Phoenix Forge Slot Review

Phoenix Forge Slot RTP, Details & Wager Limits

The Phoenix Forge is played on a 5 reel, 3 row, 20 payline machine. Winners are created by landing 3, 4 or 5 matching symbols or wilds from left to right on a payline, starting from the leftmost reel.

Stake levels range from between 20p and £100 per spin. Use the + and – tabs next to the spin button to adjust your overall bet size. Click in the i button in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen to open up the paytable. Payout amounts are shown in cash rather than coins and are amended as you change your stake. It’s all very simple and straightforward to follow.

The Phoenix Forge RTP is 96.51% which is a better than average figure. Like many slots in the Pragmatic Play catalogue, the variance here is high. On a scale of 1 to 5, the volatility is the maximum of 5 so proceed with caution. The maximum win from a single spin here is 5,000 x your total stake.

Theme – Audio & Design Features – enter a treasury full of gold

The Phoenix Forge slot has a Greek mythology theme. According to legend, the phoenix is a bird associated with the sun that regenerates following its death.  As usual for a Pragmatic Play title, the design here is colourful, glossy and very easy on the eye. There’s a rather intense soundtrack thumping away while you spin which provides plenty of brooding atmosphere.

A golden version of mythical bird appears here as the game’s bonus symbol. Landing 3 or more of them trigger the main feature (more on this below). Joining the phoenix on the reels are 7 gemstone symbols. The best of them is the red stone which awards 1.25, 5 or 25 x your total stake if you land 3, 4 or 5 on a payline.

Rounding out the symbols is the phoenix egg which is the wild. This can land on reels 2, 3 and 4 only. As usual, the wild substitutes for all the standard symbols when it makes up part of a winning combination.

You can enter the Phoenix Forge on all devices including mobiles, tablets and desktops. The bold visuals and relatively simple gameplay are a good fit for play on a smartphone.

Phoenix Forge Bonus Features

The 3 bonus features on offer in Phoenix Forge look rather familiar at first glance. Pragmatic Play has taken the familiar and given it a twist or 2, chiefly courtesy of the Hot Spot multiplier. This can really come into its own during the free spins bonus.

Tumble feature

Land a winning combination and the Tumble feature is in play. The successful symbols are removed from the grid and new symbols tumble into the vacated positions to replace them. If a new winner is created, the process is repeated. The tumbles continue until no new winner is formed. That’s a pretty standard tumbling reels mechanic. The main wrinkle here is the presence of the Hot Spot multiplier.

Hot Spot Multiplier feature

When a tumble has taken place and the symbols has been removed, a multiplier is added to the vacated symbol position. This is called Hot Spot Multiplier feature. Each time a winning symbol lands on 1 of these positions, a multiplier increases by 1.

A winning combination is boosted by the value of all the multipliers it includes. For example, land a winning combination that includes symbols in positions that include a pair of 2x Hot Spot Multiplier and the payouts gets a 4x multiplier boost. In the base game, the multiplier resets to 1x following a winless tumble.

Free Spins feature

Land 3, 4 or 5 bonus symbols on the same spin and you’ll receive a payout equal to 2, 5 or 20 x stake. You’ll also trigger the Free Spins feature and with it, 10, 15 or 20 free spins.

The tumbling reels and Hot Spot Multipliers are active in the free spins. The big difference is that the multipliers don’t reset to 1x following a winless tumble. They have the potential to get bigger and bigger as the round progresses. Land 3 bonus symbols during the feature and another 5 free spins are added to your total.

Phoenix Forge Review Summary – fiery theme, fiery action

First of all, the Phoenix Forge slot looks superb. In terms of gameplay, it comes with conventional bonus features with a slight twist. Pragmatic Play has taken the popular tumbling reels mechanic and given it a tweak by adding the Hot Spot Multiplier.

These increasing multipliers can really hit the spot when you trigger the free spins, especially if you get plenty of multipliers in play at once. Add a retrigger or 2 and the action can really fly. This is a potentially risky slot though as the volatility is extremely high.

Overall, Phoenix Forge is a decent game from Pragmatic Play which doesn’t really stand out. It reminds me a little of Red Tiger Gaming’s Dragon’s Fire which offers multipliers up to 50x as well as 10,336 x stake max wins. If it’s Greek mythology you’re after, Lord of the Ocean from Novomatic is a popular choice.