Starmada Exiles is a 5 reel, 25 payline slot from Playtech that takes you on a hunt for intergalactic treasure. Playable from 25p to £2,500 per spin across desktop, mobile and tablet devices, it comes with a Plunder Bonus feature where you can win cash prizes or upgrade exiles – upgrade them all to enter the free spins feature. Here, all 4 exiles acts as extra wilds for better payouts.

Visually, Starmada Exiles is excellent – set in outer space with spaceships and meteoroids in the background, symbols include a selection of gadgets and weapons. You’ll also see 4 exile characters – the Pirate Captain, Female Pirate, Male Pirate and Robot Pirate. The Pirate Captain is the most lucrative – 3, 4 or 5 on a payline will reward you with 2, 10 or 60 times your total stake. There’s a standard wild symbol which can replace all symbols bar the scatter to give you the best possible winning combination – it appears on all reels bar reel 1.

The most important symbol is the planet which is the scatter – when it appears on reels 1 and 3 simultaneously in the base game, you’ll trigger the Plunder Bonus feature. During the feature, you get to pick from 1 of the 2 scatters to plunder a cash prize or upgrade 1 of the 4 exile symbols in the meter to the left of the reel set.

The upgraded symbols will become wilds on reels 2, 3, 4 and 5 in the Starmada Exiles Free Games feature (more info below). When an exile symbol has been upgraded, the scatters transform into Emerald scatters which give you cash prizes when they land on future base game spins. When all 4 exile symbols have been upgraded, another upgrade will give you access to the Starmada Exiles Free Games feature.

The other way to enter the Starmada Exiles Free Games feature is by getting the scatter on reels 1, 3 and 5 in the base game. With 10 free spins awarded, any exile symbols upgraded in the Plunder Bonus feature will appear as wilds on reels 2 through 5.

Look out for the Ruby scatter symbol on reel 5 – you’ll also see a meter above the reels to reveal the upgrade status of exile symbols. When a Ruby scatter appears, the leftmost empty Ruby scatter indentation is filled (each exile symbol has 3 Ruby scatter indentations). When you get a 3rd indentation, that exile becomes wild on reels 2, 3, 4 and 5 for the rest of the feature. Finally, you can get the scatter on reels 1, 3 and 5 during a free spin – this would give you another 10 free spins.

Basically, both bonus features allow you to play free spins with 4 extra wild symbols – this makes it easier to win big in theory. Medium variance, you can pocket up to 1,500 times your stake on each spin/free spin if you fill the reels with the Pirate Captain and/or wilds. The easiest way of doing this is in the Starmada Exiles Free Games feature. Overall, a good slot from Playtech with good win potential – if you like the theme, Playson’s Space Corsairs is similar.