Shimmering Woods

Casinos with Shimmering Woods

An Introduction to Shimmering Woods

Play’n GO’s lineup of titles includes plenty of different games with various themes and concepts. The Shimmering Woods online slot takes place in a fantasy forest world. Magical crystals can be seen growing all over the place along with mushrooms and other things.

While this title looks great, it’s really the gameplay that’s the star of the show.

Everything from the feature set to the game’s actual format is designed for action here. Lots of features combine to give players plenty of ways to get paid. However, the ability to get paid several times on the same spin is a key component as well.

Keeping that in mind, the regular pay table is pretty balanced as well. This helps to keep things from getting out of hand with the volatility. It also keeps the action coming with regular small and medium wins as well as a high hit-rate. This is a combination that will work for a whole lot of different types of players.

Betting and Layout

The format of this game is set up to be easy to use and to provide a lot of action. You can jump right in without having to really learn much, which is great news for all players. Here’s what to expect:

• The starting format has five reels and three horizontal rows. An extra symbol appears at the top above the reels. However, it can be ignored for finding ways to win and is centered around a feature instead.
• The starting numbers of ways to win is 243. You get winning combinations with matching symbols on consecutive reels from left to right. This number of ways to win can be increased through a feature that we’ll cover down below.
• You’ll have a minimum bet size of €0.20 per turn. This is well within the budget of virtually all players, especially considering the lower volatility.
• Players can wager as much as €100 per spin. Again, they offer lots of options between this minimum and maximum, which makes finding a bet size that works for you really easy.

Every win that we describe in the following should be multiplied by the total bet size. Along these lines, if you wager more or less, your wins will increase or decrease proportionately. It’s also worth noting that the volatility is in the medium-low range, which comes along with an above-average hit-rate.

Gameplay and Features

With the Shimmering Woods online slot, the gameplay is what everyone will be focused on. In spite of the game looking great, the features are where your attention will be most of the time. This is because there are a lot of them, and some of them hit really often to the point that they are key components of the overall gameplay experience.

In what follows, we’ll break down each of these features that you need to know about. We strongly suggest looking over these features before you start playing. This will give you an idea of what to expect about the overall gameplay.

Wild Symbols and Payouts

A really beautiful blue crystal symbol in the shape of an octagon is the wild symbol. It has a dark blue “W” in the middle of it to make it clear what it is. This symbol appears on all five reels, and it gives the following payouts and prizes:

• Five of a Kind – 3x
• Four of a Kind – 1.5x
• Three of a Kind – 1x

It’s worth noting that these wilds are worth more than they may seem. This is because the all ways format makes it easy for these wilds to really add to your pays. On any given spin, this could be the difference between a lot of wins and no wins at all.

Cascades and Multipliers

In the top-right corner of the game board, you’ll notice a rolling multiplier. This is tied to the cascade feature, which activates on all wins. If you get any winning combination, it will pay out before causing winning symbols to explode. Once those winning symbols are out of the way, new symbols fall down into place.

With these new symbols, you have a chance to get more wins. If you do, the cascading process continues until no new wins are available. However, there’s even more to it than this.

On each cascade, the multiplier increases by a factor of one. That means your cascade wins are worth more than regular payouts, which is a pretty big deal. This multiplier resets back to 1x once the cascades are over.

Splitting Symbols

There’s one way to increase the number of paying ways in this game. It has to do with the extra symbol that shows at the top of the game board.

For each position of that symbol, it will split into two vertically. This gives more ways to win on that particular spin because of the splitting.

The bottom line is that you’ll get better payouts for that given symbol. It’s a cool way to manipulate the game board a bit to add value, and it’s not something we see a lot of.

Shimmer Feature

The free spins mode is called the Shimmer Feature in the Shimmering Woods video slot. The purple, red and yellow glowing stone is the scattered bonus symbol in this game. When you get three on the game board on the first, third and fifth reels, it triggers.

However, you can actually get up to six symbols because each of the three have a chance to split. The number of these scatters that you end up with determines your free spins and splitting symbols. Your possibilities are as follows:

• Three of a Kind – 10 free spins, +1 splitting symbol
• Four of a Kind – 13 free spins, +2 splitting symbols
• Five of a Kind – 16 free spins, +3 splitting symbols
• Six of a Kind – 19 free spins, +4 splitting symbols

Having more splitting symbols adds value for obvious reasons. However, this is a cool way to include an atypical game mechanic in a classic style of bonus feature. Note also that the feature can re-trigger to add more free spins and splitting symbols. As a result, you can get up to 10 splitting symbols on the game board at once.

How to Win at Shimmering Woods

Maximizing the value of your experience in the Shimmering Woods online slot is straightforward. All you have to do is adjust your bet sizing slightly to the medium-low volatility. The common adjustment for this is to increase your bet size slightly because you get two benefits. First, you get slightly better payouts. Second, your swings stay low because the volatility is so low to begin with.

You’ll completely fine if you want to keep your bet size in its normal range. However, you will not be able to take advantage of the volatility in the above way if you do.

Payout Structure for Shimmering Woods

The diamond symbol pays the highest of the regular symbols. It’ll give you a 3x win for five of a kind combinations. Players can also earn 2x for five of the green gem or 1.5x for five of the blue. The red gem is the lowest of the high-paying symbols with a 1x win for five.

From there, there are five card rank symbols. They’re carved into different colors of wood, which looks cool and fits the theme perfectly. The red A, green K and brown Q symbols each pay 0.4x for five. However, you’ll get 0.3x for five of the purple J or teal 10 symbols.

Overview

Due to the fact that the Shimmer Woods video slot brings a serious level of quality while still having a tremendous amount of value individually, this slot fits really well in this company’s portfolio as a whole. In addition to that, the style of gameplay in this slot gives a ton of fun.

We also want to point out that a serious number of extra features can be found in this video slot, which is something we can’t take for granted for much of the competition. Compared to other games that use similar driving ideas, this slot stands out in a handful areas as opposed to just being like everything else, and the fun is completely amplified by the awesome amount to which the graphics level is suited for the slot’s theme.

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