Monster Pop

Monster Pop Slot Review

Deep in a purple-blue cave lit by neon glow, where stalactites hang over a shallow pool and pink spirals swirl across the rock, Betsoft has filled a small grid with squishy monsters. Monster Pop is a cluster-pays game where the play area itself does the growing: it starts at 5×5 and can stretch as far as 13×13 as rows and columns clone themselves mid-spin.

It runs at 97.07% RTP, an unusually generous figure for a grid slot, and pays on clusters of 4 or more adjacent symbols that cascade until nothing is left to pop. The studio’s grid experiments include Wild Drops and Triple Juicy Drops, but neither lets the reels themselves multiply the way this one does.

Whether a grid that keeps growing can carry a game whose symbol values stay modest is what the cave’s residents are counting on.

Cluster Pays on a Growing Grid

Wins land as clusters rather than lines. Match 4 or more identical symbols in a contiguous group, touching horizontally or vertically, and they explode. Everything above drops down, new symbols fall in to fill the gaps, and fresh clusters are calculated. The cascade repeats until no winning group remains.

Each cluster pays at its highest value only, and cluster pays are multiplied by the bet amount. Clusters that aren’t adjacent to each other count as separate wins. Simultaneous wins from multiple clusters are added together.

Symbol values are where the modesty sits. Every pay is a multiple of the total bet:

• 4 symbols in a cluster: 1.6x the total bet
• 5 symbols: 2.4x the total bet
• 6 symbols: 3.6x the total bet
• 7 symbols: 4.8x the total bet

Payouts update dynamically as the bet changes, so those multiples hold at any stake. What they add up to is a game where individual clusters pay small and the real work is done by the grid growing around them.

One 4.8x cluster is barely a nudge, but a wide grid can carry several simultaneous clusters into a single cascade chain. There’s no maximum win figure for this one. Whatever a fully grown grid can assemble in one chain is the whole of what’s on the table.

Monster Cloner

The Monster Cloner is the engine of the whole game. Whenever one appears on the grid, it expands the play area by cloning a row above, a column to the right, or both at once. A light flashes along the designated row or column first, then the duplication happens in that direction only.

When the Cloner copies both ways, the row is duplicated first, then the column. Every cloned row or column arrives as an exact duplicate of the original, and an Oracle Eye WILD is placed in the Cloner’s position within it, giving the new line a substitution from the moment it lands.

The Oracle Eyes substitute for any symbol except the Monster Cloner and the Flaming Sphere, and they never pay on their own; they only stand in for payable symbols inside clusters. If a cascading win follows, the original Cloner symbol acts as a blank for the next game, so it doesn’t block a column from taking part in further wins.

The grid keeps expanding with each new Cloner, all the way to 13×13. In the base game every expansion resets on the next spin, so the growth is temporary.

The Cloner symbol itself differs depending on whether it works horizontally, vertically, or both, which gives a quick read on what’s about to be cloned before the light flashes.

Monster Fury

When a cascade awards nothing, the monsters get a chance to get angry on your behalf. Each losing spin has a small chance of triggering one of two rescues:

• Cloner Bomb – scatters between 3 and 6 Monster Cloner symbols onto random positions across the grid, each of which activates and expands the grid
• Shuffle – switches monsters between 2 and 16 positions, moving them horizontally, vertically or diagonally to pull identical monsters into matching groups

Neither is guaranteed, and neither has a stated trigger frequency. The Bomb’s Cloners can land on any position, chosen at random, so a dead cascade can suddenly turn into a grid two rows wider.

The Shuffle is the subtler of the two: it doesn’t change the grid at all, it just rearranges what’s already there. Both are a consolation mechanism, but one that can snowball, since every Cloner placed by the Bomb widens the grid for whatever comes next.

Flaming Sphere Free Spins

Three or more Flaming Sphere symbols anywhere on the grid award the free spins round, which triggers after all wins and features have resolved. The award is seven base free spins plus one extra spin per Flaming Sphere:

• 3 Flaming Spheres: 10 free spins total
• 4: 11 free spins
• 5: 12 free spins
• 6: 13 free spins
• 7: 14 free spins
• 8: 15 free spins
• 9: 16 free spins
• 10: 17 free spins

The round starts from a fresh 5×5 grid and is played at the same bet as the spin that triggered it, so there’s no separate stake to worry about.

The difference from the base game matters more than the spin count: during free spins, the grid expansions do not reset. Every Cloner that appears keeps its cloned row or column in place for the rest of the round, so the play area can build towards that 13×13 ceiling and stay there.

Extra Flaming Spheres landing mid-round each add one spin, which extends the build window further. Retriggers and persistent growth feed the same loop: the longer the round runs, the wider the grid it runs on.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7.8/10

This is a game you choose for one reason: to watch the reels themselves swell. The base game pops clusters, grows the grid a row or column at a time, then snaps back to 5×5 and starts over. It’s a short-lived pleasure, and the monsters in their glowing cave make it a charming one while it lasts.

Free spins change that arithmetic completely. Because nothing resets there, each Cloner is permanent for the round, and a long run can compound into a genuinely wide play area with a 97.07% return behind it. The problem is that the paytable never grows with the grid: even a 13×13 board pays 1.6x for a 4-symbol cluster, so every decent result has to be assembled from many small clusters rather than one.

Players chasing a single huge multiplier won’t find one in this cave; cluster-pays regulars who enjoy a slow build and value return over jackpot chasing will feel right at home among the monsters.

Monster Pop FAQs

• What is the RTP of Monster Pop?

  Monster Pop runs at 97.07% RTP, which is well above the average for online slots.
• What is the grid size of Monster Pop?

  Monster Pop starts on a 5×5 grid. Each Monster Cloner expands it by cloning a row, a column, or both, and it can grow as large as 13×13. Base-game expansions reset on every new spin.
• Who makes Monster Pop?

  Monster Pop is made by Betsoft.
• When was Monster Pop released?

  Monster Pop’s release date is 26 March 2020.
• How do you trigger free spins in Monster Pop?

  Three or more Flaming Sphere symbols anywhere on the grid award seven base free spins plus one extra spin per Flaming Sphere, for a total of 10 free spins at three symbols up to 17 at ten. The round triggers after all wins and features have resolved.
• Can free spins retrigger in Monster Pop?

  Yes. Every additional Flaming Sphere symbol that lands during the free spins round adds one more free spin.
• What does the Monster Cloner do?

  The Monster Cloner expands the grid by duplicating an entire row, an entire column, or both, and it places an Oracle Eye WILD in its position within the new row or column. The grid can keep expanding up to 13×13 and doesn’t reset during free spins.
• What is Monster Fury?

  Monster Fury is a random rescue feature that can trigger when a spin or cascade produces no winning clusters. It either drops a Cloner Bomb, scattering 3 to 6 Monster Cloner symbols onto random grid positions, or performs a Shuffle of 2 to 16 monsters that groups identical ones together.