Treasures of Kilauea

Treasures of Kilauea: Slot Overview

Volcanic eruptions are some of the most powerful and fascinating natural phenomena, showcasing the immense power lurking beneath the Earth's surface. While they can be incredibly destructive, they also have the power to create. Consider the Hawaiian islands, which came into existence through volcanic activity more than 70 million years ago. Presently, six volcanoes in Hawaii remain active, including Kilauea, which takes center stage in the online slot game developed by PearFiction Studios, a partner of Microgaming.

In the Treasures of Kilauea slot, PearFiction Studios has animatronics depicting a volcano that adds some characterful charm to the game, as it periodically showers wild symbols onto the reels, all while occasionally letting out various sounds like wheezes and chuckles. While volcanic eruptions are typically awe-inspiring in their ferocity, the designers have made this one entertaining to offset any potential intimidation. Unlike Play'n GO's Gold Volcano, this game takes a bright and lively approach to lessen any ominous atmosphere.

When designing a slot with a volcano theme, adapting the reel layout to resemble a volcano is becoming more popular. Gold Volcano incorporated additional rows, Push Gaming's Mount Magmas adapted this for its bonus rounds, and Treasures of Kilauea has followed suit to a smaller extent. The layout includes five reels with four symbols each and an additional horizontal reel on top with three symbols. This results in a mini-Megaways appearance. Behind the scenes, the game employs a highly volatile mathematical model with four possible RTP settings, reaching up to 96.35% and dropping to as low as 86.79%. Players can enjoy the slot on any device, with bets ranging from 10 p/c to $/€50 per spin.

Even though it looks somewhat like a mini-Megaways game, Treasures of Kilauea offers a relatively limited number of winning combinations. There are 40 fixed paylines across the grid, releasing coins when three or more matching symbols align from the left. The values of these symbols aren't particularly high. Wins for the lower value symbols 10-A start from just 0.5-0.6 times the bet for five in a row. The higher value symbols, the premium masks, award payouts of only 0.9-1.2 times the stake for five. While wilds and multipliers are available, the amount line wins offer is limited in Treasures of Kilauea.

Treasures of Kilauea: Slot Features

Reflecting Kilauea's status as one of the world's most active volcanoes, Treasures of Kilauea employs a mechanic where frames accumulate every ten spins, later being filled with wild symbols. After 50 spins, even more wilds are added by the volcano. Additionally, there are less frequent but significant features such as free spins with extra wilds and five different jackpot levels.

Lava Spins and Eruption Spins

Each time Volcano Symbols appear, they add a frame around their position on the grid. On the 10th spin, these framed symbols transform into wilds. Post-evaluation, these Lava Frames are reset. Every 50 spins, the game triggers Eruption Spins, during which the usual transformation of Lava Frames happens, with extra wilds being randomly placed. If a wild symbol appears on another wild, it becomes a x2 wild. Above the reels, counters track the remaining spins until the next Lava Spin or Eruption Spin. The frames and counters are saved and consistent for each bet level.

Free Spins

In both the base and bonus games, Free Spins symbols can appear. By landing at least three Free Spins symbols in the base game, players activate the free spins feature, allowing them to choose from the following options:

• Landing three scatter symbols awards players with a choice of 15 free spins plus 5 wilds, 10 free spins plus 7 wilds, or 5 free spins plus 10 wilds.
• For four scatter symbols, players are offered 30 free spins plus 5 wilds, 20 free spins plus 7 wilds, or 10 free spins plus 10 wilds.
• If five scatter symbols are landed, players can select from 45 free spins plus 5 wilds, 30 free spins plus 7 wilds, or 15 free spins plus 10 wilds.

During the free spins, wild symbols are randomly placed on the reels, with retriggers granting the same number of free spins initially selected.

Jackpots

On the top reel, the central position is highlighted with a golden frame. Landing an Idol symbol here activates the Jackpot Wheel, which spins to grant one of five jackpots - Micro, Mini, Minor, Major, and Mega - worth 18x, 30x, 100x, 500x, and 5,000x the original wager, respectively.

Treasures of Kilauea: Slot Verdict

For players who enjoy games full of features, Treasures of Kilauea could be ideal. This slot includes common gaming mechanics but presents them in a way that's engaging. The ten-spin wild symbol cycle returns from other popular games, like IGT's Scarab or Kalamba Games' Caribbean Anne, but is enhanced here with an additional mechanic that triggers every 50 spins. Together, these features help keep the game's earnings around the average level most of the time, though actual results may vary widely.

To maintain balance, PearFiction offset the inclusion of extra wilds by setting relatively low base symbol values. While this may not pose an issue in games offering numerous payoff lines, it can be a factor in Treasures of Kilauea, which features just 40 paylines. Even when lining up a complete screen with the highest-value symbol, the payout is confined to 48 times the bet. Though Eruption Spins might toss several x2 Wilds into the mix, significant wins remain unlikely.

Achieving substantial wins in this slot can be challenging without triggering the Jackpot feature. This proved somewhat elusive, although the Idol symbol made more frequent appearances during the free spins than in the base game, indicating improved odds of hitting a jackpot in the bonus rounds. Thus, it may be strategically optimal to opt for the highest number of free spins when the bonus round begins, as wagering on more spins may provide more opportunities to land an Idol, even with fewer wilds. Nevertheless, this remains speculative without concrete statistics to fully support this way of thinking.

In many respects, Treasures of Kilauea embodies classic PearFiction style. It features vibrancy and color, with generally standard extras, relying on a jackpot mechanism for its full potential. If a slot that keeps players engaged with constant though limited features in a light-hearted setting appeals to you, Treasures of Kilauea could be worth exploring.