Black River Gold is set in Northern Ontario Canada in Black River and the background to the slot is a mountainous delight that sets the stage nicely for this western / mining themed game. You can almost feel the air of anticipation for an impending gold and diamond rush in this game, with the soundtrack further enhancing your experience of feeling like a professional prospector. 

Inspecting the paytable we discover that the lower paying symbols are made up of the royal cards Jack through to the Ace, with pays ranging from 0.1x, up to 0.3x when wins are formed through them. The medium value symbols comprise of the amulets, sheriffs badge, whiskey glass, and pistols, where wins vary from 0.2x, up to 0.8x. Finally the premium symbols are reserved for the ruby, golden nugget, diamond, and prospector, where a 6 of a kind win will pay 2x, 2x, 2x, and 3x respectively. 

Your play will begin on the base game on Black River Gold with a format of 6 reels and 4 rows, which will give you a total of 4096 ways to win. Each time that you hit a winning combination the reels will expand by one extra row. We have detailed below the sequence that will take place when you hit consecutive wins. It should be noted that once there are no further winning connections the reels will go back to the default of 4096 paylines.

• 4 Rows - 4096 ways to win.
• 5 Rows - 15,625 ways to win.
• 6 Rows - 46,656 ways to win.
• 7 Rows - 117,649 ways to win.
• 8 Rows - 262,144 ways to win.

Integral to the increasing in size of your rows is the cascading reels mechanic. Each time you form a win on Black River Gold the symbols that are a part of that winning combination will explode an be removed from the reels. The row size will then increase by 1, and new symbols will drop down to fill the spaces that remain.

This mechanic can of course lead to several consecutive wins and get you to the maximum amount of paylines that are achievable on the game. Getting a bit of luck when the reels are at the maximum ways can lead to some very lucrative cascades.

The compass is a nifty little symbol on Black River Gold that can help you to form wins, as well as helping you to further add to any winning combinations that may have landed on the reels. When two matching symbols are opposite each other the compass will turn and transform them into wilds. So if for example you had a queen north and south of the compass they would both charge into wilds.

This will continue where possible until the compass reaches the bottom row of the reels, it will then turn into a wild symbol itself and possibly help to form a win.

Big symbols are something that ELK Studios have made a part and parcel of their gold series of slots, so it wasn't really any surprise to see them make an appearance on Black River Gold. These symbols can drop into view at any time, and in some instances like our picture above they can cause a random amount of paylines to be in play, rather than the set amount that outlined earlier. Below we have detailed the big symbols that can drop in to play and their size.

• Super Symbol = 2 x 2 in size.
• Mega Symbol = 3 x 3 in size.
• Epic Symbols = 4 x 4 in size.

A new enhancer that we have seen added to this game is the revolver symbol. This will appear when a big symbol is on the reels and has a gap beneath it. The revolver will absorb all smaller symbols that appear below it and store them in its chamber until it can rest flat on the reels.

If a winning combination of symbols then also form on the reels and the revolver can contribute to that win, the chamber of the gun will spin to that symbol and the size of the revolver will become that symbol. If the chamber of the revolver becomes full then it will become wild.

Activating the free spin feature on Black River Gold will require 3 or more of the bonus scatter symbols to land anywhere in view. If more than symbols land then you will receive more free spins as we have highlighted below.

• 3 Scatters = 10 Free Drops.
• 4 Scatters = 15 Free Drops.
• 5 Scatters = 20 Free Drops.
• 6 Scatters = 25 Free Drops.

The bonus round will begin with the reels at the default set up of 4 rows high and 4096 ways to win. These rows can again be increased when winning combinations are formed on the reels, but this time when you reach the additional rows and paylines a safety level will be activated so that when your current series of spins are over the reels will not reset back to the default, but instead start at the safety point. 

A main highlight of the bonus round are the sticky wild symbols. Whenever they appear on the reels if they are not used then they will drop to the bottom row of the reels for the next spin. These can quickly mount up as in our example above and produce some massive wins, especially if you can get them stacked up at the maximum amount of ways. It's worth noting that once these have been used in a winning combination they will be eliminated from the reels.

Players should also note that additional free spins can be awarded, these will be added when 3 or more of the bonus scatters symbols once again appear in view. 

Black River Gold fits nicely into the gold series of slots that features Tahiti Gold, Ecuador Gold, and Voodoo Gold. There are a few subtle differences such as the inclusion of the revolver feature that can help to produce some decent wins at times, but apart from that it pretty much follows suit to the titles in the series that have come before it.

Nevertheless it is an entertaining game to play and if you have enjoyed the previous slots we have mentioned, then it's a guarantee that this latest adventure will be right up your street.

BLACK RIVER GOLD SLOT FAQ

AUTHOR BIO