Kraken Spins

Kraken Spins Slot Review

A red kraken the size of the screen curls up from the sea floor, one glowing eye fixed on a treasure chest already spilling coins, pearls and gems across the reef. Most pirate slots would hang a tentacle over the frame and call it a day; this one puts the beast in the maths, where every feature it touches either sticks, stacks or turns the whole grid sideways. The artwork, all torn parchment and teal water, is the least interesting thing on the screen.

It’s also a slot that literally turns itself on its head when the beast wakes up. Kraken Spins runs on a 5×5 grid with 15 paylines and an RTP of 95.41%. Next to Playtech stablemates like Buffalo Blitz, Fire Blaze: Jinns Moon and Hot Gems Xtreme, it’s a compact, feature-led affair rather than a big-catalogue flagship. The sea floor here has more going on than the fish.

Reels, Doors and the Treasure Chest

Wins form left to right on adjacent reels across 15 fixed lines, with the line bet equal to the total bet divided by 15. On any payline only the highest combination pays, while wins on different lines accumulate. Each of the five reels holds five symbol positions, which matters more than it sounds: a full reel of identical symbols is what wakes the kraken.

The size of the grid cuts both ways. Twenty-five positions give the Door and sticky-symbol mechanics room to work, but they also make five-of-a-kind line wins a longer journey than on a standard five-by-three layout. The paytable reflects that, with a tight spread between the best and worst symbols rather than a steep drop from hero to zero.

After every spin, all Door symbols open and reveal a symbol underneath, adding a small second layer to an otherwise straightforward spin. The Treasure Chest is wild, standing for any other symbol except the Ship and the Plus One to complete the best possible combination. Those two exclusions are worth remembering, because both are feature triggers the wild can’t fake.

The paytable is top-heavy for a pirate crew: the man out-pays the woman, and everything below the Shark steps down gently. All values are multiples of the line bet.

• Pirate (man): 3 pays 9, 4 pays 21, 5 pays 30
• Pirate (woman): 3 pays 6, 4 pays 18, 5 pays 27
• Shark: 3 pays 6, 4 pays 15, 5 pays 24
• Parrot: 3 pays 6, 4 pays 12, 5 pays 21
• Coins and A / K / Q / J: 3 pays 3, 4 pays 9, 5 pays 15

Five of the top symbol returns 30x the line bet, which on a 15-line game is twox the total stake at best from a single line. That’s why the features, and the Full Reels Bonus in particular, carry the real weight in this game’s arithmetic.

Wild Respins

The Coin and Ship symbols share one job: land them together and the round begins. When one or more Coin symbols arrive in the same spin as a Ship symbol, Wild Respins start.

• The number of respins equals the number of Coins in the triggering spin.
• The Treasure Chest doesn’t count towards that total.
• The reels spin over the symbols already in place.
• Only two symbols can land during the round: the Treasure Chest and the Plus One.
• The Plus One awards an extra respin when it lands.
• Every Treasure Chest that lands sticks for the remainder of the feature.

When a Treasure Chest lands on top of another, a 2x multiplier appears on that position, increasing by 1x each time another Chest stacks there. Wins are paid at the end.

It’s a builder’s round. Each respin either extends the run or doesn’t, and the multiplier ladder only climbs when Chests land on Chests. The Plus One symbol is the only thing standing between a two-respin fizzle and a screen that keeps filling.

Because the reels spin over the symbols already in place, the grid you start the round with is the grid you finish with, minus whatever the Chests and Plus Ones add. A triggering spin crowded with symbols leaves little room for Chests to land, while a sparse one gives the feature space to work. The round’s ceiling rises with every empty position the trigger leaves behind.

The Kraken Spins Feature

Fill any one reel with five of the same symbol and the game’s signature round begins. That symbol becomes the Triggering Symbol, three free spins are awarded, and before each one the reels rotate a full 90 degrees clockwise, keeping the same 5×5 shape but turning every line on the grid sideways.

The rotation is more than a visual flourish. Rows become columns and columns become rows, so symbols that were sitting uselessly stacked vertically suddenly line up horizontally across paylines, and sticky symbols that were scattered across the grid can end up adjacent after a turn. The feature pays out on line wins the game would never have formed standing still.

All triggering symbols that landed on the triggering spin stick for the rest of the feature. Every spin that lands one or more of them resets the spins remaining to three and pays line wins. The round only ends when the counter runs dry or the Full Reels Bonus is awarded, whichever comes first.

Full Reels Bonus

Filling all 25 positions with the same symbol awards the Full Reels Bonus. It can happen in the base game, in Wild Respins or during the Kraken Spins Feature, and it pays 200x the bet.

Because every feature in the game ends the moment it’s awarded, the Full Reels Bonus acts as the shared finish line. A Kraken Spins run that keeps re-arming can build towards it spin after spin, and a Wild Respins sequence with Chests stacking on Chests can reach it the same way. In Wild Respins the wild substitution works in its favour too, since Chests standing for any symbol make a uniform grid easier to complete than the base game’s mixed reels allow.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7.6/10

Kraken Spins spends most of a session quietly assembling things, then tips the whole grid sideways. That’s the reason to pick it ahead of the usual tentacle-and-chest pirate fare: the rotation means a bonus round is never just three free spins, because every turn rearranges the sticky symbols into combinations the upright grid would never pay.

The strongest work is Wild Respins, where Chests stacking on Chests build multipliers one position at a time and a single Plus One can rescue a trigger that looked dead. The weakest is the Full Reels Bonus: 200x the bet for the hardest job on the board, covering all 25 positions, is thin reward for the one outcome the whole design leans towards.

For players who enjoy sticky builders and slow accumulation, it’s an easy recommendation; anyone after a five-figure ceiling is fishing in the wrong reef. The kraken guards its treasure carefully, but at least it shares the spinning.

Kraken Spins FAQs

• What is the RTP of Kraken Spins?

  The RTP is 95.41%.
• How does the Kraken Spins feature trigger?

  The feature triggers when any one reel contains five of the same symbol. That symbol becomes the Triggering Symbol, three free spins are awarded, and the reels rotate 90 degrees clockwise before each spin.
• Can the Kraken Spins feature retrigger?

  Yes. Each spin that lands one or more Triggering Symbols resets the spins remaining to three and pays line wins, so the round continues as long as the Triggering Symbol keeps landing.
• How do Wild Respins work?

  Wild Respins trigger when one or more Coin symbols land in the same spin as a Ship symbol. The number of respins equals the number of Coins, Treasure Chests stick where they land, and stacking them on the same position builds a multiplier that starts at 2x and climbs by 1x each time.
• What does the Full Reels Bonus pay?

  The Full Reels Bonus is awarded when all 25 positions on the 5×5 grid are filled with the same symbol, and it pays 200x the bet. It can arrive during any of the game’s three modes.
• What does the Door symbol do in Kraken Spins?

  After each spin, all Door symbols open and reveal a symbol underneath.
• How many paylines does Kraken Spins have?

  Kraken Spins is a 5×5 game played with 15 fixed paylines, and the line bet equals the total bet divided by 15.
• Who makes Kraken Spins?

  Kraken Spins is made by Playtech.