Hallow Reels Slot Review
Navy velvet curtains, a pale gothic arch glowing behind the reels and two grinning jack-o’-lanterns lighting the bottom corners: Hallow Reels is a slot that knows exactly which night of the year it belongs to. Spinomenal have dressed a 5×4 grid with 10 paylines in a moody haunted-mansion cartoon, all dark blue shadow and warm pumpkin glow, with bats flitting through the background and stone pillars framing the reels.
It runs at 95.8% RTP with a top prize of 3,000x the bet, a modest ceiling by spooky-season standards, with Halloween Charms and Book of SpinOWeen sitting in the same Spinomenal corner of the graveyard. What Hallow Reels offers instead of big numbers is simplicity: one bonus round, one rule that changes inside it, and a scatter ladder that can run to a hundred spins. Light the pumpkins and see.
Symbols and Pays
All symbols pay left to right from the leftmost reel, only the highest win on each line counts, and every win is multiplied by the bet per line. With 10 lines across a 5×4 grid, that means 40 positions feeding a fairly thin set of winning routes, which keeps the maths easy to follow on every spin.
The reels carry a ghost, a brain in a candle jar, a lollipop and a green potion above the four royals, and the ghost leads the paytable by a distance. Five of them is worth 1,000 times the line bet, and the drop to second place is steep from there.
- Ghost – 70 for 3, 300 for 4, 1,000 for 5
- Brain/Candle – 60 for 3, 200 for 4, 600 for 5
- Lollipop and Green Potion – 20 for 3, 40 for 4, 120 for 5
- A and K – 15 for 3, 20 for 4, 40 for 5
- Q and J – 10 for 3, 15 for 4, 20 for 5
Those values are multiples of the bet per line, not the total bet, so a five-ghost line at the top of the table pays a tenth of what the same combination would return on a single-line stake. It’s a conventional setup, and the game doesn’t complicate it.
The table also narrows quickly as you read down it. The mid-tier pair, the lollipop and the green potion, pay just 120 for five against the ghost’s 1,000, and the royals sit well below that again, with five Jacks or Queens returning only 20 times the line bet. In practice that makes the top two symbols the ones worth watching for, since the rest of the table mostly covers the stake rather than moves it.
The pumpkin wild counts as any symbol except the Free Spins scatter, and a full line of 5 wilds pays the bet per line x3,000, the biggest single pay in the game. Wins for a round are displayed in the win field as they land.
How It Plays
The spin button sits front and centre, with two sets of counters either side of it. The right-hand ‘+’ and ‘-‘ buttons set the bet amount, and the left-hand pair set the number of active lines, so you can play anywhere from one line up to the full ten. A question mark opens the game rules.
The line counter is worth a moment’s thought before you spin. Wins are multiplied by the bet per line, and reducing the active lines cuts both the routes a combination can take and the cost of the spin, so a ten-line game at a lower line bet and a one-line game at a higher one are genuinely different propositions here rather than the same maths in different clothes.
A few things lock while the reels are moving. Help and settings disable during a spin, and during free spins the bet and line buttons disable entirely, so the round runs at the settings that triggered it. A malfunction voids all pays, as ever.
Free Spins
Three or more scattered Free Spins symbols trigger the free spins game, and the award scales steeply with how many land:
- 3 scatters – 10 free spins
- 4 scatters – 25 free spins
- 5 or more scatters – 100 free spins
The bet per line and the number of lines stay exactly as they were in the game that triggered the round, and the round only triggers from the base game. There’s no retrigger mechanic sitting on top: what you land at the start is what you play through.
The twist inside the round is the stacked wild. On every free spin, one random reel carries a stacked wild for that spin, so the wild reel changes each time and any of the five can turn. With 10 lines crossing a 5×4 grid, a fully wild reel touches every line that runs through it, which is where the round’s better runs come from.
What that wild reel mostly does is lift the middle of the table. A stacked wild on reel three or four can complete four-of-a-kind royals and turn near-misses into paying lines, and when it lands alongside a pair of ghosts the top symbol’s 1,000-for-five comes into reach. The wilds don’t pay as a scatter would, but a line of five wilds still collects the game’s biggest pay at bet per line x3,000.
At the top of the ladder the maths gets interesting. A hundred spins, each with a guaranteed wild reel somewhere, gives the round a lot of chances to stack ghost lines and wild substitutions together, and the four-scatter tier at 25 spins is a respectable consolation. The 10-spin floor is thin by comparison, though a moving wild reel still gives it something the base game doesn’t have.
Buy Feature
The base game carries a Buy Feature button beside the reels for jumping straight into the round rather than waiting on scatters. Given how steep the scatter ladder is, 3 symbols for 10 spins against 5 for 100, buying your way in is the one route to the top tier that doesn’t depend on the reels cooperating.
It’s a simple proposition either way: the bought round plays by the same rules as a triggered one, with the moving stacked wild doing the work across every spin, and the bet per line and line count carry over just as they would from a natural trigger.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7/10
Hallow Reels is a straightforward 10-line Halloween slot that does one thing properly. The base game is a clean left-to-right payer with a ghost-led paytable and a pumpkin wild doing the substituting, and it doesn’t dress itself up as anything more.
The free spins ladder is the strength. Landing 5 scatters for a hundred spins, with a stacked wild hopping to a new reel on every one of them, is a genuinely generous round for a game this size, and the 4-scatter tier at 25 spins is a respectable consolation.
The weakness is everything around it: two specials, a familiar symbol set and a top line pay that won’t turn heads. It suits players who like their Halloween slots simple, cheap to follow and generous with spins rather than multipliers, and it will lose anyone chasing a big ceiling. For a lantern-lit evening of uncomplicated spinning, though, the porch light is on.
Hallow Reels FAQs
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What is the RTP of Hallow Reels?
Hallow Reels runs at an RTP of 95.8%. -
How do you trigger the free spins in Hallow Reels?
3 or more scattered Free Spins symbols trigger the round. 3 scatters award 10 free spins, 4 award 25, and 5 or more award 100. -
What does the stacked wild do in Hallow Reels?
During the free spins, one random reel carries a stacked wild on every spin. The wild substitutes for any symbol except the Free Spins scatter. -
What do 5 wilds pay in Hallow Reels?
Any 5 wild symbols on a winning line pay the bet per line x3,000, which is the biggest single pay in the game. -
Can you buy the bonus on Hallow Reels?
Yes, there’s a Buy Feature button in the base game that lets you skip straight to the free spins round. -
Do the free spins retrigger in Hallow Reels?
No. The round awards a fixed number of spins based on how many scatters triggered it, and the bet per line and number of lines stay the same as the game that triggered it. -
Can you change your bet during the free spins round?
No. The ‘+’ and ‘-‘ bet and line buttons are disabled while the free spins play out, so the round runs at the bet per line and number of lines that triggered it. -
How many paylines does Hallow Reels have?
Hallow Reels has 10 paylines on a 5×4 grid, all paying left to right from the leftmost reel. -
When is Hallow Reels released?
Hallow Reels’ release date is 23 September 2020. -
Who makes Hallow Reels?
Hallow Reels is made by Spinomenal. -
What is the maximum win on Hallow Reels?
The maximum win is 3,000x your total bet.
