Welcome, y’all, to Quickspin’s Mine & Melt, an online slot in which players may “crack rocks,” “dig dirt,” and “shake the old pan” in a river in search of the glittering yellow substance we call gold. The term “mining” implies an underground activity where one works at grinding away at a rock face. The melting process is a bit more baffling, but maybe it will become evident after you see how grid-bound nuggets can combine. Get out your beloved shovel and we’ll start digging for gold.
The inclusion of the Three Lucky Swedes in Mine & Melt would lead one to believe that the game is set in the Arctic, where there was once a gold rush. Mine & Melt’s game sheet makes it obvious that the action takes place in Canada’s northwest, in the Klondike region, which is part of the Yukon territory. This term, “gold rush,” has also been used to Sweden’s successful performance at the 2022 Winter Games. In this corner of the world, Quickspin has been given free rein to create huge, forest-covered outdoor sculptures. The music in Mine & Melt fits right in, being a banjo-tinkling Western-styled melody that adds atmosphere to the gold rush. Mine & Melt’s visual style isn’t very memorable, but it does a good job of setting the stage for the game’s exciting gameplay.
Players may activate the search mode by placing a wager anywhere from 20 pence to £/€100 per paid spin; those that qualify can also choose to invest in one of two bonus games. Maximum RTP is 96.09% while playing the base game, 96.35% when purchasing the bonus game, and 96.59% when playing the super bonus game. The paytable will reveal if you have the lower return model or not. The volatility of an asset is model-specific as well, and it goes down when the return value goes down. Quickspin gives the 96.09% one a perfect 5 for volatility.
In the center of Mine & Melt’s picturesque setting is a 4×4 game panel, on which 16 symbols land on every spin for a total of 256 possible winning combinations. If you spin in three or four identical symbols from left to right, you’ll win. Wins with four royal symbols pay out at a rate of 0.5 to 1 times the wager, while wins with four hats, lanterns, picks, or pan mids pay out at a rate of 2.5 to 5 times the wager, and wins with four high-pay gold bars pay out at a rate of 15 times the wager.
In-Game Mining and Smelting Bonuses
It’s clear that Mine & Melt lacks a standard 1×1 wild sign, but the game makes up for this by including the Three Lucky Swedes. While the grid is in motion in the main game, reels 2-4 have a chance of becoming Wild Miner symbols. All standard pay symbols can be substituted by Wild Miner symbols, which can appear completely stacked and with multipliers ranging from 2x to 4x.
Games with Bonus Rounds and Extra Prizes
All four reels are covered in bonus symbols. If you get three of these while playing the main game of Mine & Melt, you’ll unlock the bonus round. On the right side of the grid, you’ll see your starting number of lives: 3. In the bonus round, the only symbols that can appear are Collector symbols, which award a bet multiplier (beginning at x2), or Smeltdown symbols, which trigger the game’s end.
If one of the aforementioned symbols appears, you’ll get three more lives, and the bonus round will expire after you use them all. If there are two adjacent Collector symbols with the same value, one of them will be Merged to create a new symbol, freeing up a space on the board. Multiplier values of x2 in the bonus game and x4 in the Super bonus game are awarded when Smeltdown symbols appear. All visible Collector values are multiplied by this factor. The Smeltdown multiplier is applied to any more Collector symbols that appear. Finally, the Super bonus game (activated by getting 4 bonus symbols) is identical to the normal bonus game except that players have 4 lives instead of 3.
Add-On Purchase
Players in regions where the option to buy is not prohibited can do so immediately upon starting the game. Two options exist here. The first is activated by three bonus symbols and awards 60x the wager, while the second requires four bonus symbols and awards 330x the wager.
Slot Judgment Mining & Melting
The bonus rounds in Mine & Melt may look and feel familiar if you’re familiar with the puzzle game 2048. In 2048, the aim is to build a tile with the number 2048 by combining two tiles with the same numerical value and swapping their positions. The bonus round of Mine & Melt was a cross between 2048 and traditional hold ‘n win gambling, so someone at Quickspin would enjoy both of those things. Cash Truck, a mammoth slot that stands tall among the best-in-class slots like those from the Money Train brand, demonstrates that Quickspin is more than capable of blowing the socks off players in these types of bonus rounds. Even though it came out later, some would argue that Money Train 3 was superior.
Mine & Melt is a slot machine that plays a unique octave on the xylophone of hold ‘n win games. No, we’re not talking about the bottom of the barrel here. Mine & Melt’s maximum payout of 5,504 times the wager places it squarely in the middle of the payout spectrum. Seeing Collectors blend into the kind of ever-larger tiles required to hit its maximum limits would likely be as thrilling as reaching 2048 on a roll. Despite the fact that the bonus rounds in Mine & Melt are similar to the ones in ReelPlay’s Big Bucks Buffalo Gigablox/Mega Pearl Gigablox, the game nevertheless provides its own unique brand of amusement.
However, given the product’s lack of widespread recognition, its initial appeal is bound to fade. However, in contrast to larger games like the aforementioned Money Train 3, we never felt like we were on the verge of a full-scale conflict. Mine & Melt was less heavy and aggressive, but still provided enough entertainment value for those seeking a reasonably intriguing hold ‘n win style slot.