Annihilator

Annihilator Slot Review

Iron gates with spiked finials run up both edges of the screen, and behind them stands a cold stone mansion with rows of dim windows and a carved figure watching from the roofline. Annihilator builds its band licence into the architecture rather than resting on it: the features talk to each other, and the gothic estate they live in gives the whole thing a setting most music slots never bother with.

It’s a metal build from Play’n GO, running on a 5×3 grid with high volatility and a 96.2% RTP. The studio has form with band slots, including Sabaton, Helloween and Twisted Sister, and this one earns its place in that company on design rather than on the marquee name.

The Base Game

Five reels, three rows, and a payline structure that pays left to right across the selected lines. When winning combinations land on several lines in the same round, all of them count, and only the highest combination on each individual line pays. It’s a traditional setup.

The dressing is painted gothic artwork rather than photorealism, and the cold blue-grey lighting does a lot of quiet work. Shadows pool across the stonework, the dormers sit dark along the roofline, and the whole frame keeps its mood without ever getting busy. Reels, lines and maths sit on top of that backdrop, and nothing in the layout fights it.

Three symbols carry the game’s special functions:

• The Wild is the guitarist symbol, and it substitutes for the regular paying symbols to complete wins
• The Scatter is a red devil symbol, and three of them trigger Set The World On Fire
• The Bonus is a framed doll symbol, and three of them trigger Fun Palace

The red devil and the framed doll look nothing alike, and they need to, because they lead to very different places. Landing three of either is the whole job of the base game; everything else is line wins and the In Command feature keeping the reels warm in between.

The In Command Feature: Expanding Wilds

On randomly chosen spins, the In Command feature takes over. There’s no symbol to collect and no meter to fill; the game simply picks spins on its own and announces itself when it does. It works in four steps:

• A Wild is guaranteed to land on the triggering spin
• Any Wild that appears expands to occupy the full reel
• If the spin doesn’t produce a win, the expanded Wilds stay locked in place and the reels respin
• The respins continue until a win lands, then everything pays out and the feature ends

Because the Wild covers all three rows of its reel, every payline that passes through it can use it. That’s what gives the respin loop its reach: a full-reel Wild turns a large slice of the grid wild at once, and the reels keep turning until one of the lines through it connects.

That last rule is the interesting one. A guaranteed Wild is already a lift; a respin loop that refuses to let go until it pays turns a modest spin into something with real reach across the lines. It’s the feature that does the most to keep the reels moving between bonuses.

Fun Palace

Three Bonus symbols on the reels open the Fun Palace, a pick-style round built on the game’s doll imagery. You pick doll symbols one at a time, and each reveals a hidden prize. The round runs until you uncover an end prize, which collects everything and closes the feature.

The prize pool splits into two groups:

• Pick again prizes: 1x, 2x, 3x and 5x the bet, which add to the total and keep the picking going
• End prizes: 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x and 50x the bet, which finish the round and pay out
• The Set The World On Fire symbol also sits among the end prizes, ending the picks and launching the free spins
• Finding a Scatter during the picks triggers the free spins round too

Every doll hides one of two things: more picks, or the end of the round. A low reveal of 1x or 2x isn’t a loss, it’s a stay of execution; the round continues and the running total keeps climbing. An end prize is where the picking stops, so the tension runs the other way at the top of the ladder: the 50x prize pays best, but the rounds that keep going are the ones with more picks left in them.

There’s a live route from the doll picks straight into the game’s bigger round, too. Every pick carries two kinds of value: the cash it reveals, and the chance it opens a door to the free spins. The top end prize is a 50x payout, a solid return for a single bonus trigger, and the route onward can stack a second round on top of it.

Set The World On Fire

The headline round is the free spins, and three Scatter symbols light it up directly. You start with an initial eight free spins, each carrying cash prizes and the chance to keep the feature building.

Eight spins is a modest opening number, but the round isn’t a one-shot. The scatter route from Fun Palace means the two features feed each other, and a single bonus trigger can cascade into both rounds back to back. That linking is the game’s most interesting piece of design: the pick round isn’t a dead end, and the free spins aren’t the only door worth opening.

The scatters don’t need to arrive on the triggering route at all, which is worth understanding before you play. Three devils on the reels is the direct path, but a single devil found behind a doll in Fun Palace does the same job, and so does the Set The World On Fire symbol sitting among the end prizes. However the round arrives, it starts the same way: eight spins, cash prizes, and a shot at keeping it alive.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7.2/10

Playing Annihilator is a slow walk up a dark driveway: the atmosphere carries you between bonus hits, and the linking is the reason to pick it over a dozen louder band slots. One trigger can roll a pick round straight into free spins, and the In Command respins keep the base game from ever feeling dead. That linking is its best idea by a distance.

What it doesn’t offer is scale. A 50x ceiling on the pick ladder and eight spins as the opening hand are small numbers for a game rated high volatility.

It suits players who value a moody, well-drawn world and features that connect, over chasing a giant multiplier. For everyone else, the mansion is worth the visit.

Annihilator FAQs

• What is the RTP of Annihilator?

  Annihilator runs at an RTP of 96.2%, which sits comfortably above the industry average for an online slot.
• Is Annihilator high volatility?

  Yes. Annihilator is a high volatility slot, so wins can take their time arriving and the feature rounds do most of the heavy lifting.
• What is the grid size of Annihilator?

  Annihilator plays on a 5×3 grid: five reels and three rows, with wins evaluated across the selected paylines.
• When is Annihilator released?

  Annihilator’s release date is 23 April 2020.
• Who makes Annihilator?

  Annihilator is made by Play’n GO, the Swedish studio behind a large catalogue of slots including several other music-themed titles.
• How do you trigger the Fun Palace feature in Annihilator?

  Three Bonus symbols on the reels trigger Fun Palace. You then pick doll symbols to reveal prizes until an end prize ends the round, and finding a Scatter during the picks launches the free spins.
• How do you trigger free spins in Annihilator?

  Three Scatter symbols trigger Set The World On Fire, awarding an initial eight free spins. The round can also be launched from inside Fun Palace, either by finding a Scatter during the picks or by revealing the Set The World On Fire end prize.
• What does the In Command feature do in Annihilator?

  The In Command feature triggers on randomly chosen spins and guarantees a Wild lands. Any Wild expands to cover its entire reel, and if the spin doesn’t win, the expanded Wilds stay locked while the reels respin until a win lands.