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

Gold Volcano Review

Gold Volcano is a surprisingly innovative game from Play’n Go, and the highly unusual reel setup (3-4-5-6-6-5-4-3) harmonizes perfectly with the vulcano in the background. The grid of dots you see above the regular reels is not a hallucination. Rather, it’s dormant reel positions that become active when the volcano erupts. A minor eruption is possible also in the base game, but the explosive discharge is reserved for the bonus round.

The visual presentation is nicely done here, but the main focus has obviously been on meshing the features with the vulcano theme. We’ll go out on a limb and claim that this is done better in Gold Volcano than all other games with a similar theme, and the symbols are actually pushed up from below here, just like the red-hot magma. The cascading wins feature is in play on all spins, and if you pay close attention you’ll see 5 markers inside the volcano. These are the “high-water marks” the lava reaches per consecutive cascade.

You need to get 6 cascading wins in a row to trigger the Eruption free spins round here, and you will now play on a 8x8 grid. The base game comes with 3 different random modifiers, and one of them erupts the volcano prematurely and adds mystery symbols to the outside reel positions on the mountain. This transforms the grid into a 4-5-6-7-7-4-5 setup, and you can also get wilds and 2x multiplier wilds from this feature. The 2 other base game features are also quite capable of keeping your winning streak going, and there is also a scatter collect feature which upgrades the 3 medium level symbols to the very high value golden gemstone.

What are the bonus features?

Play’n Go has done well with their other Cluster Pays games, but this one sticks out from the rest. It comes with a lot of bonus features that are mostly related to the vulcano theme. The features come in the different stages of the vulcana, and the big climax is the Eruption Free Spins feature.

First of all, this game comes with a Cascading Wins feature, and you’ll see the lava rise in the vulcana for each cascade.

Dormant volcano

When the volcano is dormant, you can trigger 3 different random features on losing spins only. These are reel modifying features that are there to help you prolong the cascading wins, and hopefully trigger the eruption bonus round. Here is what you can expect:

• Rumble feature - the whole grid is shook, and all the symbols are shuffled around to new positions. One symbol is also replaced by a scatter.
• Lava feature - the volcano erupts, and mystery lava symbols are spewed out on the outer reel positions. The grid is now changed to 4-5-6-7-7-4-5, and the lava symbols turn into random symbols which can include wilds, but not scatters.
• Excavate feature - will add between 3 and 5 wilds randomly to the grid, which can help create winning clusters.

Pressure building

As the pressure of the volcano is building, you can get help from wilds that will be randomly placed on the empty grid between cascades. The wilds can sometimes land with a 2x multiplier attached, and the multiplier will multiply with each other if you get more than one involved in a winning cluster.

Crystallisation

In the upper left corner you’ll see a scatter collection meter, and the Crystallization feature is triggered when you fill up all the 9 empty slots on this meter. The meter has 3 different stages, and you will upgrade a medium level gemstone symbol into the highest value gold symbol every time you collect 3 scatters. The meter will reset after a cascade is over, but it will not reset if you trigger the Eruption bonus round.

The Eruption free spins feature is the climax of this game, and it comes about when you manage to get 6 consecutive cascading wins.

You will also get 1 extra free spin every time you get 6 consecutive cascading wins, and the Crystallization meter will not reset between spins during the feature. The Pressure feature is also active here, and which means that you can benefit from multiplying multipliers.

How to play

The Play’n Go interface is very slick and modern, but it does not stick out too much from other developers’ respective interfaces. It gets the job done however, and it’s purposely low key to not distract from the game itself. Here we will walk you through everything you should know about playing Gold Volcano slot, and especially new players should probably pay attention.

The hamburger menu down in the left-hand side corner opens up the game settings only, which kind of defeats the purpose of a hamburger menu. Anyway, in the settings you can toggle on/off the sound, turn on fast play and switch on the option that makes the spacebar a spin button.

Next, you can click the big info icon below the reels to open up the games info section. Here you can read about all the bonus features, and each feature comes with a nice illustrative animation. You can scroll through the info screen via the arrows below, and you’ll get to the paytable at the very end.

The paytable is dynamic, which means the respective symbol values will update according to your chosen bet level. The highest paying symbol by far is the golden gemstone, and it pays a whopping 1,000x your stake for 30+ in a cluster. In comparison, the 3 medium gemstone symbols pay only 35x, 30x and 25x, respectively.

You can adjust your bet level via the arrows in the middle below the grid, and the bet range spans from 10p to £100 per spin. You can also set up the autoplay feature with between 10 and 100 autospins. The autoplay feature can be stopped when you trigger the bonus round, or on any win.

Where to play Gold Volcano?

Play’n Go is a very popular developer, and you will therefore have no problem finding a casino that carries Gold Vulcana slot. We have already told you all about how to play this game, and in this section of the review we will give you some options when it comes to actually playing the game. First of all, you need to decide if you feel ready for real money action right away, or if you want to test the free demo version of the game first. We can help you out either way.

If you are well-versed in the online casino world, you will probably have no trouble getting started with this game right away. It is a very unusual slot for sure, but the gameplay is still about spinning the reels after all. We just happen to scan the whole casino market on a regular basis, which gives you the perfect overview of where to play this game. You can pick up a sweet welcome offer along the way, and get going with Gold Volcano slot immediately.

Perhaps you are new to the world of online slots, or you’re just not sure about this game. Innovative and unusual slots like this will always attract attention, but it does not mean that you will necessarily like it just because it’s not ordinary. Worry not, as you can try the free demo game right here on this page. Then you will know if this game is worth your while, or not. Simply follow the link to the very top, and play Gold Volcano for free right away.

The 200 Spins Gold Volcano Experience

We were immediately excited when we saw this game, as we knew from the start it would be an unusual experience. The vulcano theme is very well done here, and we could hardly wait to get going with our 200 spins test run.

We felt in a daring mood, so we set the bet level to £100 per spin, and braced ourselves for a bumpy ride. The base game is capable of dishing out 1,000x wins via the high paying golden gemstone symbol, and these can be multiplied by the 2x multipliers also. However, we soon realized that the base game features are mostly there to push your cascading wins towards the bonus round.

The random reel modifiers are not that hard to trigger, and they can be quite helpful in this game. Especially the random wilds can get you on the right track for more cascades again, and all the features are quite pleasing to the eye. The whole idea of pushing symbols up like lava is brand new, and it takes a while to get used to it.

Towards the middle of our session, things started to “heat up”. We got the lava feature at first, which gave us a smaller win, and then the rumble feature kept us going and put yet another scatter in the meter. The cascades kept coming, and all of a sudden we got the 6 we needed to trigger the eruption bonus round. The excavate feature helped push us over the edge, and we felt a rush of adrenaline as anything could happen now.

The initial free spins were not all that eventful, but the idea here is to fill the Crystallisation meter as much as possible. It’s fun to see the volcano erupt on every spin, and push the symbols all the way to the top, and slowly but surely we got the Crystallisation meter filled up. On the 5th and final spin, everything came to a head.

The meter was now full, which means that all 3 medium level symbols are transformed into the high value gold symbol. This helped us get 6 cascading wins in a row, which gave us a crucial extra free spin. Now the golden gemstone symbol was abundantly present on the reels, and we got 6 new cascades and a 7th spin. All in all we won a decent 158.4x our stake, and we’ll definitely be back for more vulcano action.

Review Summary

We always applaud innovation, and Gold Vulcano has a theme that fits perfectly with the bonus features. We have seen vulcano slots before, but nothing like this exists out there. It’s very cleverly done, and the whole thing reaches a natural climax with the Eruption bonus round. It also helps that the potential is twice of what you will usually see from Play’n Go, and wins up to 10,000x sure makes this an attractive title.

It’s not all that easy to trigger the bonus round though, but this is what you can expect from a highly volatile game. The base game modifiers are fun and helpful, and the base game never gets boring here. The only thing to beware of is the RTP ranges that Play’n Go operates with, as this means that some casinos might lower the RTP from the default of 96.20 %. We have to say that Play’n Go has upped their game lately, and we are sure they have more surprises up their sleeves for the future also.

Pros

• Innovative vulcano theme with features to match
• 3 base game reel modifiers
• Symbol transformation meter
• Eruption free spins with expanded 8x8 grid

Cons

• Customizable RTP ranges is something to beware of

If you love Gold Volcano you should also try:

There are quite a few games out there centered around the spectacular phenomena a vulcano really is. However, few are as innovative and spot on as what Play’n Go has come up with here. Still, we would like to recommend some of the better ones we know of for you, and especially the first one is on the same level of innovation. Follow the links to learn more about each game, and you can also check out the free demo version if you wish.

Wildcano - from Red Rake Gaming is one of very few slots with orbital reels. The circular reels center around the opening of the vulcano, and you will benefit from randomly triggered features on non-winning spins here too. In the explosive bonus round you’ll see the volcano erupt, and throw wild symbols onto the reels in random positions. This is the defining feature that gave this action-packed game its title.

Volcano Eruption - is a medium volatile game from NextGen, and wilds are spewed onto the reels in the respins feature. The middle reel will also be a wild reel during the feature, as the lava shaft spells out “wild” in the background. The features don’t mesh as well as they do in the game at hand, but it’s still a worthwhile game to check out if you like Gold Volcano.

Jackpot Giant - comes with cartoon style visuals, and the game centers around a friendly giant. You need to trigger the free spins bonus round to have a shot at the big prize here, and landing 5 wilds on a payline will give you the life-changing progressive jackpot win. You can also win up to 1,000x your stake in this medium variance slot, and you get to pick 3 out of 6 volcanoes in the bonus game.

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