Play Fire in the Hole | Review | RTP: 96.06%

Slot Description

Fire in the Hole starts with 6 reels, each having 3 unlocked rows and 3 locked. By landing a winning combination, one blocked row gets unlocked. Therefore, with 3 consecutive wins, the entire reels are unlocked, and you stand a chance to play on the slot's maximum 46,656 ways to win. Wins occur when matching symbols land on adjacent reels starting from the leftmost position.

You'll need a minimum of 3 identical symbols to qualify for payouts. Whenever a winning combination lands, a collapse occurs where winning symbols burst and are taken off from the reels. At the same time, the rest of the symbols fall to the bottom, new symbols land from the top, and an extra row gets unlocked. If another win emerges on the same spin, the entire process repeats with another row unlocking. Up to 6 rows can be locked through this process.

Symbols and Payouts

A total of 10 paying symbols are present in the game. While card royals represent the low-pay symbols, high-paying symbols consist of mining instruments, with the lamp being the most rewarding one. Hitting 5 lamp symbols in the same spin dishes out 7.5x the stake.

Bonus Features

Fire in the Hole holds several surprises in store that might pave your way to some incredible wins.

Collapsing Mine

In the collapsing mine mechanic, winning symbols are removed and replaced by new ones. Also, an unlocked or inactive row becomes activated with each consecutive win, making it possible to make all 6 rows playable. Since the slot includes the collapsing mine mechanic, you can trigger multiple wins from the same spin. There are multiple ways to trigger the collapse:

Hitting a win
When xBomb wild symbol lands
Wild Mining feature

Also, once no further wins are possible in the same spin, the reels revert to 3 rows, with the bottom 3 getting locked again.

Lucky Wagon Spins

The activation of the Lucky Wagon Spins bonus feature is initiated by landing 3, 4, or 5 bonus symbols in the base game, resulting in 2, 3, or 4 active rows, respectively. Commencing with an initial allocation of 3 spins, this count resets to 3 each time a coin symbol is encountered. Positioned at the summit of the grid are 6 modifiers, each aligned above a respective reel. Upon the occurrence of a coin symbol, the modifier directly corresponding to it is bestowed. The modifiers encompass the following functionalities:

Coin values spanning from x1 to x100.
A multiplier that applies its values universally to all coins positioned below it.
Dynamite is capable of removing obstructed positions or enhancing the value of coins. It may also accumulate chests located at the bottom row.
The Bag gathers values from all coin symbols beneath it and appends them to the triggering coin.
The Chest is tasked with collecting values from all symbols on the associated reel and subsequently clearing all positions, excluding the Dwarf symbol.
The Dwarf icon is responsible for aggregating values from the reel and assigning them to the triggering coin during each spin.

Additionally, Collect Chests become active at the base of the grid, extracting values from all coins on the corresponding reel during each spin.

xBomb Wild Multiplier

As previously elucidated, the xBomb Wild serves as a substitute for all symbols except bonus symbols. When an xBomb wild detonates, it eliminates all adjacent symbols, excluding the bonus symbol. Furthermore, with each detonation, the multiplier increases by +1. Interestingly, the xBomb also detonates during non-winning spins, provided the wild mining feature remains untriggered.

Wild Mining

The Wild Mining feature is activated when 3 to 5 matching symbols align horizontally without forming a winning combination. For attaining 3, 4, or 5 matching symbols, 1, 2, or 3 wild symbols occur in the middle of the alignment. Symbols positioned above the bar, excluding wild and bonus symbols, are removed, triggering a new collapse.

Nolimit Bonus

Nolimit City's exclusive bonus purchase feature offers direct access to the Lucky Wagon Spins without engaging in the base game. To trigger the bonus feature with 3, 4, or 5 bonus symbols, you’ll have to pay 60x, 157x, or 500x the stake, respectively. Note that the buy bonus option might not be available in some jurisdictions.

Payout Statistics

When it comes to offering the maximum win potential, Nolimit City loves to tickle players with its heavy-weight numbers. Fire in the Hole's max pay potential of 60,000x the stake is just one example. Shockingly, this is not even the highest from the game provider. Still, the prize money is way too big and holds the possibility of hitting once in 2.4 million spins on average. While still greatly rare, the chances are not too bad, considering there are games that hit a max win in over 10 million spins.

Other than the max pay might, Fire in the Hole RTP of 96.06% is also an impressive stat to behold. And even though the slot's hit frequency is 25.98% (a win likely occurring in every 4-5 spins), the collapsing mechanic ensures you get multiple wins from time to time from the same spin. From a realistic point of view, though, our best yield from the slot was 5,361x the stake after playing numerous sessions.

Final Verdict

Fire in the Hole might be a mining-themed slot, but it takes things a notch higher. It is the first Nolimit City slot to use the xBomb mechanic, and goes perfectly well for a mining game. Other than that, the slot's feature-heavy list might be too daunting for players in the first go. But as you give time to the game, everything comes around in a neat and straightforward manner. Inspiration from Money Train 2 is quite evident in the slot, especially when Lucky Wagon Spins trigger.

But even after taking bits from here and there, Fire in the Hole remains one of the solid additions from Nolimit City, which has impressively refined an otherwise stereotyped mining genre. While the risks involved with severe volatility levels might be too daunting for many players, those willing to push their limit might stumble upon an unprecedented reward.