Dark Waters Power Combo

Dark Waters Power Combo: Slot Overview

Till now, Power Combo slots have remained largely the domain of All For One Studios, though a few other teams have had a go. Today is the time for fellow developer Just For The Win to do a bit of power combo-ing of its own. The vehicle is Dark Waters Power Combo and is a pirate-themed online slot, which boats in features such as a money symbol collect and various free spins combinations of Giant Reels, Multi Collect, and Golden Reel features.

The first thing about Dark Waters Power Combo that hit was its sweeping swashbuckling soundtrack, which set a salty, briskly winded mood. The accompanying visuals aren't bad either, and behind the gaming grid and prize ladder can be seen a brave explorer about to enter a dark, dismal place rammed with skulls while a boat lies anchored up in the distance. It's quite nicely done, and Dark Waters Power Combo manages to evoke a spirit of adventure before the spin button has even been pressed.

Dark Waters Power Combo is played on a gaming grid that comes in two forms. One is the regular setting made up of 6-reels and 4-rows of symbols, possessing 4,096 ways to win. However, when the grid expands, it shifts to a 6x6 gaming area with 46,656 ways to win – this occurs in the Giant Reels phase. It's a highly volatile game, generating a default RTP of 96% and a hit rate of 26.47% at that level. Bets of 20 c to $/€50 per spin may be placed, and in contrast to All For One Studios' PC games, Dark Waters Power Combo does not come bundled with feature buys.

Ten regular paying symbols are used, forming wins when landing from the leftmost side of the grid across adjacent reels. For low pays, we've got 10 to A card ranks, while for highs there is a bottle, knives, a hat, pistols, and an anchor. Hitting a winning combination of 6 matching low pays rewards players with 1x the bet, or payouts of 1.5 to 2.5 times the bet are made for landing 6 matching premium symbols. Wild scroll symbols help in this task by substituting for all regular pay symbols.

Dark Waters Power Combo: Slot Features

The combination of features available in Dark Waters Power Combo are money symbol rewards and free spins with three possible modifiers.

Money Symbols

Money symbols are present in the base game or in free spins anywhere on the reels. They land with multipliers of 1x to 10x the bet or display the Mini, Minor, Major, or Mega prize worth 15x, 40x, 200x, or 5,000x the bet, respectively. The Collect symbols exist only on the leftmost reel in the base game or in free spins. However, if the Multi Collect feature is active in free spins, Collect symbols may land on any reel. When a Collect symbol hits, all money symbols in view award their prizes or values.

Free Spins

In the base game and in free spins, purple, red, or blue tokens linked to a specific modifying feature may appear and are collected by their respective treasure chest when they do. Each time a token lands, there is a chance of triggering the free spins feature. If 2 different tokens land when free spins are triggered, then 2 modifiers are active in free spins, or if 3 different tokens land when free spins are triggered, then 3 modifiers are active in free spins.

The free spins round always begins with 10 free spins, and when a non-active token lands, there is a chance it triggers its corresponding modifier. When this occurs, +3 free spins are awarded. Only 1 non-active token can activate per spin. The three features are:

• Free spins with Giant Reels – the reels expand to 6 rows high, where 46,656 ways to win are available.
• Free spins with Multi-Collect – when more than one Collect symbol lands on the same spin, all money symbols are collected for each Collect symbol.
• Free spins with Golden Reel – on each free spins, one random reel from reel 2 to 5 will contain only money symbols.

Dark Waters Power Combo: Slot Verdict

As far as pirate slots go, and there are a lot of them to choose from, Dark Waters Power Combo isn't a bad option. If an energetic swashbuckling outing is what you're after, then it might be worth taking a moment or two to absorb Dark Waters Power Combo, which loads on plenty of adventurous artwork and high-seas tunes. Maybe a scene change for the free spins round might have been nice, but the extra flames and whatnot, plus an increase in music intensity, help build tension. What will probably help build tension as it is, is managing to activate more than one feature at the same time during free spins. Having all three modifiers would be even better.

Having more features active in the bonus round is arguably where Power Combo slots have their best chance of shining. Too bad you can't buy free spins in Dark Waters Power Combo or mix and match your budget-appropriate favourite features together like you can in games like Chests of Gold Power Combo and its relatives. However, according to the game docs, free spins trigger at a frequency of 1 in 60 spins, which means players shouldn't be waiting around too long to see them, theoretically. No telling which features will be included when they trigger, of course, though there are chances of landing non-active tokens during the round to add more features to the mix if luck is on your side.

So far, none of the Power Combo-related slots have ended up being watershed moments despite a growing line of them hitting the shelves. Dark Waters Power Combo wasn't either, but it looks and sounds quite good, has circa 5,000x the bet winning potential, and comes with a bunch of popular features, a money symbol collection system, for example, so it may find warm, inviting waters to traverse. Or sink.