9 Burning Stars Slot Review
A blazing orange sun flares behind the title, a dark red nebula churns behind the reels, and a swirling vortex sits framed in gold to the right like a black hole on a leash. That’s the world of 9 Burning Stars, a Wazdan slot that dresses a very small game in a great deal of fire.
Because it is a very small game: nine independent reels on a 3×3 grid, five-of-a-kind wins, one bonus round, and a 1,500x ceiling on the top prize. The RTP runs at 96.14%. Everything else is a question of how long you’re willing to wait for that matrix in the corner to fill up.
It sits in the same family as 9 Coins Grand Diamond Edition, 9 Bells and 12 Coins Grand Gold Edition, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Nine Independent Reels
The grid is nine reels arranged in a 3×3 square, and each reel spins on its own. A win needs five symbols of a kind anywhere on the reels, so there are no paylines to trace and no adjacent-reel rules to remember. Land five matching symbols, get paid. That’s the whole arrangement.
There’s no wild and no scatter in the usual sense. The special symbols here are the Cash symbol, which feeds the bonus, and the Multiplier symbol, which boosts a winning spin by a factor somewhere between modest and tenfold. It’s a simple setup, and the paytable keeps faith with it.
Symbol pays are multiples of the total bet, and they run from the blazing 7 down to the lowly 9:
- 7 – pays 10x for five of a kind
- Star – pays 5x for five of a kind
- A – pays 2x for five of a kind
- K – pays 1x for five of a kind
- Q – pays 0.8x for five of a kind
- J – pays 0.6x for five of a kind
- 10 – pays 0.4x for five of a kind
- 9 – pays 0.2x for five of a kind
The Multiplier symbol is what stops the base game from being purely a countdown to the bonus. The Multiplier symbol multiplies the total win by 2x, 3x, 5x, 7x or 10x, which is more action than most base games in this family offer outside the feature.
The rest of the time, the royals do what royals do: they keep the balance ticking over in small increments while you wait for the Cash symbols to do their work.
The Hold the Jackpot round is played at the same bet level and Volatility Level™ as the spin that activated it.
The Bonus Matrix
Every time a Cash symbol lands on a reel, its value is saved into the matching field of the Bonus Matrix, the 3×3 diagram that shadows the grid. The values stay there spin after spin, building towards a full house. It’s a collection mechanic, and it’s the reason a session on 9 Burning Stars has a shape: you’re always partway to somewhere.
A full house is what triggers the feature. One detail matters before it does: everything banked on the Matrix is accumulated by a Matrix Collector symbol added to the central reel during the bonus, so nothing you collected on the way in is wasted.
Each Cash symbol that lands also carries its own prize value, and those values pay out inside the round rather than on the spin itself.
Hold the Jackpot Bonus Game
Sticky Symbols and Re-Spins
The bonus plays out on the same nine reels, with every Bonus symbol sticking where it lands. You start with three re-spins, and each new Bonus symbol that appears resets the count to three. The round runs until the re-spins run out or all nine reels are filled with Bonus symbols. Bonus symbols pay only at the end, as one combined sum.
Bonus Symbols
Several symbol types can land during the round, and each does a different job:
- Cash symbols – award prizes from 1x up to 10x, 12x and 15x the bet
- Collector symbol – accumulates all Cash values on the reels and multiplies them by a random 1x to 9x
- Mystery symbol – transforms into any other Bonus symbol except the Matrix Collector
- Jackpot Mystery symbol – transforms only into MINI, MINOR or MAJOR Jackpot symbols
Mystery and Jackpot Mystery symbols open one by one at the end of the round, which stretches the finish out nicely. The Collector is the one to watch: a late Collector with a high multiplier can turn a modest board into something far better.
And because multiple jackpots of the same type can be won in a single bonus, the ladder isn’t a one-shot affair either.
The Jackpot Ladder
Four jackpots sit above the Cash symbols, and any of them can drop during the round, with multiples of the same type available in a single bonus:
- MINI – 20x the bet
- MINOR – 50x the bet
- MAJOR – 150x the bet
- GRAND – the game’s maximum prize, paid for filling all nine reels with Bonus symbols of any type
Fill the grid and the GRAND is yours outright, with no other Bonus symbol values added to it. If the round ends any other way, the prize is the sum of every Bonus symbol value on the reels, jackpots included. Either way, everything is measured against the bet level you went in on.
Buy Feature
If waiting for the Matrix to fill isn’t your idea of fun, the Buy Feature skips the queue and activates the Hold the Jackpot Bonus Game directly. It does so on the Extreme Volatility level, the setting characterised by even bigger wins than the other Volatility Levels.
For a game whose ceiling is the GRAND itself, buying in at the most explosive setting is the high-roller route to it.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.1/10
9 Burning Stars is a game of patience dressed in fire. The base game is honest but thin: five-of-a-kind wins on a 3×3 grid, with the Multiplier symbol doing the only real work between Cash symbol landings. The Bonus Matrix gives every spin a purpose, and watching those nine fields fill is a slow-burn pleasure that the space-and-flame backdrop somehow makes fitting.
The bonus is where it all pays off. Sticky symbols, re-spin resets, Mystery reveals and a Collector that can multiply the whole board make for a round with genuine tension, and the jackpot ladder gives it a proper top end.
The weakness is the ceiling itself: a 1,500x GRAND is modest by modern standards, and Extreme Volatility buyers are paying for swings inside a fairly small room.
For fans of Wazdan’s coin-and-matrix games this is a comfortable, well-made entry with a prettier face than most. Players chasing five-figure ceilings will want to burn their fuel elsewhere.
9 Burning Stars FAQs
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What is the RTP of 9 Burning Stars?
The RTP is 96.14%. -
What is the grid size of 9 Burning Stars?
The game is played on nine independent reels arranged in a 3×3 grid. -
How do you trigger the Hold the Jackpot Bonus Game?
Cash symbols that land on the reels are saved onto the Bonus Matrix. When all nine fields of the Matrix are full, the Hold the Jackpot Bonus Game is activated. -
What does the Mystery symbol do in 9 Burning Stars?
The Mystery symbol can transform into any other Bonus symbol, apart from the Matrix Collector. The Jackpot Mystery symbol can only transform into MINI, MINOR and MAJOR Jackpot symbols. Both open one by one at the end of the Bonus Game. -
What is the maximum win on 9 Burning Stars?
The maximum win is 1,500x your bet, paid as the GRAND Jackpot for collecting all nine Bonus symbols of any type. -
Can you buy the bonus on 9 Burning Stars?
Yes. The Buy Feature activates the Hold the Jackpot Bonus Game on the Extreme Volatility level, which is characterised by even bigger wins than the other Volatility Levels. -
Who makes 9 Burning Stars?
9 Burning Stars is made by Wazdan. -
When is 9 Burning Stars released?
9 Burning Stars’ release date is 7 August 2022.
