Expansion Slot Review
A sunny meadow at sunset, a red-roofed farmhouse behind a picket fence, and a brass telescope tilted up at the sky. Expansion puts that evening to work rather than admiring it: almost nothing this game pays comes from its symbol ladder, and every win of note is a question of where the ray gun decides to point. It’s a slot built almost entirely on one mechanic, and it’s honest about that from the first spin.
It runs on a 5×4 grid with 30 fixed paylines, paying left to right, at an RTP of 94.02%. Betsoft sit it in a catalogue that also holds Super Golden Dragon Inferno and Midnight Bandits, and it’s the ray gun that makes this one worth telling apart from either.
How the Base Game Pays
Wins land on 30 fixed paylines across the 5×4 grid, paid left to right. Only the highest win per line counts, and coinciding wins on different lines are combined. Payouts scale with the selected bet and update as the stake changes.
The wild substitutes for every symbol except the scatter and can appear on all five reels. Beyond it there are eight regular symbols: a star, three planetary bodies, a green spiral, a purple moon, and the royals from A down to 10. Values below are multiples of the total bet.
- Star – 3 pays 0.5x, 4 pays 1.6667x, 5 pays 3.3333x
- Blue ringed planet – 3 pays 0.4x, 4 pays 1.1667x, 5 pays 2.6667x
- Green spiral, purple moon, orange ringed planet – 3 pays 0.3333x, 4 pays 0.6667x, 5 pays 1.3333x
- A, K, Q, J, 10 – 3 pays 0.2667x, 4 pays 0.5x, 5 pays 0.8333x
It’s a flat paytable. The top symbol returns just over three times the stake for five of a kind, and the royals barely clear half the stake at the same count, so the base game on its own isn’t where the money sits. The two modifiers carry it.
One quirk worth knowing: every pay value is a multiple of the total bet, not the line bet. A five-of-a-kind star line at the top of the ladder is therefore worth 3.3333x the whole stake, not 3.3333x times 30 lines. Comparing this paytable to a line-bet game without adjusting for that will make it look flatter than it is.
Stacked Mystery Symbols
Every reel contains stacked mystery symbol positions. Before each spin is initiated, all of those positions are replaced with one random symbol, and every mystery position on the grid is filled with the same symbol for that spin.
The replacement can be any regular symbol: the star, any of the three planets, the green spiral, the purple moon, or a royal. It can’t be a wild, a scatter or the directional wild trigger, so the mechanic loads the grid with paytable symbols only.
When several reels resolve to the same symbol at once, full stacks land together, and that’s the base game’s main route to a five-of-a-kind line. Because the mystery positions sit stacked rather than scattered, a resolved reel tends to pay or miss as a block, which gives the base game a lumpy rhythm: quiet spins, then a grid suddenly full of one symbol.
Directional Wilds
This is the feature the game is named for, and it runs in a fixed sequence once it triggers:
- The trigger symbol lands on one of reels 2, 3 or 4
- After all reels stop, a pointer on the symbol spins and stops at one of the eight positions surrounding it
- Wilds are placed on all symbols along the indicated path
- The trigger symbol itself transforms into a wild
- Winning combinations are then evaluated and paid with the new wilds in place
Because the gun can fire along a row, a vertical line or a diagonal, a single trigger can turn a dead spin into several lines at once. The eight directions surrounding the symbol give each trigger its pick of a row, a vertical line or a diagonal.
The wilds it places don’t stick around for later spins; they exist for that one evaluation, which keeps every trigger a contained event rather than a rolling one.
Free Spins and Random Multipliers
The scatter can appear on all reels, and the awards step up with the count:
- 3 scatters award 8 free spins
- 4 scatters award 12 free spins
- 5 scatters award 15 free spins
Inside the round, the ray gun gets a second blast. The first pointer spins and stops at one of the eight positions, placing wilds along that path. Then a second pointer spins and stops at one of the remaining seven, placing another line of wilds before the trigger symbol transforms. One trigger can therefore carve two wild paths through the grid.
Random multipliers run throughout the feature, shown on an indicator that updates before each free spin. The multiplier applies to the entire win for that spin and can be 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 8x or 10x. A modest line win becomes something else entirely at the top of that range, which is the round’s whole argument.
Free spins are played at the bet of the triggering spin, and the round can retrigger if scatters land again while it’s running, adding the same award ladder on top of whatever spins remain. The structure is straightforward: stacked mystery symbols load the grid, the ray gun punches lines through it, and the multiplier decides how much any of it is worth. Two 10x spins back to back with a double-blast wild on the board is the round’s best case.
Buy Feature
Players who’d rather not wait for scatters can open the buy panel and purchase the free spins round directly. Three tiers are on offer, matching the scatter awards, and each price is a multiple of the current total bet:
- 8 free spins for 108x the bet
- 12 free spins for 162x the bet
- 15 free spins for 203.4x the bet
The top tier works out cheapest per spin, and the round it buys is the same one scatters trigger, played at the current bet with the full multiplier ladder and retrigger chances intact. Buying skips the base game entirely, which, given the base game’s paytable, is a defensible way to play this one.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7/10
This is a slot that spends most of its time being quiet, then hands everything to a single mechanic. You play it because the ray gun is a good idea: one symbol that turns a direction into a line of wilds, twice over in the bonus. The evening meadow is the pleasant backdrop that idea lives in.
The strength is how the wild mechanic and the multiplier indicator feed each other. A double blast of wilds under a 10x spin can turn the flattest paytable into a real result, and the round retriggers, so a good session doesn’t die after one spin.
The weakness is everything outside that. The symbol ladder tops out just over three times the stake for five of a kind, so the stretches between wild hits genuinely return very little. It suits anyone who values one well-built mechanic over a deep paytable, and nobody who wants the base game to pay its own way. The telescope was always pointed at the right sky.
Expansion FAQs
-
What is the RTP of Expansion?
Expansion runs at an RTP of 94.02%. -
How many paylines does Expansion have?
Expansion has 30 fixed paylines and pays left to right, with only the highest win per line counting. -
What is the grid size of Expansion?
Expansion uses a 5×4 grid, five reels and four rows, across its 30 fixed paylines. -
How does the Directional Wild work in Expansion?
The trigger symbol appears on reels 2, 3 and 4. When it lands and the reels stop, a pointer on the symbol spins and stops at one of the eight directions around its position, placing wilds along that path, and the trigger symbol itself also turns into a wild. -
How do you trigger free spins in Expansion?
Landing 3, 4 or 5 scatter symbols awards 8, 12 or 15 free spins respectively. The round can also retrigger while it’s running. -
What do Stacked Mystery Symbols do in Expansion?
Each reel holds stacked mystery symbol positions, and before every spin they’re all replaced with the same random symbol, drawn from the regular paytable symbols. -
What multipliers are active during Expansion free spins?
A random multiplier is displayed on an indicator and updated before each free spin. It can be 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 8x or 10x, and it applies to the entire win for that spin. -
How much does the bonus buy cost in Expansion?
The free spins round can be bought in three tiers: 8 spins for 108x the bet, 12 for 162x, and 15 for 203.4x. The top tier works out cheapest per spin.
