Aquanauts Slot Review
Aquanauts saves everything for one round. A hammerhead drifts through hazy blue water above the reels and a riveted orange sonar console glows green at the side of the screen, but the mid-century diving-kit paint is the quiet half of the game: the base game pays modestly and resets itself constantly, while free spins stack a multiplier that never comes back down. It’s a 5×5 grid with 3,125 ways, 96.26% RTP, very high volatility and a 50,000x win cap.
It comes from Alchemy Gaming, a studio best known for the X UP family, and titles like Africa XUP and Bolt X UP share this one’s taste for a long bonus build. Time to put the diving helmet on.
Base Game & Features
Wins pay left to right across adjacent reels, starting on reel one, and only the highest combination counts per way. A way is a pattern of adjacent symbol positions running across the reels, and a win needs matching symbols landing in that pattern. Bets run from 0.30 to 21.00 per spin, with the total bet divided by a way cost of 30.
The total payout for a spin is the sum of all way wins, and where multiple winning combinations land on a single way, only the highest is paid. The paytable itself is based on the initial bet placed. It’s a wide grid, so wins land in more shapes than a conventional five-reel layout allows.
The wild substitutes for everything except the scatter, and it can form its own winning combinations. It’s also the richest symbol on the reels, paying 1x for three, 3.3333x for four and 10x for five, comfortably ahead of any diver.
The symbol values, as multiples of the total bet:
- Yellow-helmet Captain: 1x for three, 2x for four, 6.6667x for five
- Red Diver Woman: 0.2667x, 0.6667x, 2.3333x
- Green Diver Woman: 0.2x, 0.4x, 1.6667x
- Blue Diver Man: 0.2x, 0.4x, 1.5x
- Treasure Chest/Sub Interior: 0.1667x, 0.3333x, 0.9333x
- Yellow Submarine: 0.1667x, 0.3333x, 0.8667x
- Shark / Stingray: 0.1333x, 0.2667x, 0.8x
- Octopus / Jellyfish: 0.1x, 0.2x, 0.6667x
Rolling Reels and the Multiplier Trail
Any win removes the winning symbols, drops the rest down and rolls new ones in from above. If that makes another win, it rolls again, and keeps going until the reels come up empty. It’s active in the base game and in free spins.
The Multiplier Trail rides along with it. Every consecutive roll in the base game adds 1x to the win multiplier, starting from 1x, and the trail resets once the rolls finish. The range of potential multipliers is unlimited, so a long chain can climb as far as the reels allow.
Scatters aren’t removed by rolling reels, which matters when a bonus is one scatter away. The number of triggering scatters is evaluated at the end of any rolls, so a scatter that survives several consecutive cascades still counts.
Echo Roll
After any win, Echo Roll can kick in and fill every empty position on the reels with one randomly chosen symbol, guaranteeing an extra win. The filled symbol can be a high symbol, a low one or a wild, and Echo Roll never awards scatters.
The guaranteed win is smaller than it sounds, since one symbol across empty positions usually makes modest combinations. Where Echo Roll gets interesting is in free spins, where the Bonus Wheel can sharpen it. The collection animation that plays around it is purely visual and doesn’t influence what’s awarded.
Aquanauts Free Spins & Bonus Wheel
Three scatters anywhere on the base game reels trigger the Bonus Wheel and eight free spins. Scatters beyond the triggering three each add two more spins to the starting count, evaluated once any rolling reels finish. The scatter itself pays nothing.
The wheel is spun before free spins begin, at no cost, and it can be spun once per trigger. It’s spun by interacting with it, and when it stops the winning segment awards one Feature Modifier. The possible prizes:
- 2 or 4 additional starting free spins
- Multiplier Trail increases in increments of 2 or 3
- Echo Roll modified to not award low symbols
- Echo Roll modified to award wilds only
- 2 extra spins plus increments of 2 on the trail
- 2 extra spins plus low symbols removed from Echo Roll
- Increments of 2 on the trail plus low symbols removed from Echo Roll
- 4 extra spins, increments of 3, and Echo Roll awards wilds only
A ‘?’ button on the wheel brings up short descriptions of each Feature Modifier before you commit. Feature Modifiers won on the wheel also shape what the Upsizer can sell you afterwards, and everything resets once free spins end.
Free Spins
Inside the round, the Multiplier Trail changes character. Each roll adds 1x, 2x or 3x to the multiplier, the increments stack cumulatively, and the trail doesn’t reset for the whole feature. That non-resetting trail is where the big results live.
Every scatter that lands during free spins adds one extra spin, though the round can’t be re-triggered as a full bonus. Free spins play out automatically, wins during the feature are added to base game wins, and all bets and ways stay the same as the triggering spin.
There’s a hard stop built in. Total winnings per transaction are limited to 50,000x the base bet, and a transaction covers every payout and game that follows from one bet. If the limit is reached, the win is paid and any remaining rolls or spins are forfeited.
Upsizer
After the wheel stops, the Upsizer offers additional Feature Modifiers for a calculated cost before free spins begin. What’s available depends on what the wheel already awarded, and the maximum number of additional starting spins from the wheel and Upsizer combined is four.
Each modifier is presented with its purchase cost, and selecting one brings up a confirmation prompt with the details before anything is charged. A ‘Start Free Spins’ button skips the shopping stage entirely and gets the round going. The feature may be limited or unavailable above certain bet levels, and it isn’t offered in every region.
Upsizer runs at the same 96.26% RTP as the rest of the game. Modifiers reset when free spins end, so nothing carries over into the next trigger.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.7/10
Most of a session with Aquanauts is drift: small rolling-reel chains, an Echo Roll now and then, the sonar pinging away while the balance barely moves. That’s the whole reason to sit down at it, though. You’re not here for the base game, you’re here for the one round where everything stacks.
The free spins multiplier is the best thing in the game. It never resets during the round, so late rolls inherit everything earlier spins built, and a wild-only Echo Roll feeding a hot trail is a genuinely tense few seconds.
The weakness is that the build-up work is dull. The base trail wipes itself after every chain, the hit rate is one spin in three, and the Upsizer charges you to fix what the wheel didn’t give you. It suits patient players who like watching a multiplier climb and can wait out a quiet reel or ten. If you want constant action, this water is too still; for divers happy to go deep on one round, it’s worth the descent.
Aquanauts FAQs
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What is the RTP of Aquanauts?
Aquanauts runs at 96.26% RTP, and the Upsizer feature carries the same figure. -
Is Aquanauts high volatility?
Yes, it’s rated very high volatility, with a hit frequency of 31.12%, so wins land on roughly one spin in three. -
How does the Rolling Reels feature work in Aquanauts?
After any win, the winning symbols are removed and new symbols roll in. Consecutive wins keep the rolls going, and each roll in the base game adds 1x to a multiplier that resets once the rolls finish. -
What does the Echo Roll feature do in Aquanauts?
Echo Roll randomly follows a win by filling every empty reel position with a single randomly selected symbol, which guarantees a further win. It can’t award scatters, and free spins modifiers can restrict it to wilds only or strip out the low symbols. -
Can free spins be re-triggered in Aquanauts?
No, free spins can’t be re-triggered. However, each scatter that lands during the round awards one extra free spin. -
What is the maximum win on Aquanauts?
Total winnings per transaction are limited to 50,000x the base bet. -
How many paylines does Aquanauts have?
It’s a 5×5 grid with 3,125 ways to win, paying left to right on adjacent reels from the first reel. -
Who makes Aquanauts and when was it released?
Aquanauts is made by Alchemy Gaming. Its release date is 27 September 2022.
