X Marks the Spot in the Pirots X Slot from ELK Studios

When you think of a pirate, you typically imagine a bearded man with an eye patch and a funny accent. Parrots are another typical pirate “accessory”, so it doesn’t come as a surprise they starred in the 2023 ELK Studios slot titled Pirots.

The four cute birds and the CollectR game engine turned out to be a match made in heaven, resulting in two follow-ups. Now it’s time to meet Pirots X, the third instalment in the developer’s series. It parts with the CollectR mechanics in a bold move to provide a completely new playing experience. Did this move pay off? Continue reading to find out.

Four Birdies Return for More Action

The game is set in what appears to be a rocky ravine. Once the game loads, players will see lush greenery and river, but they won’t be able to overlook all the treasure checks lying around. The main protagonists still have their pirate appearance, but why aren’t they on a ship? We guess they’re either looking to hide a treasure or find one.

Pirots X is played on a five-reel, five-row grid, whose layout can be increased up to seven-by-seven later in the game. There are no payline or winning ways, and instead, the ELK Studios release uses a Cluster Pays system to deliver wins. Volatility is high, while the RTP of 94% is way below the current industry average. When it comes to betting, you can wager between $0.20 and $100 per spin.

Speaking of wins, you’ll need at least five matching symbols in a cluster to receive a payout. Blue, purple, green and red gems are low-value symbols, while four birds are premiums. Wins pay from 0.1x to 1x for five-symbol clusters, while the most generous cash prizes they award range from 4x to 50x the stake for clusters consisting of 16 or more icons.

Wilds come in different shapes and sizes: regular, Super 2×2, Mega 3×3, and Epic 4×4. You’ll also encounter empty positions located below big symbols. These spaces are filled with regularly-sized symbols of the same kind.

Pirots X: Features

In addition to the Cluster Pays mechanics, Pirots X includes a wide range of other features.

Cluster Pays

As we mentioned earlier, Pirots X doesn’t rely on the CollectR game engine anymore, which was a vital part of the previous releases.

Cluster Pays replace it, requiring at least five horizontally or vertically connected symbols of the same type to produce a win. But that’s not all, as the winning symbols are removed from the grid, with a Wild placed in one of the empty positions and new symbols filling the rest. A new win repeats the process, which goes on until no more wins are formed.

Wilds

Wild symbols help complete additional wins, counting as any other regular symbol. They are also used to connect multiple winning clusters. When this happens, a Wild is split, and each cluster receives a Wild of its own. Multiple Wilds within the same winning cluster can merge into a multiplier Wild, whose value equals the number of the merged symbols.

Pirots

The Pirots spend their time sitting at the top of the grid. Whenever a nest symbol appears, a randomly chosen bird will settle on it. It’s also the perfect place from which Pirots can collect symbols. Each bird collects icons of the same colour.

Both low-value and higher-paying symbols collected boost the multiplier, with the former increasing it by one and the latter by two. Wilds and feature symbols cannot be collected. The Pirots will leave the reels after collecting a symbol or if a bomb scares them off. A big symbol can crush them, or they can leave the board if no symbol is collected.

Features

At the top of the reels, the game holds randomly triggered features. The first is the bomb feature, which releases a bomb on the grid. The bomb then explodes to remove all surrounding symbols from the reels. In the process, this leads to a redrop. We should point out that the explosion expands the grid layout up to 7×7. The bomb feature can also be randomly activated at the end of a round by Charlie the parrot.

Another available functionality is the feature release. It can spring into action at the beginning of a drop or a free drop. It substitutes several regular symbols with randomly chosen feature symbols. In practice, it places Wilds, nests, bombs, Scatters or Super Scatters across the reels. During Free Spins, this list can also include free drop symbols.

The big drop will add a big symbol onto the grid, crushing any regularly sized symbols on its way. Other icons aren’t affected.

Bonus

Pirots X features two bonus games. The regular bonus game is activated by landing three Scatters. The global multiplier is persistent during the round while landing additional Scatters, which award extra spins. To gain access to the super bonus, you’ll need two Scatters and one Super Scatter. This feature takes place on a maximum board size, meaning all seven reels and rows are in play. The best part about the super bonus is that all spins have a guaranteed feature chest.