Lure of Fortune

Lure of Fortune: Slot Overview

Ahoy players, due to the abundance of salty sea themed slots bobbing around, it can sometimes feel like we've seen every possible way of dragging bounties from the water. However, Relax Gaming begs to differ and has come up with Lure of Fortune, which provides a brand new way of trying your luck amongst denizens of the deep. It is not a money symbol collector game following the blueprint laid down by Fishin' Frenzy all those many moons ago. Instead, it's stocked with features that echo other games, brand new ones, as well as an extensive bonus round, while also letting players experience the game in three different modes, which significantly alter the way Lure of Fortune may perform.

Might as well deal with the modes first, and clicking the Mode button lets you change them. The options are medium, high, and extremely high volatility. Not only does the volatility change but the max win and the maximum base game multipliers do as well – more info on these soon. Lure of Fortune's appearance alters depending on the mode, as well. In medium mode, the sun beams down on a clear day, causing the water to sparkle. Flipping to highly volatile means the rain starts to fall, while the highly volatile mode takes place in the snow. No matter the mode, the graphics are very nicely done, highly detailed, with a neat mix of personable characters thrown in.

We've mentioned the alterable volatile, which is an interesting touch, though no matter the mode, the RTP remains constant at 96.1%. Bet selection changes, though. The minimum is 10c per spin, while the maximum is $/€20, $/€50, or $/€200 for the extremely high, high, and medium volatility modes, respectively. The goal of the base game, aside from hitting scatters, is to land winning clusters made up of 4 or more identical symbols next to each other in vertical or horizontal directions. This sparks a cascade sequence where the winning symbols are removed and replaced with others falling in from up top. Lure of Fortune's base game takes place on a 5x5 gaming grid before shifting to something different when the bonus round is triggered.

Nine regular pay symbols appear on the 5 base game reels. These are shell-like items as the 4 low pays, 4 sea creatures as the mids, and a fisherman as the high pay symbol. Landing 4 OAK clusters awards 0.2 to 1 times the bet, increasing to 11 to 30 times the bet for a 25 symbol cluster win. Lure of Fortune does not have a wild symbol, but it has a ton of extra symbols when the bonus round activates.

Lure of Fortune: Slot Features

Before getting to the bonus round, however, there is one more base game feature to cover. This is the Multiplier Upgrade. Each pay symbol has a multiplier associated with it. These are clearly listed next to the grid. Multipliers are applied to wins of the applicable symbol type. Multipliers start at x1 and are doubled after each win on the symbol. The game can assign random upgrades of multipliers to a random number symbol at the start of a new spin. The maximum multiplier values are 32x, 64x, or 128x on the medium, high, or extremely high volatile modes, respectively.

Bonus Game

The bonus game is activated when 3 scatter symbols land in the base game. When this occurs, 3 spins are awarded and landing any symbol on reels 1 to 6 resets the counter. It's played on a different grid than the base game, where all of the regular pay symbols are removed. Five symbols are placed along the second row from the bottom of reels 1 to 5, revealing multipliers of the bet. Reel 6 is a ladder of multiplier values which apply to symbols on the rows at the end of the bonus game. Reels 1 to 5 may land these modifier symbols on each spin:

• Fish – reveals a value and pushes up any symbols which are already on the reel it landed on.
• Hammer – pushes all symbols on the reel up one spot.
• Payer – reveals a value that is added to all symbols on its reel.
• Doubler – doubles the values of all symbols on its reel.
• Spawner – copies a symbol and its value on the reel, then places the copy one step below the original.

On reel 6, the multiplier ladder, these modifier symbols may appear:

• Golden Hammer – pushes all symbols up by one spot.
• Payer – increases all multipliers on the ladder by +1.
• Doubler – doubles all multipliers on the ladder.
• Bonus – spin counter resets to 4 instead of 3.
• Persistent Hammer – pushes all symbols on a random reel up one spot at the end of each spin.
• Persistent Payer – pays its value to all symbols on a random reel at the end of each spin.
• Persistent Spawner – picks a random reel, then places a copy of a symbol and its value below the original.

If symbols reach the top row, they may not get pushed off. If more than one symbol would be on the top row, the values are added. When the spin counter reaches zero, all of the values on the reels are multiplied by the row multiplier they are on, and the total is awarded.

Buy Feature

Players are able to buy the bonus game for the cost of 50x, 100x, or 150x the bet on the medium, high, or very highly volatile modes, respectively. No matter the mode, the RTP for feature buys is 96.5%.

Lure of Fortune: Slot Verdict

Hmm, interesting. While there are smatterings of other games here – the symbol multipliers of Banana Town, the hold 'n win extravaganza of a Money Train slot, and a Mega Heist feel to the bonus round, there is no doubt Lure of Fortune is its own game. One thing that sets it apart is its configurability, and picking modes seriously alters major aspects of the game, so it's maybe not a decision which should be taken too lightly. To sum up the differences between modes, what changes are things like volatility, max win, max base game multiplier, and bonus buy cost. For many, the most important number will be the max win, equating to 5,000x on the medium, 20,000x on the high, and 50,000x on the very high volatile mode. The temptation to play for the biggest potential possible is likely to be great, but there are benefits to picking the other options. Bonus buys of 50x the bet, for example, might win certain gamblers over, plus the medium mode's sunshine is inviting.

No matter the mode, Lure of Fortune's mix of gameplay is unique, especially for a slot related to fish and other creatures of the sea. One good thing about the bonus game is that the fish symbols do not have to reach the top of the grid to award their values. Memories (or nightmares) of Mad Cars awoke at the first look at the bonus round, where values big or small were absolutely worthless until they crossed the finish line, or not, which could be devastating. Anyway, this effect is absent from Lure of Fortune, where everything in view is awarded at the end, not to mention boosted by row multipliers.

Of course, not every bonus game was a stunner, and the feature didn't have the same immediate paciness to it as Bones & Bounty as a possible comparison, but it is original and more than capable of exciting when the going's good. To conclude, Lure of Fortune is a slot packed with interesting ideas, customizable elements, and fun gameplay. Whether it ultimately frustrates or delights, Lure of Fortune's base and bonus game has the sort of depth that provides high levels of entertaining replayability.