Burning Stars 3

Burning Stars 3 Slot Review

A night sky burns purple at one corner and fire-red at the other, embers drifting past a reel frame edged in red-and-gold that glows like heated metal. Wazdan have hidden a jackpot machine inside that pretty fire: Burning Stars 3 looks like a fruit slot and pays like a lottery, with nearly all of the base game existing to keep the lights on until a single sticky-symbol round arrives. It runs on a 3×3 grid of nine independent reels at a 96.12% RTP, and that one bonus round is the entire reason to be here.

There’s no feature stack, no free spins variants, no second-screen minigame; just fruit, a wild, and a jackpot ladder that triples with every sticky symbol. It sits near the root of a family tree that runs through 9 Burning Stars, 9 Coins and Burning Sun – but this is the simpler animal, and it doesn’t complicate the arrangement.

Nine Independent Reels, Four of a Kind

The grid looks like a classic three-reeler and plays nothing like one. Each of the 9 positions is an independent reel, and a win is awarded for drawing at least 4 identical symbols anywhere on the reels. There are no paylines to trace and no adjacency to worry about; the symbols simply have to turn up.

That arrangement changes what a spin feels like. On a payline game, a near miss is a symbol stopping one reel short; here, a near miss is the fourth lemon landing in a corner you’d already written off. Every position on the grid is live on every spin, and every symbol of a kind counts wherever it sits.

The four-symbol threshold does quiet work on the payout curve. With 9 positions in play, a winning cluster covers a minority of the grid. The game is generous about what counts as a win and correspondingly careful about what that win is worth.

Anything from 4 to 9 of a kind pays, and the value scales across that whole range rather than jumping at the top. Two housekeeping rules tidy up the edges: when two combinations of the same value land together, only the one higher up the paytable is paid, and only the highest win counts at all. The wild substitutes for every symbol except the Bonus symbol, which keeps it out of the one job that matters most.

7 symbols carry the paytable, and every value below is a multiple of the total bet, not a line stake:

• 7 – 2x for 4, 4x for 5, 8x for 6, 15x for 7, 40x for 8, 200x for 9
• Watermelon – 1.5x, 2.5x, 4x, 8x, 15x, 50x
• Plum – 1x, 2x, 3x, 5x, 8x, 15x
• Orange – 0.8x, 1.5x, 2.5x, 4x, 6x, 12x
• Lemon – 0.8x, 1.2x, 2x, 3x, 5x, 8x
• Grapes – 0.5x, 0.8x, 1.5x, 2.5x, 4x, 6x
• Cherries – 0.5x, 0.8x, 1.2x, 2x, 3x, 4x

The ladder is steep at both ends. Small fruit clusters return fractions of the stake while the top rows climb into serious money, which gives every spin a faint lottery ticket quality.

The spacing between rows is uneven in an interesting way. The top two symbols pull away hard, and the second-best symbol isn’t always the second-best outcome at the very top of the grid. From the plum down, the rows bunch together, which keeps the base game fed without ever threatening what sits above it.

Hold The Jackpot Bonus

Trigger and Sticky Symbols

Drawing 3 Bonus symbols activates the Hold The Jackpot Bonus. From that point every Bonus symbol sticks to the reels for the duration of the round, and the count you finish with determines what you’re paid.

Re-spins and Resets

The round opens with 3 re-spins. Each new Bonus symbol that lands locks in place and resets the count back to 3, so a single lucky streak can keep the round alive far beyond its opening allowance. It runs until the re-spins are used up or all 9 positions are filled with Bonus symbols.

Run it as a sequence and the shape is easy to follow. The trigger puts 3 sticky Bonus symbols on the grid and 3 re-spins in the bank; every catch adds a symbol and refills the bank to 3; every miss burns one. A round that catches on the first re-spin each time can, in principle, run 9 catches deep without ever running dry, because the reset never lets the count fall while symbols keep arriving.

The reset is what gives the round its shape. Early catches are almost free – they cost nothing and repair the count – while the last few empty positions get progressively harder to fill, since only a fresh Bonus symbol on an unfilled tile keeps things moving. The endgame is a grid of 8 sticky symbols and 3 chances to find the ninth.

The Jackpot Ladder

When the bonus ends, the prize is paid for the number of Bonus symbols collected. At the example total bet of 60, the ladder reads:

• 3 symbols – 180
• 4 symbols – 540
• 5 symbols – 1,620
• 6 symbols (MINI) – 4,860
• 7 symbols (MINOR) – 14,580
• 8 symbols (MAJOR) – 43,740
• 9 symbols (GRAND) – 131,220

Each rung is worth exactly 3 times the one below it, so the round’s value is legible at a glance and every sticky symbol has a visible price. The bottom rung matters more than it looks: the bonus can’t pay nothing, because it always ends with at least the 3 symbols that triggered it, so even a round that dies on its opening re-spins collects the floor prize.

Filling the grid claims the GRAND; falling one short still leaves a handsome MAJOR, and the GRAND sits far above what the base game’s best spin manages. Only the highest rung reached counts – there’s no stacking of ladder prizes, just the single payout for the count.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7.1/10

Playing Burning Stars 3 is mostly waiting under a very nice sky. Fruit lands or it doesn’t, the wild fills a gap, and the base game’s job is to keep the embers glowing until three Bonus symbols turn up. That round is why anybody would choose it: a small grid that fills one sticky symbol at a time, with a counter you can feel resetting on every catch.

The tripling ladder is the best thing here – each catch is worth three of the last, so the tension scales instead of flatlining, and the ninth tile pays more than the three rungs beneath it combined. The thin base game gives you a long time to wait for it, and the game prints no maximum win beyond the ladder’s top rung.

It’s a good fit for anyone who wants one well-made round rather than a stack of half-formed ones, and who counts the build-up as part of the fun.

Burning Stars 3 FAQs

• How does the Hold The Jackpot Bonus trigger in Burning Stars 3?

  Land 3 Bonus symbols anywhere on the grid and the round starts. From there, every Bonus symbol that appears stays locked in place until the bonus finishes.
• How do re-spins work in the Hold The Jackpot Bonus?

  You start with 3 re-spins, and any Bonus symbol that lands resets that count. The round only ends once the re-spins are exhausted or all 9 positions hold Bonus symbols.
• How many matching symbols do you need for a win in Burning Stars 3?

  A win needs at least 4 identical symbols anywhere on the reels. The 9 positions are independent, so there are no paylines and symbols don’t need to be adjacent.
• What does the wild symbol do in Burning Stars 3?

  The wild stands in for every symbol except the Bonus symbol. It can help complete 4-of-a-kind and better fruit and 7 wins, but it can’t help start the bonus round.
• What is the top prize in Burning Stars 3’s jackpot ladder?

  The GRAND sits at the top, paid for a full grid of 9 Bonus symbols – 131,220 at the example total bet of 60. Below it, the MAJOR, MINOR and MINI rungs each pay a third of the rung above.
• What is the RTP of Burning Stars 3?

  Burning Stars 3 runs at an RTP of 96.12%.
• What is the grid size of Burning Stars 3?

  Burning Stars 3 uses a 3×3 grid made up of 9 independent reels. Wins are paid for at least 4 identical symbols landing anywhere on that grid.
• When is Burning Stars 3 released?

  Burning Stars 3’s release date is 23 March 2021.