3 Lucky Monkeys

3 Lucky Monkeys Slot Review

Three crowned monkeys in green, red and purple headdresses lean over a Chinese New Year temple pavilion, each cradling a golden bowl and waiting for coins to fly their way. 3 Lucky Monkeys hides its entire personality in one mode: outside the bonus round this is a plain coin-collecting exercise, and everything the monkeys do exists to load the round that matters.

From BGaming, this festival-themed slot runs a 3×5 grid that stretches to 5×5 inside the bonus round, with a jackpot ladder climbing from Mini to a Royal Jackpot worth 2,500x the bet. The studio’s Chicken Rush 2 and Alice Wonderluck cover similar ground, so the familiar shape here is no accident.

Base Game & Features

The base game plays out on a 3×5 grid, framed by gilded carved pillars and red-tasselled lanterns, with the three monkeys watching from above. Winning combinations form across the paylines, and there’s a single modifier to keep an eye on while you spin.

The Wild appears anywhere on the reels, substitutes for any symbol except the Coin symbol, and can pay on its own. That’s its whole job, and it does it without ceremony.

The paytable leans on Chinese festival imagery, and it’s the standard shape: one premium symbol, a mid-tier of theme icons, and paired low symbols that share values. Five Gold Ingots is the top line in the game.

• Gold Ingot – 3 pays 1x, 4 pays 3x, 5 pays 15x
• Fan – 3 pays 0.75x, 4 pays 1.5x, 5 pays 10x
• Firecrackers – 3 pays 0.6x, 4 pays 1.25x, 5 pays 8x
• Rattle Drum – 3 pays 0.5x, 4 pays 1x, 5 pays 6x
• Peach / Bamboo – 3 pays 0.25x, 4 pays 0.6x, 5 pays 2x
• Orange / Fortune Cookie – 3 pays 0.2x, 4 pays 0.5x, 5 pays 1.5x

Notice the pairing at the bottom. Peach and Bamboo sit on one row, Orange and Fortune Cookie on the next, so the six value tiers cover eight symbols in total. It’s a compact paytable for a festival theme, and it means the lows land constantly even when they pay barely anything.

Counters and the Monkey Pots

Coins that land in the main game fly over to their matching monkeys and are collected in the pots beneath them. The three counters are tied to the special coins, and what they bank decides how dangerous the bonus round becomes.

It’s a simple collection loop, but it gives the base game something to work towards. Coins have a purpose the moment they land. A coin can carry a plain value or a jackpot prize, and both kinds count towards filling the pots.

3 Lucky Monkeys Hold & Win Bonus

The Hold & Win round is where the game keeps its real money. It’s triggered by six or more coins, with a small chance of triggering from just two. The reels go dark, empty cells wait to be filled, and the round starts with three spins.

Each coin that lands resets the spin count back to three. If a spin passes with no coins, the count drops by one. When it reaches zero, the round ends and every coin on the reels is summed into the final win.

Empty cells are the whole economy of the round. Every cell that stays empty is a coin that never arrives, which is why the countdown matters more than it does in most hold-and-win builds: three consecutive blanks end the round whatever’s on the board.

Special Coins: Expand, Collect, Boost

Collected in the monkeys’ pots during the main game, the three special coins activate at random during the Hold & Win round, or on the triggering spin itself. Each one changes the maths of the round in a different way:

• Expand – grows the reels from 3×5 to 5×5, then turns into a coin worth 3x to 10x
• Collect – gathers up the value of every coin currently on the reels
• Boost – adds its own value to each coin on the reels

Expand is the one that changes everything, purely because it changes the board. A 5×5 grid holds more than half again as many cells as the standard layout, and every extra cell is another slot for a coin, a jackpot, or a reset.

Boost and Collect are quieter but stack well with a full board. Boost lifts every coin at once, so its value multiplies across however many are showing, while Collect simply banks what’s on the reels and leaves the coins where they are.

The Jackpot Ladder

Five jackpots sit above the action, and they’re won in two different ways. The first three arrive as coins: Mini, Minor and Major Jackpot symbols carry their prize straight onto the reels, so they can land at any point in the round and still count as coins for reset purposes. The top two are positional.

The Grand Jackpot, worth 500x the bet, lands when the standard Hold & Win grid is completely filled with coins. The Royal Jackpot, worth 2,500x the bet, demands the same on the expanded 5×5 board. That’s the whole reason the Expand coin matters: it’s the only route to the game’s top prize.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7/10

Playing 3 Lucky Monkeys is mostly a matter of banking coins while three monkeys watch you do it, and the reason to choose it is the round all that banking feeds. The bonus is where the festival actually starts.

Its best idea is making the top prize earn its number. The Royal pot doesn’t drop from the sky, it’s built by expanding the board and then filling every cell, which makes the Royal Jackpot feel like something you worked towards rather than a figure on a poster.

The weakness is the hour before the party. The base game is a modest paytable and one wild, and it can feel like loading a cannon that fires on someone else’s schedule. This is one for hold-and-win players who enjoy a long build and a loud finish; anyone chasing busy base games should look elsewhere. The monkeys are patient, and they reward patience back.

3 Lucky Monkeys FAQs

• What is the grid size of 3 Lucky Monkeys?

  3 Lucky Monkeys runs on a 3×5 grid in the base game, which can expand to 5×5 during the Hold & Win round when the Expand special coin activates.
• How do you trigger the Hold & Win bonus in 3 Lucky Monkeys?

  The Hold & Win round is triggered by landing six or more Coin symbols anywhere on the reels. There is also a small chance of the feature triggering from just two coins.
• What do the special coins do in 3 Lucky Monkeys?

  There are three special coins collected in the monkeys’ pots: Expand grows the reels from 3×5 to 5×5 and becomes a coin worth 3x to 10x, Collect adds up the value of every coin on the reels, and Boost adds its value to each coin individually.
• How is the Royal Jackpot won in 3 Lucky Monkeys?

  The Royal Jackpot, worth 2,500x the bet, is won by completely filling the expanded 5×5 reels with coins during the Hold & Win round. The Grand Jackpot, worth 500x the bet, is won by completely filling the standard 3×5 grid.
• How do spins work in the 3 Lucky Monkeys Hold & Win round?

  The round starts with three spins. Every coin that lands resets the count to three; if a spin passes without a coin, the count drops by one. When the count reaches zero, the total value of all coins on the reels is paid.
• Who makes 3 Lucky Monkeys?

  3 Lucky Monkeys is made by BGaming, the studio behind titles including Chicken Rush 2, Alice Wonderluck and Snoop Dogg Dollars.
• When is 3 Lucky Monkeys released?

  3 Lucky Monkeys’ release date is 28 September 2026.