Carnival Bonanza Slot Review
A plump red-and-gold dragon grins from its circus pedestal, bunting strung from the tent canopy to the edge of the screen and a fairy-tale castle on the hill behind it. BGaming have dressed Carnival Bonanza loudly, but the interesting part is quiet: this is a game that saves nearly all of what it has for one round, and makes you work through the fairground to reach it.
It runs on a 5×5 grid where symbols pay anywhere, at 96% RTP with high volatility and a maximum win of 14,134x the bet. Players who know Bonanza Billion MergeUp or Alien Fruits 3 will recognise the family resemblance; it’s the way the bonus round builds that sets this one apart.
Symbols and Pay-Anywhere Wins
Winnings depend purely on how many copies of a symbol land on screen in a single spin. Eight or more of a kind anywhere on the 5×5 grid pays; paylines don’t come into it. There’s no wild symbol in the game at all, so every win has to be built from the symbols themselves.
The paytable splits into five themed symbols and four royals. All values are multiples of the total bet:
- Dragon: 10x for 8-9, 25x for 10-11, 50x for 12+
- Horse: 2.5x for 8-9, 10x for 10-11, 25x for 12+
- Sword: 2x for 8-9, 5x for 10-11, 15x for 12+
- Horned Helmet: 1.5x for 8-9, 2x for 10-11, 12x for 12+
- Drum: 1x for 8-9, 1.5x for 10-11, 10x for 12+
- A: 0.8x for 8-9, 1.2x for 10-11, 8x for 12+
- K: 0.5x for 8-9, 1x for 10-11, 5x for 12+
- Q: 0.4x for 8-9, 0.9x for 10-11, 4x for 12+
- J: 0.25x for 8-9, 0.75x for 10-11, 2x for 12+
Where multiple combinations land together, the wins simply sum, and the Scatter pays on top of any symbol wins in the same spin. Themed symbols hold a clear edge over the royals at every tier, so the picture symbols are the ones worth watching.
The green treasure-bag Scatter lands on any reel and pays wherever it sits:
- 4 Scatters: 3x the bet
- 5 Scatters: 5x the bet
- 6 Scatters: 100x the bet
That jump from 5 to 6 bags is the single biggest step in the paytable, and it’s a deliberate one: 6 Scatters don’t just pay, they also hand over the largest free spins award the game offers.
Refilling Reels
Every winning spin sets off a refill. Winning symbols vanish, everything left falls to the bottom, and fresh symbols drop in from above to fill the gaps. If the new arrangement makes another win, the process repeats, and there’s no cap on how many times it can chain.
Wins from an entire refill sequence only reach the balance once the chain has finished. That matters most in the bonus round, where multiplier symbols stay on screen until the sequence ends and then apply to everything the chain has collected.
Between spins, the game offers an Autospins mode with adjustable stop conditions: on any win, on a bonus trigger, on a single win above a chosen sum, or on a balance swing in either direction. When a run of autospins ends, the adjustments reset and the bet returns to its default.
Free Spins, Levels and Multipliers
Trigger and Retrigger
4 or more Scatters anywhere on the grid trigger the free spins round, and the count sets the award:
- 4 Scatters: 10 free spins
- 5 Scatters: 20 free spins
- 6 Scatters: 30 free spins
Landing 3 or more Scatters in a single spin during the round adds 5 further free spins, with no stated limit on how often that can happen. 4 Scatters is a fairly steep ask on a pay-anywhere grid, which is part of why the buy options exist.
The Level Ladder
Free spins run on a progress bar that starts at level zero and tops out at level 15. The level affects the multipliers in play, so the higher the bar climbs, the more the round can pay.
Movement up the bar depends on first wins. The first win on a low symbol that hasn’t paid yet in the round raises the level by one, and the first win on a high symbol that hasn’t paid yet raises it by two.
Repeats of symbols that have already paid don’t move the bar, so climbing means spreading wins across the paytable rather than riding one lucky symbol. A round that keeps hitting fresh symbols is the round that reaches the top.
The level matters because it governs the multipliers. A Multiplier symbol can only land during free spins, and it carries a random value from x2 up to x100, with the level setting the range it draws from. It holds its place until the refill sequence ends.
When the sequence closes, the values of every Multiplier symbol on screen combine into one figure, and that total multiplies the win of the whole sequence. More than one landing in a spin is where the round starts paying properly.
Buy Bonus and Chance x2
Two purchases sit alongside the base game, and they can’t be active at the same time:
- Buy Bonus: 100x the current bet, triggers free spins on the next spin, RTP of 96%
- Chance x2: adds 25% to the stake for a better shot at triggering free spins naturally, RTP of 96%
The Buy Bonus price scales automatically whenever the bet changes. Chance x2 is the cheaper route to the same round, trading certainty for a price of a quarter of the base stake per spin.
Buying in changes nothing about how the round plays. It starts at level zero like any other, so the ladder still has to be climbed spin by spin after the purchase lands.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.8/10
This is a game you play for the round, not the road to it. The refills keep base spins busy enough, but the symbol pays are modest and the real reason to sit down at this dragon’s carnival is the ladder: watching a free spins round gather fresh symbols, climb levels and stack multipliers that all land at once is genuinely tense in a way most games of this type don’t manage.
The ladder is also the best thing here, because it makes variety pay: a round that spreads its wins across the paytable out-earns one that keeps hitting the same symbol, and that’s a smarter design than most. The worst thing is the door it sits behind. 4 Scatters on a 5×5 grid is a long wait, and paying 100x the bet only buys entry at level zero, so the purchase buys the ticket without guaranteeing the show.
It’s for players who like a bonus round that grows under them and don’t mind a quiet fairground while it’s being built. Anyone after rich base game wins will find the carnival thin until the tent opens.
Carnival Bonanza FAQs
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What is the RTP of Carnival Bonanza?
96%, and the figure holds in both the Buy Bonus and Chance x2 features. -
Is Carnival Bonanza high volatility?
Yes, it’s a high volatility game, with the win potential concentrated in the free spins round. -
What is the maximum win on Carnival Bonanza?
The maximum winning amount is 14,134x the bet. -
How do you trigger free spins in Carnival Bonanza?
4 or more Scatter symbols anywhere on the grid award 10, 20 or 30 free spins for 4, 5 or 6 Scatters respectively. Once inside, 3 or more Scatters in a single spin award 5 extra spins. -
How does the level system in free spins work?
The round begins at level zero and caps at level 15. Each first-time win on a low symbol in the round adds a level, each first-time win on a high symbol adds two, and repeat wins from symbols that have already paid don’t count. Bigger levels feed bigger multiplier values. -
Can you buy the bonus on Carnival Bonanza?
Yes. The Buy Bonus costs 100x the current bet and triggers free spins on the next spin, and Chance x2 adds 25% to the stake for improved odds of triggering the round naturally. The two features can’t be active at the same time. -
How do multiplier symbols work in Carnival Bonanza?
They only land during free spins and stay on screen until the refill sequence ends. Each carries a random value from x2 to x100 set by the current level, and when the sequence closes, every multiplier on screen combines into one total that’s applied to the whole sequence’s win. -
Who makes Carnival Bonanza?
BGaming, on a 5×5 grid where symbols pay anywhere; 8 or more of a kind in one spin forms a win. Carnival Bonanza’s release date is 8 October 2024.
