In and Out NetEnt · heist slot
Five spins is a short feature by any standard, and reading it as a small one would be a mistake. What this feature is worth is decided almost entirely by what it inherits from the spin that opened it — the size the grid had reached, and how far the marked positions had climbed.
So the interesting question here is not how many spins there are. It is what state they start in.
Three bonus symbols open the free spins. The important detail is when they are counted: after every cascade in the triggering round has resolved, not when they land. A bonus symbol that arrives on the third stage of a chain counts exactly as much as one that was there from the first, and a chain still running has not yet been judged.
There are two kinds. An ordinary bonus symbol counts towards the three. A Super Bonus counts towards the three and adds a spin on top, so three Super Bonus symbols open a feature of eight rather than 5. The Super Free Spins variant of the feature begins at the maximum grid size rather than growing into it, which removes the slowest part of the climb.
This is the part that makes the feature worth paying attention to. When the free spins begin, the grid is not reset. It is whatever size the triggering round had pushed it to, up to 8x7. The marked positions are not reset either: every tier earned during the triggering round is still there, still at the level it reached.
The practical difference is large. A feature won on an untouched 6x5 board starts with twenty-six fewer positions than one won on a fully expanded board, and with nothing marked for a collection round to read. A feature won at the end of a long chain starts on a wide board where a good part of the surface is already silver or gold. Same five spins, materially different feature.
It also explains why this game does not separate its base play and its features the way most do. The base round is not a waiting room. It is where the conditions of the feature are set, and the feature simply continues on the board the base round built.
Nothing is switched off for the duration. Cascades resolve as normal, so a free spin can produce a chain of several stages just as a paid one can. Bombs still land and still push the edges outwards if there is room left to push. Positions still climb tiers. And the collection round can still open inside the feature, on the same condition as ever — Chloe on the screen next to a marked area once the cascades stop.
Extra spins are available but tightly capped. Up to two bonus symbols can land on a single free spin, awarding one or two more spins accordingly. Bonus symbols cannot be upgraded to Super Bonus while the feature is running, which closes the obvious route to a feature that extends itself indefinitely.
A feature that keeps every base mechanic alive is longer to watch and harder to summarise than one that replaces the game with a simpler version of itself. It is also why a short count of spins here is not the same thing as a short feature.
Five spins sounds thin next to the twenty or thirty that many slots hand out, and the comparison does not hold, because those twenty spins are usually twenty simple spins on an unchanged board. Five spins here can each be a chain, on a board that is already large, with a collection round waiting behind them.
The same reasoning works in reverse and deserves saying plainly. A feature that does more per spin can also do less per spin, and five spins is five chances for the board not to cooperate rather than twenty. The published ceiling for this game is 12,086x the stake and that is an extreme, reached by a sequence in which a great many independent things all go one way. Nothing about the design makes a feature owed to anyone, and no number of spins without one brings the next one closer.
| How many bonus symbols are needed? |
Three, counted once every cascade in the round has finished. Super Bonus symbols count towards the three as well as adding spins. |
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| How many spins does the feature start with? |
5, plus one for each Super Bonus among the symbols that opened it. |
| Does the feature keep the grid it was won on? |
Yes, and the marked positions with it. A feature earned on a grown and heavily marked board begins in a different state from one earned cold. |
| Can more spins be won inside the feature? |
Up to two bonus symbols per spin add one or two spins accordingly. Bonus symbols cannot be upgraded once the feature is running. |