Free slot: Ecuador Gold

How Ecuador Gold works

Dare to venture into the South American jungle in search of the lost temple. If you're lucky enough, you'll be able to walk away with an incredible treasure covering you in gold!

Ecuador Gold is a slot machine developed by online game provider Elk Studios. It is available at all online casinos offering the slots of this provider since February 19, 2019.

Its payout ratio (RTP) is quite high with 96.1%, its volatility is high and its maximum winning potential is correct: you will have the possibility to win up to 2,500 times your starting bet.

The starting grid offers an almost classic format with 6 reels of 4 symbols each, but it can be expanded by adding 4 rows to offer 6 reels of 8 symbols and over 262,000 ways!

Indeed, the connections are made in an adjacent way and an avalanche system is used to remove the paying symbols and let new symbols appear in cascades in order to chain the connections during the same game turn.

In addition to the free spins bonus, there are many interesting features available in Ecuador Gold:

• Mega Symbols: Larger symbols can randomly fall on the grid during a stunt, they are in 2x2, 3x3 or 4x4 format;

• Ghosting Wild: This wild can appear on reels 3, 4, 5 or 6 at random. It moves around the grid turning certain symbols in its path into Wilds;

• Avalanche MultiWay: On each connection, the symbols used explode to drop new symbols in a waterfall. This Avalanche version is different from Tumble as an extra row is added with each cascade, increasing the number of ways.

The different symbols in Ecuador Gold

In addition to the Ghosting and normal Wilds and the Scatter, there are 12 symbols in Ecuador Gold.

They are classified into two different categories:

• High value symbols are called premium symbols. They appear less often and pay more. They are represented by the explorer and gold statues;

• Low value symbols, also called common, appear often on the grid and pay much less. They are represented by ancient colored drawings.

Above are the potential payouts for each symbol based on the number of ways and a €1 bet.

The different connections in Ecuador Gold

There are many ways to connect in Ecuador Gold. In fact, there are no predefined paylines in this slot. You have to line up identical symbols on adjacent reels. This way system is becoming more and more common and is quite simple to understand. The connections are made from left to right with a minimum of 3 reels having an identical symbol.

The special feature of the connections in this slot is the Avalanche MultiWay function: each symbol used in a paying connection is removed from the grid. The slot that has become available then drops symbols, some of which then appear on the grid to potentially string together new connections. With each new cascade, a row is added to the top of the grid, increasing the total number of ways.

The maximum number of rows is 8, bringing the maximum number of ways to 262,144.

The image below can help you understand this connection system with a paid example and an example without a valid connection.

How the Ecuador Gold bonus works

Getting at least 3 Scatter symbols on a single pay spin triggers the Ecuador Gold bonus with 10 free spins. If you manage to get 4, 5 or even 6 bonus symbols, then you will be awarded 15, 20 or 25 free spins respectively.

The principle is the same as for the pay spins. The features are triggered in the same way and the goal is to connect to each other in order to enlarge the grid and increase the number of ways. Wilds are sticky, meaning that they stay in their location for the duration of the bonus.

A Safety Level can be triggered when a stunt triggers a win, this will keep the grid height at that level for the next rounds. The process repeats until the grid reaches 8 rows and a cascade triggers a win, giving you the maximum setup for this bonus.

It is possible to retrigger the bonus once by getting 3 or less Scatter in a free spin. By getting 6 Scatter in the base game and 6 Scatter during the bonus, you can then get the maximum number of free spins with 50 free spins.

Our review of Ecuador Gold

Elk Studios is known for its original and beautiful slot games and Ecuador Gold is no exception. The South American temple theme is very well presented while the animations, graphics and sound effects completely immerse us in the atmosphere.

The volatility is high, the maximum winning potential is very interesting and the different features are original and exciting.

Finally Ecuador Gold is the result of a simple but effective recipe that the provider ELK Studios seems to master to perfection!