Pacific Gold Slot Review 2022

Pacific Gold from Elk Studios has us revisiting the critically acclaimed Gold series with our favourite intrepid explorer, Kane.

‘Vanished but not lost’ is the slogan for this one, and it introduces us to our plot for Kane’s latest daring adventure. Years ago in 1953, a special cargo flight departed from San Diego bound for Osaka, Japan. On the way, a mysterious distress call is made, and the plane vanishes from existence.

The radio analysis rasies more questions about the planes whereabouts than it does answers…Is KS-17 lost forever? or will Kane be the man to find it?

As per usual, we’re ready, willing and able to accompany Kane on his latest escapade, but what will we find?

The theme for Pacific Gold certainly confirms that Kane was the man for the job. In the background you’ll see the fated flight amidst the wilderness, protruding from the ground and overtaken by nature.

Let’s see what other secrets there are.

Pacific Gold: Betting and Symbols

The betting options in Pacific Gold are just as broad as any other Elk Studios slot. The lowest option here is £/€0.20 per spin, and the highest option is £/€100 per spin.

In terms of symbols, Kane is once again in the spotlight as the highest paying symbol, and he’s followed by various looking totem pole figures. Medium paying symbols are red, purple, green and blue square symbols, and low paying symbols are simply Ace, King, Queen and Jack.

Pacific Gold: The Base Game and Features

Pacific Gold is a 6 Column, 4 row slot with columns that can expand upwards for up to 8 rows and a maximum of 262,144 ways to win.

On every new spin in the Base Game, Pacific Gold is played with 4 rows and 4,096 ways. Winning combination causes symbols to disappear, before being replaced by new symbols and one extra row until no more winning combinations are possible. This is called the Avalanche feature.

• 4 Rows – 4,096 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

Pacific Gold also features a few other additions, like Big Symbols which introduces 2×2, 3×3 or 4×4 symbols. There are also Wild Symbols, which substitutes for any symbol except for the Pacific Wave, Power Stack, Ghost Box and Bonus Symbols

Pacific Wave

The Pacific Wave is a horizontal stack of an identical symbol. These symbols can appear as 1×2, 1×3 or 1×4 symbols. Any empty spaces beneath it is filled by Wild Symbols

Power Stack

The Power Stack symbol is a 1x1symbol, but it represents a stack of 4 identical 1×1 symbols. It will increase and represent 2 more symbol instances for each avalanche cycle of which it does not participate in.

Ghost Box

The Ghost Box collects all symbols which are part of a win when it’s in view. If there are bigger symbols, then they’re broken apart before being collected as individual 1×1 symbols. The collection will cease when there are ano additional wins, and then the box will explode to reveal its contents.

The contents of the box is distributed row by row, starting with the symbol with the largest collected number.  If there are an equal number of collected symbols, then the most valuable symbol is prioritised.

Pacific Gold Free Spins

Pacific Gold Free Spins are triggered when 3 or more bonus symbols land anywhere in view during the Base Game

• 3 Scatters – 10 Free Spins
• 4 Scatters – 15 Free Spins
• 5 Scatters – 20 Free Spins
• 6 Scatters – 25 Free Spins

In the bonus, a safety level is active. This Safety Level advances one row for every new free drop which results in a win. The safety level ensures that the next spin starts with a minimum amount of ways. The safety level can increase all the way up to 8 rows, which means 262,144 ways to win on each new spin.

During Free Spins, at least one Pacific Wave is dropped on each spin. Ghost Boxes also remain persistent for the duration if Free Spins if one appears. It will explode and reveal its contents when no free drops remain, and no additional wins appear.

Pacific Gold X-iter

Pacific Gold once again features the Elk Studios X-iter feature. This is bonus buy territory, so those of you in the UK wont be able to use it.

Here’s what it does for those who can

• Big Drop – 1 Drop with a guaranteed big symbol at the cost of 5x your bet
• Pacific Wave – 1 Drop with a guaranteed Pacific Wave at the cost of 10x your bet
• Ghost Box – 1 Drop with a guaranteed Ghost Box at the cost of 25x your bet
• Bonus – Guarantees a game round with entry to the Free Spins game at the cost of 100x your bet
• Super Bonus – Guarantees a game round with entry to the Free Spins at the cost of 500x your bet. In this mode, the persistent Ghost Box appears straight away.

Pacific Gold: Our Verdict

We’ve always thoroughly enjoyed our daring escapades with the cunning explorer Kane, and we really enjoyed Pacific Gold too.

The Gold series has really started to diversify of late, and while there’s no particular reason why you should pick this one over other recent titles, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t either.

Pacific Gold has great potential with 10,000x winning capabilities, and as per usual the RTP looks a little bit sub par at 95% exactly.

Pacific Gold does well in bringing something new to the table, even though the formula itself is rather in line when compared to those before it. We found the Ghost Box to be a very interesting new feature, but the others could feel a little underwhelming at times.

Overall, if you’re a fan of the Elk Studios slots so far, and you’ve got a particular interest in the Gold Series of slots, then you’ll undoubtedly be excited to try Pacific Gold