Set in a gold mine, Fire in the Hole represents the more traditional side of Swedish game developer No Limit City, without falling into the boring territory. Explosive sticks of dynamite, pompous orchestral music and a bearded, beer-drinking dwarf guarantee an original and guaranteed exciting gaming experience.

As we all know, the volatility of this game maker’s creations is particularly high, meaning that the odds of winning can theoretically reach tens of thousands. However, players with a gleam in their eye should remember that the casino statistically collects its winnings in more rounds and the player collects mostly losses.

How to play and the stakes

Fire in the Hole is played on a 6×3 grid, expandable up to 6×6. A minimum of 3 symbols in a row starting from the left edge is required to win.However, other rows of 3 symbols will also trigger the Wild Mining feature, more on that below.

The basic symbols include the familiar symbols from playing cards, from King to Ace. Slightly higher payouts come from the rope, backpack, pickaxe, miner’s boots and the most valuable symbol, the lantern. The base game also features an xBomb Wild, a stick of dynamite that explodes to reveal more rows on the screen from the bowels of the rock. In addition, each win blasts more squares into view and the payout multiplier increases until returning to the minimum screen at the end of each round. There is a maximum of 46,656 ways to win.

The minimum bet in the game is 10 cents, and the maximum bet depends on the casino and can be, for example, 10 or 14 euros. In addition to the manual spin button, the game has an Autoplay feature where you can enable up to 1,000 automatic spins with a user-defined loss limit.

For the impatient players, a lightning bolt image is available in the bottom right-hand corner to activate a faster turbo mode.

You can wait for the bonus or free spins in the base game, but the star button on the left of the screen also gives you the option to buy a shortcut to the free spins, which are available in three different levels. Free spins are hardly the case here, though, as it costs between 60 and 500 times your stake to get there, and there’s still no guarantee that you’ll be on the winning side after the game.

Layout and sounds

Unlike No Limit City’s more experimental genre, Fire in the Hole doesn’t feature blood and guts, gangster prisons, anarchist punks or tombs. It’s perhaps a somewhat traditional looking slot machine.

However, the game’s originality is brought about by the dramatic music track, which imitates a more sombre orchestral symphony with a distant, darkly resonant choir. The soundscape, echoing deep in the mines of the game’s action, with its gold clinking and waggon-track rattling, is also polished and palpable. 

Of course, the screen vibrating with the exploding sticks of dynamite adds to the intense atmosphere. If the bonus games pay off, the dwarf will be eager to drink the beer bottle at the end of the game.

Special functions

In Fire in the Hole, if you get a line of three or more symbols (up to a maximum of five) but no win is awarded, the Wild Mining feature is triggered and blows the whole grid open. At the same time, the middle symbols in that symbol row are replaced by Wild symbols.

The Lucky Wagon Spins bonus game, known as the free spins, can be accessed by landing at least three Scattered Gold symbols on the reels. The number of lines in the bonus game depends on the number of bonus symbols, i.e. gold pieces: if there are three triggering bonus symbols, you start with two lines, if there are four bonus symbols, you start with three lines, and similarly, five bonus symbols start with four lines.

Free spins start with three spins, and whenever you get a coin, the three spins start again.

There’s quite a collection of special feature symbols in the bonus game. The aim is to collect coins, which can be worth between 1x and 100x your bet. The maximum multiplier can be up to 60,000 times the bet.

During the bonus game, various mine carriages run along the top, dispensing different payouts and other features to the coins on the reels below. A stick of dynamite on the track will increase the coin value, open closed rows and activate the collection chests at the bottom.The sack symbol collects the value of coins appearing on the corresponding reel.

The Chest symbol collects the value of all the coins on the reels and removes any symbols left on the reels.The best symbol is the dwarf symbol, which collects all the values on the reel and remains to collect coins until the end of the bonus game.Please note that the latter best symbols may not appear at all during the bonus games, so again, it’s all down to luck.

Return rate and volatility

The high volatility of No Limit City slot games means that there are fewer small wins and a correspondingly higher probability of big wins. However, it’s worth noting that high volatility games also use up your bankroll, so it’s worth paying attention to cash management.

On the providers’s website, Fire in the Hole has an RTP of 96.07%. However, it is a little-known fact in the casino industry that casinos can choose their own RTP. It is therefore worth checking the percentage directly from the game information directly on the website of the casino where the game is played. For example, the an online casino can have a 94.11% payback percentage for this slot, which is not mind-blowing when you consider that the average payback percentage for slots is around 96%.

It might be worth trying this game at a casino with a higher RTP.

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