Lobster Hotpot 2 Even Hotter Slot Review
Sunlight slants through shallow water onto a sunken hull, bubbles climb between the reel columns and orange coral crowds the edge of the sandy seabed. In Gaming Corps‘ Lobster Hotpot 2 Even Hotter, almost none of the serious money ever touches a payline: the real cash lands attached to lobsters, and it only pays out when a collect symbol arrives to claim it. The paytable is a side dish.
It runs at 96.03% RTP with high volatility and a 10,000x ceiling that lives in the free spins, on a 5×3 grid with 10 paylines. The whole game is one idea done properly: lobsters land carrying cash prizes, and hotpot symbols ladle them up. It sits alongside Gates of Hellfire and 3 Pigs of Olympus 2: Rise of the DemiHog in the studio’s catalogue of louder, numbered follow-ups. Whether “Even Hotter” is a promise the maths keeps is another matter.
The Base Game on the Reef
Wins pay left to right on adjacent reels from the leftmost, and only the highest combination counts on each payline. There’s no wild symbol anywhere in the game, which tells you where the paying interest actually sits: not in the reel wins, but in what lands on top of them. The regular paytable is a short ladder.
- Fishing lure: the top symbol, always paying more than the lifebuoy, and twice as much at five-of-a-kind
- Lifebuoy: second tier on its own
- Fishing reel and treasure chest: a shared third tier
- Lobsters: five colour variants that pay as one group
- A, K, Q, J and 10: the royal floor of the paytable
Five lures returns twenty times what five royals do, which gives you the shape of it: a compressed ladder where the top of the paytable matters and everything below it is small change. The reel wins are not where this game pays. They’re the thing happening while you wait for dinner.
Lobsters, Hotpots and the Collect
Lobster symbols can land carrying prizes of up to 1,000x the bet. On their own they’re worthless; a lobster in the base game is only worth anything when a HOTPOT COLLECT symbol lands to cook it. That pairing is the engine of the whole game.
Two collect symbols do the ladling, and they’re not equal. The red one collects the prizes of all lobsters and clam shells on its own reel only. The golden one collects every lobster and clam shell prize on all reels, and it’s the symbol the base game quietly revolves around.
A red collect on a reel with nothing on it is a wasted spin’s one consolation. That gap between the two symbols is most of what the base game asks you to think about.
Free Spins
The scatter can land on any reel, and it doesn’t need to sit on a payline. The awards step up by count:
- 3 scatters: 10 free spins
- 4 scatters: 15 free spins
- 5 scatters: 20 free spins
Clam Shells
Free spins fix the base game’s cruellest rule. When a lobster lands and no collect symbol can take its prize, a clam shell collects it instead, and the prizes accumulate there until a HOTPOT COLLECT symbol lands and scoops the lot. Nothing is wasted in the bonus.
It’s a small change with a large effect on how a round feels: every lobster that lands in free spins is money sitting on the table rather than money that never existed.
Retriggers
Collect symbols keep counting during the bonus. Each one that lands is banked, and every fourth banked symbol retriggers the round with 10 additional spins. Better than the spins, the retriggers step up the value of the lobster prizes themselves:
- First retrigger: lobster prizes x2
- Second retrigger: lobster prizes x3
- Third retrigger: lobster prizes x10
That ladder is the whole reason the round can go where it goes. A golden collect arriving late in a round that’s been retriggers deep, with a clam shell holding hours of accumulated prizes and lobsters now worth ten times their face value, is the scenario the 10,000x ceiling is made of.
The odds of the top prize are long: one in just over 3.3 million rounds.
The Lobster Gamble
After triggering free spins you can collect your spins and start, or gamble them on a wheel. The wheel stops on green or red. Green awards additional free spins; red loses the gamble, and what a loss costs depends on which rung you were gambling for.
The chance of winning any gamble is a flat 60%, and the wheel offers three targets: up to 15, up to 20, or up to 25 additional spins. Lose the 15 or 20 rungs and the round ends with nothing. Lose the 25 rung and you’re still given 10 free spins and the round starts anyway, which makes the top rung the only one with a floor under it.
Since the game’s return figures are highest for players who always gamble up to 25, the maths comes down firmly on the side of the aggressive option. The gamble isn’t decoration; it’s the difference between the RTP you get and the RTP on the tin.
HOTBET
The HOTBET toggle raises the stake by 1.5x and makes every spin twice as likely to trigger free spins. The return edge it buys is small: 96.13% at maximum against 96.03% standard, with the HOTBET floor at 96.10%.
Half a stake again for a better shot at the round the game is actually about, then, with the RTP moving barely at all. For a bonus built on escalation, faster access has a logic to it that the raw return figures undersell.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.2/10
Playing this one means long stretches of watching lobsters land, carry money and slip away again, because until a collect symbol shows up the pot stays shut. That’s the whole reason to be here: it’s a chase where the payoff is deferred by design, like fishing itself, and the longer you sit the bigger the catch could be.
The best thing about it is the free spins, where nothing lands for nothing and every retrigger makes the next lobster worth more than the last. The worst is everything before that: ten paylines, no wild and a paytable that can’t carry the front half on its own. Careful players will also hate that the gamble’s lower rungs can wipe the bonus entirely.
It’s a game for people who enjoy a patient collect hunt with a proper crescendo at the end, and it’s not one for people who want the reels themselves to provide the entertainment. The water’s lovely once you’re in deep.
Lobster Hotpot 2 Even Hotter FAQs
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What is the RTP of Lobster Hotpot 2 Even Hotter?
The RTP is 96.03%, rising to 96.13% if you play with the HOTBET switched on. The return is at its maximum when you always choose to gamble up to 25 additional free spins. -
How many paylines does Lobster Hotpot 2 Even Hotter have?
It’s a 5-reel, 3-row video slot with 10 paylines. Wins run left to right from the leftmost reel, with only the best combination counting on each line. -
What is the maximum win on Lobster Hotpot 2 Even Hotter?
The maximum win is 10,000x your total bet, and it can only be achieved in the free spins round. The odds of hitting it are roughly one in 3.3 million rounds. -
Who makes Lobster Hotpot 2 Even Hotter?
Gaming Corps. It’s the sequel to their original Lobster Hotpot. -
When is Lobster Hotpot 2 Even Hotter released?
Lobster Hotpot 2 Even Hotter’s release date is 10 October 2024. -
What does the golden Hotpot Collect symbol do?
The golden Hotpot Collect collects the prizes of all lobster symbols and clam shells on every reel. The red version only collects prizes on its own reel, so the golden one is the symbol to hope for. -
How does the free spins retrigger work?
Collect symbols that land during the bonus are banked, and every fourth one retriggers the round with 10 additional spins. Each retrigger also increases lobster prize values, by 2x, 3x and 10x for the first, second and third retrigger respectively. -
What are the odds on the Lobster Gamble wheel?
The chance of winning any gamble is always 60%. Losing the gamble up to 15 or 20 additional free spins ends the round with nothing, while losing the gamble up to 25 still awards 10 free spins.
