Space Miners

Casinos with Space Miners

An Introduction to Space Miners

We’ll admit that it can seem difficult to come up with new concepts for online slots. However, Relax Gaming had no problem turning the whole genre on its head with the Space Miners video slot. This title has a tremendous approach to gameplay that’s a bit outside of the box but not so much that it’s difficult to learn to play.

This slot strikes the perfect balance between a title being fresh without being “too different.”

Visually, the first thing you’ll notice is the hilarious characters on the reels. With a gorgeous space scene in the background, you start to realize that you’re on a mining expedition. The crispness of the graphics is up there with the best you’ll find anywhere. Additionally, the characters are all hilarious and look like something out of a Pixar film.

The gameplay is all about expanding the size of the play field to get more ways to get paid. Pretty much all players can agree that more ways to win is a good thing, and that’s exactly what you get on a regular basis with this title. It’s a cool approach that hasn’t quite been done like this before. However, when you add that to the other value-packed features, it really takes the whole experience over the top.

Betting and Layout

The layout is constantly in flux in this title, but it always resets to the same base values between spins. Along these lines, we’ll show you what you need to know to get started. However, we’ll also show you what you can expect in terms of keeping up with the changes to the field of play.

• One thing that never changes in this title is the number of reels. That is always set to six.
• Each spin begins with three open rows across the middle of the game board. Initially, you’ll have 729 ways to win along these lines.
• Payouts are awarded with matching symbols on consecutive reels, but they have to start from the first reel on the far-left side.
• Since the rock spaces can open up to allow more symbols in on different reels, the number of ways to win can change a bit. However, the current total is always shown in the top-left corner for easy reference.
• The bet sizes are not tied to the number of ways to win, which makes sense because of the fluctuation. Instead, there’s a simple price per turn.
• Overall, your betting range runs from €0.10 at a minimum up to €20 per turn at a maximum.

Your volatility for this game will stay pretty balanced over the long run. However, you can see some minor swings in the short-run because of the way the pay schedule is set up. This comes between the high hit-rate of the regular pay table and the larger wins you can get from how numerous ways to win can be unlocked, especially in the free spins.

Additionally, to keep the payouts straightforward and easy to understand, they’re all based on simple multiples of your overall wager.

Gameplay and Features

We’re usually fans of the approach that some players take of just jumping in and learning a game through playing. However, with the Space Miners online slot, we cannot recommend this approach. That’s because it’s mostly features that aren’t common, so it’s really easy to get confused.

Instead, we recommend having a read over our breakdowns of how everything functions below. This will give you the head start you need to get started off on the right foot.

Wild Symbols

The crate with the different colors of gems in it is wild. These wilds can appear anywhere on the game screen, but you cannot get winning combinations that only consist of them. However, if you do manage to get six of a kind combinations of wilds, that will be worth 5x, which is the same as the best-paying regular symbol.

Wilds are worth more in games with a lot of ways to win. Since that’s exactly what you get here, they’re an important source of value. However, what makes them even more valuable is that they always expand. Anytime a wild appears on the game board, it will always cover the entire reel that it lands on.

Since you can end up with reels that are as many as 10 spots high, this is clearly a big deal. Tons of extra wins and payouts can happen as a result of these wild expansions.

Cascade Feature

The main game mechanic that drives the play in this title is actually the cascade feature. Overall, it’s pretty similar to how other cascade-style features (sometimes called avalanche features) work before you get into all of the extras that change the size of the play area.

When you get any winning combination, you’ll get paid first before anything else happens. However, afterward, all of the winning symbols disappear. This can break away some of the rock blockers as well, all of which opens empty space. New symbols then fall down into that space. The end result is that you have more ways to get paid.

Additionally, it’s important to point out that Relax Gaming didn’t put a limit on this feature. What we mean is that you can get several cascades in a row, leading to major wins.

Destroying Blockers and Power Up Features

A big part of the Space Miners video slot is about destroying the rock blockers that close off the board. The more of this you open up, the more ways you have to win on subsequent cascades. However, this can happen in a few different ways.

First and foremost, if you have a winning symbol disappear beside of a blocker, that blocker can disappear as well. If that blocker contains one of the following Power Up Features, it can clear even more spaces before the next cascade triggers:

• Cross – All blockers horizontally and vertically from this square are destroyed.
• Horizontal – Each blocker found on the same horizontal row is removed.
• Vertical – Along similar lines, this will take out each blocker on the same vertical column.
• 3×3 – This looks like a small circle. It will destroy each blocker in a 3×3 space centered on this symbol.

As you can see, this game allows for several ways to take out blockers.

Space Miners Free Spins

The UFO symbol is a scatter, and three or more will trigger the free spins. They’re collected as you go, which helps to have more ways to win in subsequent cascades. However, the number of free spins you get is based on a simple formula. All you have to do is multiply the number of scatters used to start the feature by two.

Once you’re in this free spins mode, two things will change. First, the blockers will not reset between spins. Instead, any blockers you remove will stay gone for the remainder of the feature. Additionally, you will be granted one extra free spin for every single UFO bonus symbol that lands on the reels.

Again, Relax Gaming put no limit on the number of Space Miners free spins you can have. That means you can end up with several turns with plenty of ways to win if you remove enough blockers.

How to Win at Space Miners

The play style of this slot is pretty balanced overall, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. This is because the volatility is actually above-average due to the way the format works. There’s a big difference between having 729 ways to win and 1 million, which is the most you can end up with in this title. That is very much a possibility in the free spins mode.

As a result, a disproportionate amount of value is tied up in the Space Miners slot free spins. Due to this, we recommend players drop their bet sizes down just a small amount to account for the higher volatility.

Payout Structure for Space Miners

The five alien square symbols start off the pay table. With the red, you get 5x for six of a kind. Additionally, the orange and green each give you 1x for six of a kind. Finally, 0.6x is your payout for six of the purple or the blue.

Relax Gaming included four gem symbols on the lower end. The yellow, green, purple and blue gems all pay 0.4x for six of a kind combinations.

Overview

Everything is about fun with the Space Miners online slot, and that is tremendous for slot fans who prefer an action-centric gameplay experience. Additionally, this title is an excellent component of Relax Gaming’s whole offering of online slots because of its visual appeal and gameplay style. The graphics level and fun tone of this title offers an overall feel that’s definitely competitive with some of the best that the online slots world as a whole has going on.

The hit-rate of the features in this video slot is high enough that players will definitely not get tired of waiting on them to come. On top of that, the overall space mining concept is handled in a really intelligent but also hilarious way in this title, compared to it merely being a relatively unimportant part of the experience.

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