Lucky Shark Slot Review
Seaweed crowds both edges of the frame, the water glows a deep blue, and what looks like the rigging of a sunken ship rests on the seabed below the reels. It’s a friendly picture, and that’s the misleading part: this reef is an ordinary line-pay slot at heart, and the two collect rounds underneath the fish do the interesting work. From Amatic, Lucky Shark runs a 5×3 grid with 25 fixed paylines at 97.08% RTP, a striking figure for a game carrying a four-tier jackpot ladder.
The collecting format is house style for the studio, seen in Double Joker 20, Fortune Joker 10 and Fortune Joker 20. The shark, as you’d hope, is the wild – and it’s the joint-top payer on the board.
Reels, Symbols and Pays
It’s a conventional setup underneath the kelp: five reels, three rows, 25 fixed lines, and wins that pay left to right on adjacent reels. Line wins are a multiple of the line bet, only the highest combination counts on each line, and wins from different lines are added together.
Scatter wins follow their own arithmetic: they’re a multiple of the total bet, only the highest scatter combination is paid, and they’re added on top of the line wins.
The shark is the wild, substituting for every symbol except the BONUS anchor and the BUBBLE, and it’s also the richest symbol on the board. The anchor is the scatter, paying on any position and triggering the BONUSSPIN feature.
The full paytable, as printed at the current bet level:
- Shark (wild): 25 / 250 / 500 for three, four or five
- Turtle: 25 / 250 / 500
- Purple Angelfish: 20 / 150 / 400
- Yellow Butterflyfish: 15 / 100 / 300
- Clownfish: 10 / 50 / 200
- A: 10 / 20 / 50
- K, Q, J: 5 / 20 / 50
- Bonus anchor (scatter, any position): 50 / 375 / 2,500
Tying the wild with the turtle at the top of the ladder is a sensible touch. It means the shark does double duty: the symbol you most want to see is also the one filling gaps in other wins.
Every value in that list is tied to the current bet level, so the pays scale automatically as you move the stake. The royals are where the ladder flattens out. K, Q and J all pay identically, and a five-of-a-kind royal returns barely a tenth of what the turtle manages, so the sea creatures carry the board and the letters fill the gaps between them.
On the reels, the wild behaves exactly as you’d hope. Stacked shark symbols can cover a full reel, and because the shark matches the turtle’s 500 payout, a screen full of wilds is also the single most valuable picture the game can produce.
There’s no separate wild feature or multiplier attached. The substitution and the top-tier payout are the whole job.
BONUSSPIN Feature
Three, four or five anchor scatters anywhere on the reels award 5, 7 or 10 BONUSSPINS respectively. The round plays at the same bet and number of lines as the spin that triggered it, and wins from it are added to everything else.
There’s a twist on reel two during the feature. All big symbols landing there pay across nine positions instead of one, with the exception of the BONUS and BUBBLE symbols. That puts the middle reel at the centre of every spin the round plays, and a big turtle or angelfish parked there counts towards every line that passes through it.
Retriggers are built in too. A BONUS symbol on reel two during the feature awards three additional BONUSSPINS, and the round runs until the spin counter is empty. Just one BUBBLE on that same second reel is enough to pull the CASH SPIN feature in mid-round, which is the faster of the two routes to the jackpots.
CASH SPIN Feature and Jackpots
How the round works
Land six or more BUBBLE symbols anywhere in the main game, or a single BUBBLE on reel two during BONUSSPINS, and the CASH SPIN feature starts. It’s a hold-and-collect round, played at the same bet as the triggering game. Step by step:
- Three spins are awarded, and each of the 15 reel positions spins independently.
- Any BUBBLE that lands sticks in place and stays there for the rest of the feature.
- Each new BUBBLE resets the remaining spins back to three.
- The round ends when the counter runs out or all 15 positions are filled.
Bubbles carry the MINI, MINOR and MAJOR prizes or bet values ranging from 1x to 20x. Any value showing when the feature begins is a guaranteed win, with room for more to land during the round. Wins from CASH SPIN are added to everything else from the initiating game.
The jackpot ladder
Four tiers sit on screen throughout, collected via BUBBLE symbols. The ladder reads MINI 750, MINOR 1,250, MAJOR 2,500 and GRAND 25,000 at a bet of 25, and all four scale with the stake rather than sitting as fixed amounts.
The MINI, MINOR and MAJOR can each be won multiple times in a single feature, which is where the round’s real potential sits. The GRAND is awarded only when every BUBBLE required by the end of the feature has been collected.
From a main-game trigger that means every one of the 15 positions; from BONUSSPINS it’s just seven bubbles. Seven is a far friendlier target than fifteen, so the route through BONUSSPINS is very much the one worth knowing about. Fill them all and the GRAND is yours.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.7/10
Playing this is line-pay fishing with a collect round waiting underneath, and the one reason to choose it over any other reef slot is the route between them: a single bubble on reel two during BONUSSPINS opens the jackpot round with a seven-bubble GRAND target instead of fifteen. That shortcut is the best design decision in the game.
The CASH SPIN round is the strength. Sticky bubbles, a counter that resets on every catch, and three tiers that can pay more than once in a single feature give it real staying power, and 97.08% RTP is remarkably fair company for a jackpot game. The spins round is the weakness: the nine-position reel-two trick does its work quietly, and the stretches between features are plain line-pay spinning with a GRAND at the end you have to fill fifteen positions to claim.
It suits players who like a long collect with generous numbers rather than anyone chasing a huge ceiling. For hold-and-collect fans, the water here is warm.
Lucky Shark FAQs
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What is the RTP of Lucky Shark?
Lucky Shark runs at 97.08% RTP, comfortably above the typical range for online slots and unusually generous for a game with a four-tier jackpot ladder. -
How do you trigger the BONUSSPIN feature in Lucky Shark?
Landing three, four or five BONUS anchor symbols on any position awards 5, 7 or 10 BONUSSPINS respectively. A BONUS symbol on reel two during the feature adds three more spins. -
How does the CASH SPIN feature work?
It’s a hold-and-collect round. You get three spins with each of the 15 reel positions spinning independently, every new BUBBLE that lands sticks in place and resets the counter to three, and the round ends when the counter runs out or every position is filled. -
How do you win the GRAND jackpot in Lucky Shark?
The GRAND jackpot is awarded when every BUBBLE the feature requires has been collected by the time it ends. A main-game trigger demands all 15 positions; a trigger during BONUSSPINS needs just seven. -
What does the shark wild substitute for?
The shark is wild and substitutes for every symbol except the BONUS and BUBBLE symbols. It also pays as the joint-top symbol on the board, matching the turtle at 500 for five of a kind. -
Can the MINI, MINOR and MAJOR prizes be won more than once?
Yes. All three of the lower tiers can be won multiple times during a single CASH SPIN feature, which is where much of the round’s winning potential sits. Only the GRAND is a one-time hold-out prize. -
How many paylines does Lucky Shark have?
Lucky Shark is played with 25 fixed paylines, with line wins paying left to right on adjacent reels and only the highest combination counting on each line. -
When is Lucky Shark released?
Lucky Shark’s release date is 24 January 2023. It comes from Amatic, the studio behind titles such as Double Joker 20 and the Fortune Joker series.
