Glow Dig

Glow Dig: Slot Overview

It must be quite a thrill to crack rocks open or shake a pan in a river to reveal precious metals or valuable gemstones where before there was nothing. It's an emotion online slot designers try to recreate on a regular basis, and the studio making an effort today is Red Tiger's associate, Max Win Gaming. The slot is Glow Dig, and it gives gamblers another opportunity to virtually head beneath ground alongside a prospector fellow and, if luck is running hot, return to the surface with fuller pockets than before. Potential pocket-loading features include a cash prize collection mechanic and free spins.

Glow Dig, in quite high definition, presents a subterranean world of mining and resource extraction. Beneath the gaming grid, one or two levels lower down; it appears the mining is going rather well. A big blue gem sits in a minecart next to piles of shimmering gold material, the rich stuff situated on both sides of the screen. You'd think anyone who had access to their own personal mine like this would be pretty darn happy with their life choices. One can only hope that a session with Glow Dig will be as successful as its background imagery.

Displayed closer to the player's perspective is Glow Dig's gaming area, which has a 5-reel, 4-row matrix as its main grid, plus a special row above it which lands blanks or collector symbols. This is the set-up for the base game and the free spins round. Free spins can be bought or triggered naturally. The RTP when buying free spins is 96.41%, while the regular value is 96.1%, keeping in mind lower return models may be available. Wagers of 20 c to $/€20 may be placed.

Line wins are something of a secondary concern in Glow Dig, but they occur along its 30 paylines. Four bone/fossil symbols are the low pays, while four gems are its high pays. Low pay 5 OAK wins are worth 2 times the bet, increasing to 10-25 times the bet for hitting 5 matching gems in a line. Wilds are yet to be unearthed around here, as none of them appear on Glow Dig's reels.

Glow Dig: Slot Features

Amongst Glow Dig's features, we find a special row where collector symbols may land, prize symbols on the main reels, a free spins round solely focused on the collection mechanic, and two feature buys.

Special Row

A special row is located above the main reels and lands empty carts, mine carts, or drill machines on each spin. The mine cart collects all extra prizes from the reel below it, while the drill machine collects all extra prizes from the reels.

Extra Prizes

In the base game extra prize values may appear randomly on high-paying gem symbols, which are collected by mine carts or drill machines on the special row. The extra prize values in the base game vary from 1x to 250x the bet.

Free Spins

Landing 3 scatter symbols triggers the free spins bonus. For the bonus round, all paying symbols are removed from the reels. Only empty spaces, Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Epic Carts may land: Bronze Cart Prizes - 1x to 4x, Silver Cart Prizes - 5x to 20x, Gold Cart Prizes - 25x to 100x, and Epic Cart Prizes - 250x to 5,000x.

These prizes are collected by mine carts and drill machines that land on the special row. Mine carts and drill machines move 1 position to the left on each spin. A set number of free spins is not awarded. Instead, the bonus round continues to spin until only empty carts show on the special row, or the win cap is achieved.

Feature Buy

Glow Dig's feature buy has two choices. One is a normal free spins trigger for 80x the bet. The other is super free spins for 250x. Super free spins start with a guaranteed drill machine on the rightmost side of the special row.

Glow Dig: Slot Verdict

Well, the enduring online slot trope of lucky gamblers striking pay dirt like a prospector stumbling upon a rich vein of gold lives on in Glow Dig. It's a fairly simple game but one with a certain level of appeal. Collector mechanics are hugely popular, as we all know, and whilst they're often expressed by fisherman symbols and fish, here it's by mining apparatus and cash prize values. Glow Dig's collection system has flashes of creativity, so it might be worth experimenting with if an alternative prize value gathering method is of interest. The base game drops hints of the special row/main reel prize interplay, but its full power is significantly held back during this phase of play. It's not until the free spins round is in action that the spotlight's shine is turned up on Glow Dig's cash grab mechanics.

One of the main motivators for getting into free spins is that prize values can be much, much greater in the bonus round compared to the base game. Gamblers can move their sights from the 250x max prize of the base game to the 5,000x max prize of the bonus round, technically available from the Epic Cart Prize. 5,000x is, incidentally, the game's win cap, so if you manage to hit that figure during free spins, consider the job done. Parts of Glow Dig's free spins round shares vague similarities with Slingshot Studio's slot Rabbit in the Hat 2, where hats appear over main reels to trigger various features on the main reels. However, in Glow Dig, there is less variety, less complexity. Pretty much all that's gotta happen is land carts over prizes to scoop their prize values.

Less complexity isn't necessarily a bad thing, of course, and likely, there is entertainment to be found in Glow Dig for the right digger. Not all mining slots can uncover the next big thing, so for an easy-to-follow cash prize collector game set underground, Glow Dig has its merits.