Gold Rush Slot Review

You’ll be digging for gold when you play this Pragmatic Play slot machine, taking on the role of a gold miner of old. Gold Rush may be an original game from the label, but it’s by no means an original concept, as you’ll well know; much like oil tycoon slots, this theme has been overworked.

Despite that fact, we find ourselves drawn to this twinkling gold cavern, lit by torches, due to how accessible it is on our devices, while not forgetting it comes from a reputable company. You’ll be able to play the 25 winlines easily, with even the most inexperienced of users able to adapt to such a compact matrix of symbols.

To take the cart down into the depths of this mine, all customers need to pay a small fee, priced at 0.01 per line, giving you a 0.25 credits min bet. A great price for such a new release. Even though you may not be able to tell it from the graphics, despite their polished appearance, this is the latest game from the brand’s portfolio.

Game Symbols

As with any slot machine, knowing the symbols and their worth is important to your success; no, it won’t grant you the luck to land the right combo, but at least you’ll know what combinations get you what returns.

In Gold Rush, the icons that take on imagery unique to the theme, e.g. the miner or his donkey, are the symbols with most monetary worth. However, the icons that are simple card suits, such as K and Q, are the tiles that’ll herald smaller wins.

In regards to the special features, the sticks of dynamite and the mine scatter symbol are your ways to unlock the bonus rounds, which are arguably the showstoppers of this title.

Gameplay

For those of you who play slots a lot, you’ll be aware that the aim is to get between three and five symbols to match on one of the active winlines. This is true here, thus making it easy to play, regardless of skill.

On either side of the spin button is a plus and minus icon, with these controlling the bet of the game; one part will determine the number of coins you wish to play, while the other is the value of said coins. It’s a simple system. Then you have the autoplay option just beneath the spin widget, allowing players to spin up to 1,000 times without having to lift a finger.

Bonus Features

The dynamite is a simple symbol, offering substituting wins for all except for the scatter, a standard tactic that many dollar slots use. And so it’s the scatter that’s central to the bonuses, as three of them activate 10 free games.

These spins include a progressive feature, but it’ll only be triggered by obtaining golden nuggets, with them needing to be collected as you spin. When you reach a certain number of nuggets, the miner will appear on the reels more frequently, with him being the most valuable of the tiles.

Payouts

If you’re primarily interested in what you can win, that comes down to the volatility of this title, which Pragmatic Play has taken the time to so kindly display. As you can see from the paytable, Gold Rush is a medium to high volatility game, even in spite of its above average 96.5% RTP.

Moving onto the symbols and their payouts, the miner is worth 500 credits, while the next most valuable is that of the mining cart at 400. Even the pickaxe, the last of the high value symbols is priced at a reasonable 100 credits per five of them.

Verdict

Overall, we find this to be a pleasant slot machine, however there’s not quite enough variation for us to play for prolonged periods, especially given its difficulty levels. We expect pokies to be challenging at times, we even relish that, but when there’s little in the way of mini games, that challenge starts to feel more tedious. It becomes more like hard work.