Cluster Tumble review
An adventurer climbs to the top of a temple in the Himalayas because her husband has sent a distress signal. Cluster Tumble reached Relax Gaming on 3 November 2021, and the studio calls it the fifth game in the Tumble series. It is built on an 8×8 board with stone blocks, pays by cluster, states a 20,000x cap. The base RTP is 96.40%. On volatility the studio speaks in words, calling the trek a “highly volatile quest”, with no numeric scale.
Stones and Wilds with lives
The rules describe the game simply: eight columns, eight rows, payouts by cluster. The board has 64 cells, but not all are occupied by symbols. The studio page speaks of a variable number of symbols in play and of stone blocks that must be destroyed: wins are needed to remove the surrounding blocks, otherwise the path to the temple stays shut.
The destruction mechanic is described in the rules this way: winning symbols and neighbouring ordinary symbols or stone blocks disappear, and new symbols fall into their place. The result is a chain of cascades in which a win both clears the board and opens the way.
The Wild substitutes for all ordinary symbols, but it has a service life. The rules give it up to five lives: the number is shown in the lower right corner of the symbol and drops when the Wild takes part in a win. While lives remain, the Wild stays on the board for a set number of avalanches, from one to five, and works in any win.
An example with numbers. A Wild arrives with three lives. In the first cascade it joins a cluster and two lives remain. The second time it joins again and one remains. On the third cascade it pays for the last time and disappears. So a Wild with five lives can be used in five wins, and that is its worth compared with an ordinary Wild that works once.
Lives promise no pay on every cascade: the Wild must join a winning cluster. Breaking stones opens cells without establishing a typical late cluster size or guaranteeing a bonus.
Lightning Win and Fire Transform
| Block | What happens when a win lands next to it |
|---|---|
| Wild | Reveals a Wild when destroyed |
| Lightning Win | The block turns into a target symbol, and after the next cascade all such symbols and Wilds win anywhere on the board |
| Fire Transform | The block turns into a target symbol, and in the next cascade 1-2 symbol kinds transform into it |
The game’s least standard feature removes the adjacency requirement. The block becomes a target symbol, one of the ordinary ones, and after the next cascade all such symbols together with the Wilds pay, wherever they stand. It is the one case where scattered symbols pay like a cluster.
A notional nine target symbols and two Wilds form an eleven-symbol set regardless of position. The target need not be the most frequent type on the board. Fire Transform changes one or two regular types to the target on the next cascade; consecutive joint activation of both special blocks is unconfirmed.
The temple passage and growing multiplier
Entry comes from clearing every stone or three Scatters. The start is five spins. Each bonus Scatter adds one; each complete clear adds three and raises the multiplier, effective immediately on the clearing spin and retained afterward. Detailed passage-opening conditions are not decoded.
| Board clears | Regular mode | Volatile mode | Spins added |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | x3 | x6 | 3 |
| 2 | x6 | x12 | 6 |
| 3 | x9 | x18 | 9 |
| 4 | x12 | x24 | 12 |
| 5 | x15 | x30 | 15 |
The last rows extend the stated sequence; the added-spin column is cumulative rather than a separate increment for one clear. An illustrative three clears and two Scatters gives 5 + 9 + 2 = 16 spins. The multiplier has no named upper stage, but the overall round maximum stops further payouts and remaining spins.
Two buys and regional builds
Buying is available only from regular play: the regular mode has 96.48% RTP and the volatile one 96.57%. Both launch the same start, while faster multiplier growth promises neither identical grids nor clear probabilities. Price is recorded as a variable without a value, so numeric cost comparison is unavailable.
Germany lists 90% RTP. Alternative UK GameID clustertumble_92 is unexplained, so the number in its name cannot be declared an established RTP. Minimum paying cluster, clearly labelled pay units, hit/bonus/cap frequencies and Wild-life distribution are undisclosed. A short demo sequence cannot establish those parameters.
The Tumble continuation
Temple Tumble Megaways from 2019 uses variable ways, with 96.25% RTP, high risk and a 7,767x maximum. Temple Tumble 2 Dream Drop from 2022 has 94.80% RTP, high risk and a 10,046x limit. Dream Drop belongs to the jackpot range; no jackpot is described for Cluster Tumble.
The story continues Temple Tumble, but ways give way to clusters and stones gain special properties. Settlement and cascade order change: Lightning Win removes adjacency while regular wins remain clusters.
