Fire In The Hole 3 Slot Review
Fire in the Hole 3 is here. It’s been a while since the original and sequel to Fire in the Hole were released. In that time, we’ve been told many a story from Nolimit City. We’ve seen the downfall of America in Home of the Brave, a terrifying look into the world of Mental 2, and Karen’s post-apocalyptic triumphs in xWays Hoarder 2.
With so much excitement, it’s easy to forget about one intrepid adventurer – a man who descended into the mines in search of liquid gold, a man who hasn’t been seen since. Nobody was checking on him, and left unattended, he’s likely to get into trouble. Since the second in the series, our drunken hero has descended so far into the mines that the entrance has frozen shut. Others would gasp in horror and tremble with fear, but he’s right where he belongs, and he’s seemingly met a friend.
Fire in the Hole 3 looks to expand on the series thus far, with additions like xGod and the trusty xHole to take it to a new level.
Base Game & Features
Fire In The Hole 3 is a highly volatile 6-reel, 6-row Video Slot with up to 46,656 ways to win and several of Nolimit City’s xMechanics available. Players can choose from multiple bet sizes between £.€0.20 and £.€100 per spin. Other attributes include an overall RTP of 96.05% and an impressive max win cap of 70,000x your bet.
Wins occur when 3-6 matching symbols land from left to right, starting from reel 1 onwards. Each of the 10 high and low-paying symbols delivers a fixed payout between 0.2x and 7.5x your bet, where applicable. Furthermore, each winning sequence is removed and replaced with new symbols via an Avalanche Feature. This enables additional wins to occur within the same spin for higher payouts.
Collapsing Mine
Each spin begins with the top 3 rows active. Each avalanche event unlocks +1 row, up to a maximum of 6. An additional avalanche event can be triggered by one of the following outcomes:
- A winning combination
- An xBomb Wild explosion
- Triggering the Wild Mining feature
- Triggering an xHole feature
Winning instances are paid out and removed before the next triggering avalanche event, which causes all symbols to drop downwards to reveal empty positions directly above for new symbols to drop in.
xBomb Wild Multiplier
xBomb Wild symbols substitute for all symbols except Scatters. When an xBomb Wild explodes, it removes all adjacent symbols and increases the Win Multiplier by x1, x2, x3, or a mystery value for the next avalanche event. Each xBomb Wild will explode before the next avalanche event occurs, except when the Wild Mining Feature is triggered.
Wild Mining
The Wild Mining feature triggers in the base game when 3, 4, 5, or 6 of the same symbols align horizontally or vertically, so long as no winning combinations, active xHole or xBomb symbols are available. The triggering symbols are removed to create Wild symbols in the middle positions of the alignment:
- 3 matching symbols: Award 1 Wild
- 4 matching symbols: Award 2 Wilds
- 5 matching symbols: Award 3 Wilds
- 6 matching symbols: Award 4 Wilds
All positions above the moving bar, except Scatters and Ice Blocks, will explode and trigger a new avalanche event. Buried Feature symbols within the ice blocks will be revealed and become active with the next avalanche event.
Buried Features
In the base game, Ice Blocks may contain Wilds, xSplit, Win Multiplier, xHole, Scatter, or Max Win symbols. Feature symbols which are buried in ice will remain inactive until they are unlocked by an Exploding xBomb Wild. In addition, other symbols contained within ice blocks are also revealed when split by an xSplit symbol, excluding Win Multipliers.
All Empty and Win Multiplier ice blocks affected by the split feature are removed if an avalanche event occurs. Ice blocks can contain Multiplier values of x2, x3, x5, x10, x20, x50, and x100. Furthermore, the Max Win symbol can appear as a 2×2 Ice Block. Clearing the entire symbol of ice will instantly award the 70,000x max win cap.
xHole & xSplit
The xHole symbol instantly triggers when it appears on a reel. Once active, only regular symbols are drawn from the reels and are scattered to random positions, with split symbols holding 1-3 symbol instances. The xHole symbol leaves a space in its position, thus triggering an avalanche event. Landing multiple xHole symbols will cause the symbol size to increase multiple times.
Each xSplit symbol causes other symbols to split in its reel, doubling the number of symbols and enhancing the total ways to win. Please note that xSplit and xHole symbols cannot be split. Once all xSplit symbols have activated, they transform into regular paytable symbols. Ice Blocks affected by this feature are removed if an avalanche event occurs.
Gamble Mode
The Gamble Mode is triggered when a payout of at least 5x your bet is awarded in the base game. Once active, an option to win a level of Lucky Wagon Spins costing more than the total round is offered. Players can choose to gamble their entire win amount for a chance to win a level of Lucky Wagon Spins.
If a gamble is successful, players are presented with an option to gamble for another level of Lucky Wagon Spins. Should you decide against this option, you can click the collect button to stop the gamble at any time. The gamble mode can be disabled through the base game by toggling the gamble button.
Nolimit Booster & Bonus Buy
- Booster 1: Guarantees a Scatter symbol on reel 2 (2x your bet)
- Booster 2: Guarantees at least 3 Scatters within Ice Blocks (5x your bet)
- Booster 3: Activates all 6 rows (5x your bet)
- Lucky Wagon Spins (3 Scatters): 60x your bet
- Lucky Wagon Spins (4 Scatters): 200x your bet
- Lucky Wagon Spins (5 Scatters): 500x your bet
- Lucky Draw: 3 Scatters (25%), 4 Scatters (50%), 5 Scatters (25%) 240x your bet
- Guaranteed Dwarf: Awards Lucky Wagon Spins with 6 Scatters and a guaranteed persistent Dwarf (4,000x your bet)
- Evil Dwarf Forever: Awards Lucky Wagon Spins with 3 Scatters and a guaranteed Evil Dwarf on the top row during each spin (700x your bet)
- 50/50 Lucky Wagon Spins/Evil Dwarf Forever: 2,350x your bet
- God Mode Max: Chase the max win cap of 70,000x by landing a guaranteed Max Win symbol in an ice block (7,000x your bet)
Fire In The Hole 3 Slot: Lucky Wagon Spins
Landing 3, 4, or 5 Scatters in the base game triggers the Lucky Wagon Spins, awarding 2, 3, or 4 rows of the reel area unlocked.
The feature begins with 3 Respins that reset each time a Coin symbol appears on the reel area, offering individual values times your active bet. Alternatively, 6 Scatters will trigger Lucky Wagon Spins with a Persistent Dwarf guaranteed on the first spin, and 4 rows of the reel area open. In this round, the top row will reveal special Enhancers for each spin:
- Coins: Reveal a value of 1x, 5x, 10x, 25x, 50x, or 100x your bet
- Multipliers: Multiply the value of all Coin and Persistent Dwarf symbols by x2, x3, x4, x5, x10, or x25.
- Dynamite: Adds a dynamite count of 2, 3, 4, or 5 to the value of the triggering Coin. It then throws as many Dynamites as its count onto the reels, removing ice blocks, doubling coin values, and activating chests. These symbols also interact with Persistent Dynamite and Dwarf symbols.
- Persistent Dynamite: With each spin, individual Dynamite symbols, equal to its count, are dropped onto the reels.
- Persistent Dwarf: Collects the values in the reel area of its triggering position during each spin.
- Evil Dwarf: Triggers a Golden Spin, which reactivates all Coin symbols on the reel area. Coins will trigger their respective enhancers, boosting their existing values.
- xHole: Triggers 3 Frozen Wagon Spins and transforms itself into a 1x Coin. After this, the Lucky Wagon Spins resumes and resets the Respins meter to 3.
- Frozen Wagon Spins: The top enhancer row will only contain Coins. All existing coin symbols in the reel area will collect the values from enhancers and add them to their existing values.
Collect Chests
In this feature, the bottom row holds special Collect Chests that are activated by Dynamite. Once a collect chest is active, it will collect the coin values in the reel area for the corresponding row above for every spin. When the reel area is full, regular Coin values are removed and added to the bottom coin of their respective reels. Lastly, xHole and both Dynamite symbols can be triggered from Ice Blocks.
Our Honest Verdict
Fire in the Hole 3 stays very true to the series thus far. It’s not wildly different in most aspects from the first or second, but dramatically different where it matters. The first slight but effective difference is its gamble feature, which allows you to gamble wins of over 5x the bet for a chance at bonus rounds, and better bonus rounds thereafter if successful in the first. It’s dangerous, of course, but it introduces a new way to enjoy the game and a new avenue to some of its features.
The second and most dramatic difference in our eyes is the introduction of the xHole feature. It’s worked tremendously well in slots like Kenneth Must Die and Mental 2, but it’s seldom seen compared to other Nolimit features. In this case, more than one may appear, and the symbols sucked up by the first will then pass on to the second or third xHole symbols for even bigger splits. On top of this, the standard xSplit symbol plus the popular Wild Mining feature make an appearance, as does a number of boosters to make it a varied game once more.
As should be the case with any good slot, the bonus rounds are where it really shines. The introduction of the xHole within the bonus round makes it very exciting, and the new Evil Dwarf boosts gameplay with reactivating coins and enhancers. Other areas of the game remain true to the series, with buried chests that persistently collect symbols, and dynamites that can clear spaces above them.
With a 70,000x win cap, it’s the most capable Fire in the Hole slot yet, though not nearly as capable as the likes of Series, Folsom Prison, Mental 2 and some of the more insanely volatile games like San Quentin 2. That said, it’s still leagues above most other games, and achievable through its daring features.
Overall, Fire in the Hole 3 was always going to be an anticipated instalment, and Nolimit City have delivered once more. At every turn it’s dynamite and more explosive than we dared imagine.
