and 46,656 ways

The outer reels, one and six, can show up to six symbols. The four middle reels carry up to five symbols each, with one more sitting on a top strip that turns separately, moving right to left. The number of ways is the product of the symbol counts across all six reels: 6 × 6 × 6 × 6 × 6 × 6 = 46,656 when every reel shows its maximum. The Megaways counter in the corner shows the number of ways on the grid in each spin. In the first frame of the demo it read 17,280, a little over a third of the maximum.

What matters here is how it differs from other games on the Megaways engine: the maximum of ways is lower than the 117,649 of Power of Thor Megaways, because each reel here holds no more than six positions against up to seven there.

Paytable: the float against the rest

A win needs matching symbols in a row from reel one, three or more long; only the float is paid from two. Values are shown as multiples of the stake.

Float — Three in a row: 5x; Four in a row: 10x; Five in a row: 25x; Six in a row: 50x.

Rod — Three in a row: 1x; Four in a row: 2x; Five in a row: 2.5x; Six in a row: 7.5x.

Dragonfly — Three in a row: 0.25x; Four in a row: 1x; Five in a row: 1.5x; Six in a row: 2x.

Tackle box — Three in a row: 0.25x; Four in a row: 0.5x; Five in a row: 0.75x; Six in a row: 2x.

Fish — Three in a row: 0.2x; Four in a row: 0.4x; Five in a row: 0.6x; Six in a row: 1.75x.

A — Three in a row: 0.2x; Four in a row: 0.4x; Five in a row: 0.6x; Six in a row: 1.75x.

K — Three in a row: 0.2x; Four in a row: 0.25x; Five in a row: 0.6x; Six in a row: 1x.

Q — Three in a row: 0.15x; Four in a row: 0.25x; Five in a row: 0.5x; Six in a row: 1x.

J — Three in a row: 0.15x; Four in a row: 0.25x; Five in a row: 0.5x; Six in a row: 0.9x.

10 — Three in a row: 0.1x; Four in a row: 0.2x; Five in a row: 0.4x; Six in a row: 0.8x.

Six floats pay 50 bets, and it is the only symbol for which a pair also counts: two floats give 2 bets. The second-best symbol, the rod, pays six and a half times less. The rest hover around one to two bets for six, so all the value at the top of the table is concentrated in the float. A value is multiplied by the number of copies on each reel: three floats sitting on reels one to three in counts of one, two and two make 1 × 2 × 2 = 4 ways at 5x each, 20 bets in total. Even so, the game’s main reward comes not from combinations but from collecting fish in free spins.

The net Wild and tumbles

The wild looks like a landing net marked Wild. It turns up solely on the top strip over reels two to five, not among the main reel positions, and can stand for any symbol besides the scatter and the fisherman.

Once a win is paid, the symbols involved disappear, the rest slide down, and replacements drop in from above. Tumbles go on until the wins run out, and all sums are credited once the whole chain of the base spin has played. The fish behave differently in tumbles in the base game and in the bonus.

Money symbols: fish with values

The money symbol is a group of fish. In addition, the paying fish are also money symbols. On every spin each fish is assigned a random value from the range: 2x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x or 4,000x the total bet, but these values can be won only in free spins.

In the base game fish explode and fall like ordinary symbols. In free spins they do not explode but simply sink to the bottom of the screen as tumbles happen. This is the key to the whole mechanic: fish pile up on screen, and the fisherman collects them. The top figure of the range, 4,000x, equals the game’s cap, so a single fish with that value, once collected, already gives the maximum win.

Free spins: scatters, the fisherman, dynamite and bazooka

The scatter is a bass leaping from the water at sunset, and it appears on all reels. Three or more scatters anywhere start free spins: three give 10 spins, four give 15, five give 20 and six give 25. The studio press release lists only three, four and five scatters, while the game rules and the game’s page on the site add the sixth.

The fisherman symbol appears on all reels, but only in free spins. Every fisherman that lands collects the values of all money symbols on the screen. Fishermen already collected are counted until the round is over. While there are no fish on screen the fisherman has nothing to take, which explains why a bonus can be very even and very generous in one and the same round.

Two random features cover those empty moments. Sometimes at the end of a spin, when one or two fishermen are on screen and no fish, one of them fires: dynamite throws money fish into random positions, and the bazooka changes every symbol on screen except the fishermen.

Every fourth fisherman: 10 more spins and a multiplier

Every fourth fisherman collected retriggers the feature, gives 10 more spins and raises a multiplier that applies both to money collection and to all wins. The retrigger is played after the current batch of spins. The 4th, 8th and 12th fishermen bring 2x, 3x and 10x; three retriggers at most, and after the third no more are possible.

Between the second and third retrigger the multiplier grows more than threefold, from 3x to 10x. The intro screen draws this as a diagram: at the bottom runs a strip of plates with three fishermen, then a plate reading plus 10 free spins times 2, three more fishermen and plus 10 free spins times 3, three fishermen again and a last plate, plus 10 free spins times 10, drawn larger than the others.

You can start with 10, 15, 20 or 25 spins, and the three retriggers add 30 more, so at best a round holds from 40 to 55 spins. To reach the last retrigger you need to collect twelve fishermen, which is a serious number even for fifty spins.

RTP and volatility: what is official

The game itself, its rules and its configuration state 96.72%, while the studio’s public page lists 96.70%. The demo shows no volatility badge on its intro screen or in the rules, and the game page lists only RTP; the one official statement is the launch press release, which speaks of high-volatility excitement. All the big sums sit in the bonus, and between bonuses the balance rests on ordinary lines. Hit rate, bonus rate, the weights of the fish values, the chance of dynamite and bazooka and how often twelve fishermen are collected are not published.

The Big Bass series

The studio press release calls the game the third instalment of the series and says it followed Bounty Gold, Big Juan and John Hunter and the Quest for Bermuda Riches. A site page is stamped 3 November 2021 and the release notice 18 November.

Against the original, the cap almost doubled from 2,100 bets and now equals Bigger Bass Bonanza. The grid became wider, with six reels and up to six scatters, so the longest start gives 25 spins. The general idea stayed the same: the fisherman takes money from the fish. The original can be opened on the page for Big Bass Bonanza, the second part is described on the Bigger Bass Bonanza page, and how the first game differs from Splash is worked through in Big Bass Bonanza versus Big Bass Splash.

Paylines, chests and multipliers

Wins pay from left to right on 14 lines and start at three matching symbols. Low pays come from cards, ten through ace, worth 0.8x to 1.5x for five in a line. The high symbols are fish, a shark, a turtle, the mermaid and the ocean king. Five of those pay 2x to 10x. The Wild substitutes for any paying symbol, and five Wilds on a line pay 10x.

A Treasure Chest can land on any reel, but only one per reel. It turns into a Wild Reel only if the turned reel would join a winning combination. If the expansion adds nothing, the chest stays a chest.

The expanded reel spans the full height and shows one of three heroes, and each of its cells is a Wild. The hero’s multiplier applies to every combination the reel takes part in. If several such reels are involved, their values are added, not multiplied.

The character sets the tier and its specific value is randomly selected. Character and value weights are unspecified.

Deep Blue, Down Under and Hidden Treasures

Three FS symbols open Deep Blue, 10 free spins. Here the chest always expands, even when there is no win. Expanded reels show zero to three lives and stay in place for the next spin while lives remain. At the start of every spin each sticky reel loses one life and receives a fresh random multiplier from any of the three tiers.

Four FS symbols open Down Under with ten spins: a sticky reel’s multiplier cannot fall below its starting tier. Five FS symbols give Hidden Treasures, also ten spins under Down Under rules but with two expanded reels always active.

If at least one Wild Reel with one or more lives remains on the last free spin, Last Chance switches on. It hands out free respins and keeps the bonus active until no reel has any lives left. During that phase new chests can land and open into new reels, with or without lives. New reels cannot have more lives than those already standing.

The bonus ends only when neither spins nor reels with lives remain. Hidden Treasures’ two-reel guarantee does not establish unlimited lives; its specific interaction with Last Chance is not described.

Paid modes and RTP versions

Hidden Treasures cannot be bought. RTP can be 96.20%, 94.22%, 91.21% or 88.19%; hit frequency is listed as 35% and volatility medium. The 10,000x maximum applies to the round total rather than an individual line and caps its result. Bonus frequency is undisclosed.

The predecessor and underwater neighbour

Hacksaw Gaming’s Dork Unit was released on 26 July 2022: a space theme, expanding reels, 96.30% RTP, medium volatility and a 10,000x maximum. Dorks of the Deep adds lives and Last Chance. Push Gaming’s Razor Shark, released on 3 September 2019, uses different underwater mechanics: 96.70%, high volatility and 50,000x.

The scene is underwater: reels stand among ruins, sea creatures swim around, and a dark mermaid silhouette lurks in the background. That is how the studio describes it, and the banner shows the same: bubbles holding a crab, a turtle and a jellyfish, shimmering blue and the columns of a drowned city. The mood is soft, with no horror, but with a sense of mystery.

Forty lines and wins both ways

There are 40 fixed lines on a 5×4 grid, and combinations are read from both ends, left to right and right to left. The studio notes it in its description as Win Both Ways. The rule noticeably improves the odds of a combination, because matches on the right edge work instead of going to waste.

An example: a rare symbol sits on the left edge of a line and the same on the right, with mixed symbols between. No left-to-right run of identical symbols forms, but one may form from the right if three identical symbols line up from the right edge. In those cases the both-ways rule turns a near miss into a win. It does not double anything, though: if a five-symbol line forms in both directions, slots of this kind count the single best combination per line, and the game’s help screen has the exact wording.

Highlight: how lit-up reels start the main event

The Highlight feature randomly lights symbols on reels 2, 3 and 4 on any spin. If all three reels are lit, a re-spin with colossal symbols starts. How often this happens, and in what order the reels light up, the studio does not publish.

Highlighting one or two reels does nothing by itself, but it hints that the spin is close to the main event: if a third reel lights up, the re-spin begins at once.

Colossal symbols 3×4: what happens in the re-spin

In the re-spin, reels 2, 3 and 4 merge into one wide reel carrying colossal symbols. A colossal symbol is a 3×4 block, 12 positions, and it appears only in this re-spin. If the merged reel is lit up entirely during that re-spin, the game awards another colossal re-spin.

The line logic can be pictured like this: the three middle reels become a single symbol, so a match with that block gives three positions in a row at once. If the same symbol sits on reel one, the line has four positions, and with reel five, five. The example is illustrative, and only the game’s rules show exactly how lines treat the block, but the sense is clear: a colossal symbol is the strongest brick in a combination.

Colossal symbols also turn up at NetEnt in Strolling Staxx: Cubic Fruits from 2019, where the Colossal Symbols feature is likewise tied to re-spins. The difference is scale: there the grid is 5×3, the RTP 95.98% and the cap 1,400x, while Secrets of Atlantis leans on underwater dynamics with highlighting.

The Nudge Wild: a symbol that finds its own place

A Wild in this game may land partly, with only a piece in view. It then nudges up or down and covers the reel fully. The colossal stacked Wild in the re-spin does the same: if it lands partly, it is pulled into full view. The point is that you do not depend on a lucky shift: if a Wild is in frame even by an edge, it works in full.

The features pair up: the Nudge Wild raises the value of each Wild appearance, while colossal symbols and two-sided wins raise the value of matches. The features are chosen so as not to duplicate each other.

Why there are no free spins and what that means for the balance

The feature list holds no free spins, no bonus round and no bonus buy. Anything beyond the lines comes through re-spins with colossal symbols and Wilds. For rhythm that means two things. Big payouts are not tied to one bonus event but to a lucky mix of highlights and matches. And there is no mode in which you can sit out the wait for a bonus, so the game has to be judged by the general flow of a session.

Fifth by RTP among NetEnt slots

The game returns 97.07%. Of 225 studio slots with published maths, only four rank above it: Mega Joker, Jackpot 6000, Codex of Fortune and Blood Suckers. It shares its level with Jack Hammer 2, which also lists 97.07%. The studio median is 96.19%.

Among these games Secrets of Atlantis has the highest cap, although across the whole studio 1,600x sits mid-table: 131st of 223.

A 23% hit rate and volatility

A winning spin arrives on average 23% of the time, against a 25% median, so the high RTP builds through re-spins and two-sided combinations rather than frequency. The studio volatility index of 5.3 puts it at medium volatility: smoother than Twin Spin Megaways, sharper than Blood Suckers.

Divide the return by the hit rate and an average winning spin is worth 4.22 bets. Other studio games come out differently: Aloha! Cluster Pays at 4.59, Butterfly Staxx at 4.03, Twin Spin Megaways at 2.74 and Blood Suckers 2 at only 2.36. Secrets of Atlantis sits closer to “rarely but noticeably” than to “often and small”.

Against Blood Suckers, whose return is even higher, the difference lies in how the return is made. Blood Suckers has a 45% hit rate, a volatility index of 2.7 and free spins with a bonus game, so its return comes from constant small payouts. In Secrets of Atlantis it comes from rarer but more visible payouts in the base game, re-spins included.

An RTP twin: Jack Hammer 2

Exactly the same return is listed for Jack Hammer 2: Fishy Business. The games are built differently, though. Jack Hammer 2 has 99 lines, sticky wins and free spins, an 800x cap, a volatility index of 3.9 and bets from €0.50. Secrets of Atlantis offers 40 lines without sticky wins or free spins, wins both ways, a cap twice as high and a lower minimum bet. The one thing they share is the return percentage, which shows that RTP alone says nothing about a game’s character.

2016 at NetEnt: neighbours of the season

The game shares its year with Aloha! Cluster Pays, Motörhead and the Jimi Hendrix Online Slot. It was a period when the studio experimented with form: clusters, music licences and underwater fantasies.

Aloha! Cluster Pays — RTP: 96.42%; Hit frequency: 21%; Max win: 700x.

Jimi Hendrix Online Slot — RTP: 96.9%; Hit frequency: 30%; Max win: 400x.

Theme Park: Tickets of Fortune — RTP: 96.52%; Hit frequency: 28%; Max win: 1,000x.

Secrets of Atlantis — RTP: 97.07%; Hit frequency: 23%; Max win: 1,600x.

Motörhead — RTP: 96.98%; Hit frequency: 16%; Max win: 600x.

Fairytale Legends: Red Riding Hood — RTP: 96.33%; Hit frequency: 20%; Max win: 800x.

Secrets of Christmas — RTP: 96.72%; Hit frequency: 39%; Max win: 1,400x.

Secrets of Atlantis has both the best RTP and the top cap of the season. Closest in spirit is Secrets of Christmas: also a “Secrets” game, also a cap above 1,000x, but with a return 0.35 points lower and a higher hit rate, 39%. Choosing between them is choosing between maximum return and more frequent payouts. The closest calm game from the studio at the time is Koi Princess from 2015, though it caps at 1,500x and has a bonus wheel.

Twenty lines and three tentacles

The 5×4 grid pays twenty lines from reel 1 across adjacent reels. Each line pays its best combination and line awards add together. Table values use total bets. Wild can land on any reel, substitutes for everything except bonus symbols and pays as the anchor.

Anchor (logo) — 3 matching: 2.5x; 4 matching: 10x; 5 matching: 25x.

Shark — 3 matching: 2x; 4 matching: 5x; 5 matching: 12.5x.

Turtle — 3 matching: 2x; 4 matching: 4x; 5 matching: 10x.

Purple fish — 3 matching: 1x; 4 matching: 3x; 5 matching: 7.5x.

Yellow fish — 3 matching: 1x; 4 matching: 3x; 5 matching: 5x.

A, K — 3 matching: 0.5x; 4 matching: 1x; 5 matching: 4x.

Q, J — 3 matching: 0.25x; 4 matching: 0.5x; 5 matching: 2x.

Any regular spin can randomly select one of three features. Kraken Locking Wilds holds Wilds and keeps spinning until collection; chests award more Wilds, continue, double all wins and collect, more Wilds and collect, or collect. The total is paid at the end. Colossal Kraken Wilds guarantees a 3×4 Wild. Infectious Kraken Wilds guarantees a Wild that turns neighbouring symbols Wild. Feature and chest-outcome frequencies and infection sizes are undisclosed.

Sunken Treasure and Roaming Kraken

Bonuses on reels 1 and 3 with a chest on reel 5 trigger Sunken Treasure. The description refers to picking three cash-prize chests and continuing while money is revealed; Collect ends the bonus. The precise pick limit, prize values and weights are unspecified.

The main bonus needs a combination: bonus symbols on reels one and three and a free spins symbol on reel five. The player then opens chests, each adding one, two or three spins, for up to twelve in total. Collect stops the picking early.

The bonus plays on 40 lines. The multiplier starts at 1x, and every Wild that lands adds 1x, up to 10x for the remaining spins. Wilds stay on the grid and change position from spin to spin, hence the word roaming. There is no retrigger, and special reels are used.

The line-bet conversion when switching to forty lines is unexplained. Multiplier increases apply to remaining spins; chest count and +1/+2/+3 weights are undisclosed. A 100x total-bet buy opens Roaming Kraken Free Spins directly; the crate’s price on the left follows the stake. Buy RTP is not separately specified.

The limit and neighbouring games

The maximum is 10,000x, without a detailed stopping rule at that value. Hit and bonus frequencies are undisclosed. The announcement followed Buffalo King’s 9 January 2020 announcement by three weeks; Great Rhino Megaways and a Tut-themed book game followed in spring.

Big Bass Bonanza uses fishing free spins with money collection. Push Gaming’s underwater Razor Shark has high volatility. The pirate-themed Pirate Gold Deluxe from 2020 has a 15,000x maximum.