Honey Hunters

Honey Hunters: Slot Overview

Editor's note: This review evaluates Honey Hunters based on its early access state. We plan on updating this review once it gets a full release.

Here's a question. When you hear the words 'honey hunters', are you automatically picturing bees flitting about from flower to flower, collecting nectar to manufacture honey back at their homes, or are you picturing a human beekeeper scooping handfuls of the golden stuff out of bee hives for their own personal consumption? On a side note, is this a metaphor for capitalism? Anyway, after today, the words Honey Hunters will no doubt be indelibly printed in your mind as the title to an online slot made by the ultra-creative outfit Print Studios.

When it comes to themes, Print Studios is a magpie-minded team that leaps from Monty Python-esque to sci-fi opera, to potato, to diabolic ritual, to tower defence and beyond. They have shown a tendency to lean towards the adorable side of the spectrum on several occasions, of which Honey Hunters can count itself one. The game has a juxtaposing rock-flower/bush thing going on where a stone game grid sits before a stone giant-like character, a bit like Pyornkrachzark the Rock-Biter from The Neverending Story, while flowers line the reels, and forest makes up much of the rest of the background. Honey Hunters did bring back memories of Royal Potato, not because the two slots are particularly similar, but because they both appear to dive into a society that's hidden away from the rest of the world, which goes about its business in a fenced-off self-regulating community. An insect version of Krakoa, perhaps.

When you're ready to bzz bzz, Honey Hunters' bet levels are 10 c to $/€100, and it has a Feature Bet where gamblers can buy the free spins round. Depending on the Honey Forge features (more on these below) the RTP when regular betting ranges from 96.09% to 96.61%, and the volatility is medium-high. In a first for Print, Honey Hunters operates a ways-to-win pay system, and there are 243 of them, built into a 5-reel, 3-row gaming panel.

From the low side of the pay table to the high, the pay symbols are blue flowers, yellow flowers, orange flowers, purple flowers, Stinger Steve, Aphid Alan, Petal Paladin, Nectar Nomad, and Cardinal Chief. The named premium symbols depict people riding creatures, like Journey 2, when they're buzzing around on giant bees. Have the animals in Honey Hunters expanded, or have people shrunk? Hitting a winning way made up of 5 matching flowers pays 0.4 times the bet, while a winning way of 5 identical high pays awards 1 to 20 times the bet.

Honey Hunters: Slot Features

Forage around this part of the woods long enough, and you'll likely bump into Honey Hunters' Honey Forge, wild, Spreading Wild, wheel feature, free spins, and feature buy.

Honey Forge

Landing symbols carrying honey fills the Honey Forge meter next to the reels, one feature at a time. When a button on the meter is filled, its corresponding feature can be activated by pressing the button at the cost of all of the saved honey. Only the latest filled button may be activated. All Honey Forge features cost 1x the bet to unlock. It is possible to activate a Spreading feature with a guaranteed wild plus 1 to 4 spreading frames, free spins, free spins with Petal Paladin active, free spins with Nectar Nomad active, or free spins with Cardinal Chief active.

Wild Symbol & Spreading Wild

Any symbol covered in honey has the power of a wild, substituting for all other paying symbols. Wild winning ways have the same value as the top premium pay symbol. Any wild with a premium symbol inside spreads that symbol type a random number of times on the grid. If a symbol spreads to a spreading frame, additional premium symbols will be spread.

Wheel Feature

Whenever honey is collected in the base game, the Wheel feature may trigger. When it does, the wheel spins, and if it stops on a prize sector, the next available prize in the sector is highlighted. The wheel respins as long as it stops on a prize sector with prizes to highlight. When the feature ends, all highlighted prizes are awarded. It is possible to win:

• Honey - this is added to the Honey Forge meter. Getting 'Max' fills it completely.
• Coins - awards its value times the bet.
• Spreading Frames - awards a Spreading Wild feature spin with a guaranteed wild and active spreading frames.

Free Spins

Landing 3 or more scatters triggers free spins. During free spins, only one type of premium symbol is present on the reels. Players can progress through stages by collecting honey. At each new stage, +4 free spins are awarded, and the premium symbol on the reels is upgraded. Landing a wild symbol awards +1 free spin and triggers the Spreading feature. The wild symbol leaves a spreading frame on its position for the remainder of the current stage.

Feature Bet

The Feature Bet is where players can shell out 80 times the total bet in order to trigger the free spins feature. The RTP for the Feature Bet is 96.4%.

Honey Hunters: Slot Verdict

Ain't it funny. A few Print Studios slots back, we were witness to a ritual aimed at summoning Lucifer via Dirge Wilds in one of the darkest of dark slots, the aptly titled release Darkness. Now, we're buzzing about flowers, collecting nectar to make honey with a horde of adorable animals. Print Studios is nothing if not creatively diverse. Fortunately for gamblers, Print Studios is a creative bunch all around, and you just never know what you're going to get when firing up one of the team's slots for the first time, both on the front end as well as the gameplay being delivered.

Honey Hunters is another one with a few tricks it can reveal from its sleeves, though it didn't have quite the same instant immersion factor of, say, Pine of Plinko or Tarasque, as a comparison. As a first dip in the 243 ways to win pool, Honey Hunters is a respectable foray, however, and the Honey Forge concept is innovative. You don't often come across features or mechanics that have a direct impact on a slot's RTP like this, and being patient while holding out for max honey collection might well pay off. No need to wait till the end if you're not in the mood, though. When you're ready to trigger an achieved feature, boom, away you go. Like grabbing honey from the hive, in some ways.

Honey Hunters can pour on the sweet stuff, too, up to a 10,000x the bet win cap. Print Studios has shown a liking for features which are able to get exponentially better when they're going your way, like the growing Jumbo symbol in Royal Potato, substituting for greater numbers of symbol types, or the Jumbo symbol action in Cash Defense. Honey Hunters unfolds in a similar manner, where collected honey gets you closer to the juicier upper-value symbol. Without the help of a device like Superspinners, it might seem like a harder task, but keep in mind Print has jacked up the number of ways while tossing in Honey Forge features to keep players occupied along the way. To wrap up, Honey Hunters wasn't a slot that blew the doors off like some Print Studios slots have, but it is a charming game, made to a high spec, with an artfully arranged set of features that have the ability to get significantly better as they progress.