Gemstone Mine

Gemstone Mine: Slot Overview

Contrary to the ideas long-time slot playing might have formed, gems are generally not extracted by old-timey prospectors with battered hats and big beards. Instead, shafts are dug through the earth to the target vein, then via tunnels, blasts are used to loosen the gemstones before being brought to the surface. At least, this is what a Google search brought up. If that sounds dully impersonal, why don't we stick to the old-timey miner method? Plot twist: neither method is used in Stakelogic's slot Gemstone Mine, a cluster paying game where gem symbol wins are augmented by a multiplier system, provided stones can be busted up to reveal them.

For this game, players head to a location that looks as much a temple as it does an underground mine where digging for gemstones takes place. Flames spout from torches, lighting a room crowded with huge glowing gemstones, while an axe on the wall chops downwards when multiplier values start to stack. The vibe is a little unusual, a feeling compounded by the oddly mashed-together soundtrack, though not necessarily in a bad way.

Gemstone Mine is played on an 8x8 sized gaming grid, though each base game spin and free spins round starts with the leftmost and rightmost reels, as well as on the bottom two rows blocked by stones. These stones can be broken when a certain number of adjacent wins occur, freeing up space and revealing multiplier symbols. To win, you'll need at least 5 identical symbols to be connected in vertical or horizontal directions. For volatility, Gemstone Mine goes medium-high while pushing out a default RTP of 96.11%. Stakes from 20 cents to $/€50 may be selected, and players may also choose to activate the Super Stake which increases the stake by 25% to have extra scatters placed on the reels, doubling the chance of triggering free spins.

Yep, gemstones are Gemstone Mine's regular paying symbols, and there are 7 different types of them in various shapes, sizes, and colours. The smallest 5 matching symbol clusters pay 0.1 to 0.6 times the bet, while the largest clusters are made up of 15+ identical symbols and are worth 15 to 150 times the bet. Wild symbols do not appear in Gemstone Mine at any time so no substituting occurs. There is a cascading wins mechanic, though, which removes winning symbols and replaces them by dropping symbols downwards, repeating till no new win is created

Gemstone Mine: Slot Features

Busting up stone blocks is one of Gemstone Mine's main challenges in order to access the multiplier symbols hidden beneath. This is possible in the base game, while in free spins, total multiplier values persist for the duration of the feature.

Multiplier Symbols

Multiplier symbols are hidden behind stone blocks on the leftmost and rightmost reels, as well as on the bottom two rows. When a winning combination is adjacent to stone blocks, the multiplier symbol is partially revealed. One further win adjacent to a damaged bock fully reveals the multiplier symbol value, which can be x2 to x500. The revealed multiplier value is applied to the total win. When more than one multiplier symbol is revealed, their values are added together. Regular symbols are able to land in the space created by the destroyed block. At the end of a base game spin, all blocked positions reset.

Free Spins Bonus

Free spins scatters, dynamite sticks, appear anywhere on the reels. Landing 4, 5, or 6 scatters awards 10, 15, or 30 free spins, respectively. It is possible to win +5 further free spins during a free spins round by landing 3 or more scatters during cascades. During the round, multiplier symbols are added to a global multiplier and multiply the total free spin win. Blocked positions with multiplier symbols do not reset during a free spins round.

Feature Buy

Players are able to buy either 10 regular free spins for 100 times their bet or super free spins for 250x the bet. In super free spins, blocked symbols are already partially damaged, meaning they reveal a multiplier after just one adjacent win.

Gemstone Mine: Slot Verdict

You could probably say this about pretty much every slot, but Gemstone Mine is a game where you really want to bust into its free spins round. You can unlock multiplier symbols by busting stone positions in the base game, of course, yet you need two wins to smash a stone block and progress resets at the end of a base game spin, meaning it might not be easy to rack up a chunky multiplier a lot of the time. Theoretically, you could possibly get lucky and reveal one of the upper tier values, like the x500, if the game is really smiling, but for the majority of the time, while Gemstone Mine was being reviewed, multipliers in the base game were generally modest in effect when achieved.

Again, Gemstone Mine's base game might throw out something special, yet the free spins round offers arguably the best chance to get on a decent roll. Even then, free spins could be hard going, but since progress does not reset between free spins, that's where you want to be. One thing that might have been handy is if multipliers affecting wins were more obvious. At the start of the test session, it was hard to tell if the demo was working properly without performing some quick mental gymnastics. It appears to be running fine, though a bit more of a multiplier celebration might have helped.

When Gemstone Mine hits its most fruitful vein, it theoretically performs up to a win cap of 7,500x the bet. That figure and the general, somewhat uncomplicated nature of the whole project means Gemstone Mine lacks the heft and finesse of something like Relax Gaming's Cluster Tumble. But, some players may prefer the more simple straightforward bashing stones to get multipliers action on offer here.