Pacific Gold Slot Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Pacific Gold Review

One thing we love about ELK’s epic Gold range is the fact that you get to visit highly unusual and unpredictable destinations each time, and Pacific Gold is no exception. Kane seems to also have traveled in time in this installment, and his WW2-style plane has apparently crash-landed on an island somewhere in the Pacific. Judging from the colorful totem mask symbols, the island is populated by Polynesians, but Kane is all alone as the top-tier character symbol.

The dynamic grid expands with up to 4 extra rows via Avalanche Wins, as usual, and we really enjoyed the air-raid siren ‘big win’ sound. We’ve seen Big Symbols in previous installments, but innovations like Power Stacks, Pacific Wave horizontal stacks and last, but not least, the Ghost Box symbol feature, are brand new to this release. The 10,000x potential is in the higher end of what this series has offered so far, and the biggest drawback is ELK’s usual 95 % RTP.

Pacific Gold Slot - Reels Screen

Pacific Gold Slot Features

You win by landing 3+ matching symbols from left to right in any position on adjacent reels, and the 4 premium symbols, with Kane at the top, pays 2 to 5 x your stake for 6 of a kind wins. In addition, you have the wild symbol that steps in for all regular pay symbols to help complete winning combos, and the golden wild can land organically or be created from a feature we’ll cover below.

All winning symbols explode off the grid via the Avalanche mechanic, and new and/or existing symbols drop down to fill the gaps. Each Avalanche adds +1 row to the grid, and the process repeats as long as you keep winning.

You can thus expand the default 4 rows up to 8, at best, and this gives you a number of win ways ranging from 4,096 to 262,144. Everything resets between base game spins.

Regular pay symbols, as well as the wild symbol, can appear in 4 different sizes. This Big Symbol feature triggers at random times, awarding symbols in sizes 2x2 (Super), 3x3 (Mega) or 4x4 (Epic). Big Symbols count as the corresponding amount of 1x1 symbols when part of a win, and empty positions below Big Symbols are filled with regular sized symbols of the same type.

In addition, you can land so-called Power Stacks, and these are regular symbols that come with the number 4 attached. This number indicates that the symbol represents a stack of 4 matching symbols, and the number increases by +2 for each Avalanche win the power stack symbol is not part of.

The Pacific Wave symbols are golden framed matching symbols that land in horizontal stacks at random times.

These come in sizes 1x2, 1x3 and 1x4, and 1x1 wild symbols are casted from molten gold in all empty positions directly below a Pacific Wave stack. The Pacific Wave stack is removed when part of a win.

The Ghost Box is another innovative symbol, and it remains in play until the end of Avalanche sequences. It basically opens up to collect all winning symbols (big symbols are broken down and collected as 1x1 sized symbols) per Avalanche, and the Ghost Box explodes to remove surrounding symbols on the first non-winning Avalanche. The collected “ghost symbols” are then let loose, and they are distributed on the following Avalanche(s) with the highest value symbols first in line.

The Free Drops Bonus Round triggers when you land 3, 4, 5 or 6 bonus scatters anywhere in view, and this awards 10, 15, 20 or 25 free spins, respectively. The Safety Level feature keeps the grid expanded at whatever height you’ve achieved via Avalanche wins, and otherwise the bonus round plays out like the base game.

The Ghost Box symbol is persistent in the bonus round (if it appears), and it only explodes after the final free spin avalanche sequence has played out. The feature can be retriggered with extra spins, and this is done the same way as described above.

As usual, non-UK players, and anyone eligible, can take advantage of ELK’s X-iter Feature Buy Menu. You get 5 options this time, and these are as follows:

• Big Symbol - pay 5x your stake to get a spin with a guaranteed big symbol.
• Pacific Wave - pay 10x your stake to get a spin with a guaranteed Pacific Wave.
• Ghost Box - pay 25x your stake to get a spin with a guaranteed Ghost Box.
• Bonus - pay 100x your stake to trigger the bonus round with at least 3 scatters.
• Super Bonus - pay 500x your stake to get an enhanced bonus round with a persistent Ghost Box from the very first spin.

The 200 Spins Pacific Gold Slot Experience

You get to see both Big Symbol wins and Pacific Wave wilds being casted in the brief base game section of our 9-minute highlights video, and we purchase the Super Bonus Round at the 1-minute mark. It plays out for the remainder of the video, as we managed to win 10 extra spins, and we can promise you a grand Ghost Box finale at the very end.

Review Summary

It’s a minor detail in the grander scheme of things, but we’re a bit unsure about the color and symbol scheme ELK has gone with in this release.

The visuals are overall very solid, of course, but the brightly colored masks seem a bit misplaced. It’s far from a deal-breaker though, and this is another highly exciting, as well as innovative, installment in ELK’s popular Gold saga. You get the grid expanding mechanic you’re used to, with some very interesting new feature symbols to boot.

The Power Stacks didn’t appear all that often, at least not for us, but we saw plenty of the highly satisfying gold wild-casting Pacific Wave horizontal stacks. The Ghost Box is also a very clever innovation, making sure you get a climactic finish to all avalanche sequences and bonus rounds it appears in. It’s been a joyride following Kane on his many adventures so far, and we’re highly impressed by ELK’s ability to keep the experience fresh and thrilling in each new installment.

Pros

• Avalanche Win grid expansion w/ up to 262,144 ways
• Up to 4x4 Big Symbols and increasing Power Stacks
• Pacific Wave wild-casting horizontal stacks
• Ghost Box win symbol collector explode at the end
• FS w/ Safety Level that locks in expanded grid
• Win up to 10,000x your stake

Cons

• 95 % RTP is well below average

If you love Pacific Gold Slot you should also try:

Katmandu Gold - is another popular installment in ELK’s Kane range, and avalanche wins expand the grid with up to 531,441 win ways at best. You’ll benefit from innovations like Ice Climbers and Expanding Wins, and you get a progressive bonus round multiplier that can lead to 10,000x payouts.

Voodoo Gold - takes you on a mysterious journey deep into the Louisiana swamps, and the Avalanche win mechanic can expand the grid up to 6x8 with 262,144 win ways.

Mega symbols generate wilds underneath, and the Safety Level bonus round can dish out up to 5,000x your stake.

Zulu Gold - is a highly playable and popular African-themed installment in ELK’s Kane series, and you get the standard Avalanche grid expanding mechanic also here. You can look forward to crushing big symbols, zulu stacks, wild walkers and charged wilds, and multiplier symbols can lead to 10,000x payouts in the bonus round.

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