Bones & Bounty

Bones & Bounty: Slot Overview

Pirates and bones have a long association with each other – after all, the pirate emblem, the 'Jolly Roger', dating back to the 18th century, presents a skull and crossbones symbol that must've struck terror in the hearts of regular sailors when it was spotted racing towards them over the horizon. Reinforcing the association is Bones & Bounty from software provider Thunderkick, which is an eerie piratical slot featuring bones, spectral shapes, and a uniquely designed hold & win style bonus round where a substantial bounty lies in wait.

To get there, players join a pirate captain in his physical and/or spectral form as he pilots a tatty sailed ship into a green-lit sea of broken ships and dangerous rocks. Are those the pointy claws of a giant crab nipping in the distance? Could be, making this a treacherous place indeed to search for treasure. Or, after seeing the bonus round, it is just as likely to be the place where the captain has hidden the loot, returning now to claim it. So many stories, hopefully, players will be lucky enough to write themselves a happy ending.

Bones & Bounty's tale begins by selecting a bet of 10 p/c to $/€100 per spin, where the default RTP for playing this way is 96.16%. Should you fork out 100x the bet to buy the bonus round, the return value increases to 96.5%. Like choppy seas, Bones & Bounty is a highly volatile online slot hosted on a 6-reel, 4-row gaming grid where there are 4,096 ways to win. Hit matching symbols on adjacent reels from the leftmost side, and a winning way is created.

Bullet-ridden 9-A card ranks are Bones & Bounty's low pay symbols, awarding a payout of 1.5 to 3.2x the bet when a six-of-a-kind win hits. Payouts rise to 4.2 to 10 times the bet when landing 6 maps, timers, telescopes, compasses, or pirates. Wild symbols, no matter their size, are able to substitute for any regular pay symbol when wins are being evaluated.

Bones & Bounty: Slot Features

As well as 1x1 wilds, there are also Stacked Respin Wilds and an elaborately designed hold 'n win style Cash bonus Game.

Stacked Respins Wild

The base game's extra bit is the Stacked Respins Wild symbol. This symbol can occupy 2, 3, or 4 positions on its reel. Stacked Respins Wild symbols lock into place when they hit and trigger a respin. If one or more (up to 4 can be in the game area) Stacked Respins Wild symbols land during a respin, another respin is awarded. Both wilds and Stacked Respins Wild symbols never land on the leftmost reel. Wins are calculated at the end of respins. Any scatter symbols landing during respins are collected by the bonus meter.

Cash Bonus Game

When 3 scatter symbols have filled the bonus meter, the Cash bonus game is awarded. This feature is played on a different set of reels that land blanks, Cash Coin symbols (having values of x1 to x10), Persistent Payers (having values of x1, x2, or x3), and Multiplier Cash symbols (having values of x1, x2, or x3). The round starts with 3 spins on a grid with 6 reels and a Ghost Reel (a multiplier reel with an initial value of x2). After a spin, if new symbols land in empty spaces, spins are reset back to 3, and a shift is triggered. The shift moves all symbols on the reels one position to the right.

Now, symbols reaching the Ghost Reel have their value multiplied by the reel multiplier value, then returned to random positions on the game area. A Cash Coin can be placed on another Cash Coin, adding their values together. When a Persistent Payer reaches the Ghost Reel, it increases all Cash Coin symbols in the game area and in the Ghost Reel (including other Persistent Payers) by its current value. Persistent Payers are placed back in the game area and can be used again if they reach the Ghost Reel. When a Multiplier Cash symbol lands in the game area, before shifting, it increases the Ghost Reel value by its multiplier value, then transforms into a Cash Coin of equal value. When the round ends, the value of all Cash symbols is awarded.

Bones & Bounty: Slot Verdict

Thunderkick is an interesting one. It's not the sort of studio that gets all super hype, or floods the market with games, or does anything majorly controversial. Where a studio like Nolimit City's all in your face like Lamborghini, and industrious Pragmatic Play shifts units off the production line like Toyota, Thunderkick come across less conspicuously yet committed to quality like dunno, Audi, or something along those lines? Not endorsing cars here, by the way; just trying to come up with a snappy metaphor. Bones & Bounty is another example of a slot which isn't trying to shake the industry up or be the best thing since sliced bread but quietly, competently goes about the business of being an incredibly well crafted hold 'n win slot.

It's not your standard hold 'n win slot either. The Cash bonus game has a few innovations to it that make it uniquely entertaining. Not in an all-out shock-and-awe Money Train 4 fashion, but there are twists and turns here that a connoisseur of these games may highly appreciate. The shifting idea is neat, as is watching Cash symbols trundle into the Ghost Reel to receive an increase in value. The two special symbols are handy to have around as well, both the Multiplier Cash symbols, pumping up the Ghost Reel - it does this instantly without having to reach the Ghost Reel to activate, and the Persistent Payer, which can be used more than once, which is a nice touch. Simple in some ways yet clever as well, and with enough wind in the sails to hit wins as high as 25,000 times the stake.

Everything adds up to a solidly performing slot, presented nicely and backed with attractive figures. It remains to be seen how much glory Bones & Bounty may end up garnering, but it manages to plot a course through entertaining waters.