Pirate Pays Megaways Slot Review
From the stern of a gilded pirate ship, brass cannons over turquoise water and the reels set into carved gold filigree, Pirate Pays Megaways makes you an unusual promise: it won’t decide your bonus for you. Big Time Gaming have built the trigger as a negotiation you can lose, and in a genre where three scatters usually mean a fixed award handed over on a plate, that’s a genuinely different design. The ship is handsome, the deck is familiar, and everything interesting happens when the Kraken surfaces.
It runs six reels with up to 117,649 ways to win, an RTP of 96.23%, bets from 0.2 to 20 per spin and a maximum win of 104,400x. Players of Bonanza Megaways and Extra Chilli will know the engine; the compass wilds and the chest-picking are where this one charts its own course.
Reels, Ways and Reactions
Wins are matching consecutive symbols from the leftmost reel, regardless of symbol height, with the highest combination paid and all winning combinations added together. Each reel holds a variable number of symbols, so the ways change every spin. It’s the classic Megaways arrangement, and it doesn’t deviate.
An extra reel sits beneath reels two to five, adding one symbol to each of those reels. When a win lands, every winning symbol except Scatters is part of a reaction: it disappears and replacements drop in from above, with the extra reel feeding from the right. Chains of reactions are how the base game builds anything, and wins land on 37.22% of spins.
The paytable is all gems, and the values are multiples of the total bet. It’s a short ladder:
- Purple gem: 0.5x for two, 1x for three, 2x for four, 4x for five, 25x for six
- Red gem: 0.4x for three, 0.5x for four, 0.6x for five, 0.9x for six
- Blue gem: 0.3x for three, 0.4x for four, 0.5x for five, 0.8x for six
- Green gem: 0.25x for three, 0.3x for four, 0.4x for five, 0.7x for six
Only the purple gem pays for two of a kind, and even that’s half your stake back. The other three all need three from the left, which tells you how much of the base game’s income arrives in small, reaction-driven instalments rather than symbol pays.
The wild is the most characterful symbol on the ship. A Wild Compass can only land on the extra reel, and its needle picks one of four directions: every position that direction covers fills with Bird Wilds. Point the needle south and nothing happens, but a compass left standing after a reaction gets another spin of the needle.
Both wilds substitute for everything except Scatters, and the Bird Wild won’t stand in for the Compass. When the needle cooperates, a single compass can thread wilds through four reels at once, and that’s the base game’s one real flourish.
The Kraken Bonus Round
Three or more Scatters in any position wake the Kraken. There are two of them, and where each one lives matters:
- Gold Chest Scatter: appears on reels one to five in the base game
- Purple Chest Megascatter: appears on reel six only in the base game
- Three or more of either, in any position, trigger the Kraken Bonus Round
Twenty different Free Spin Outcomes go on the table, and one is removed for each triggering Scatter beyond the third. Each outcome bundles 6 to 25 free spins with a starting multiplier from 1x to 10x. Cannons then blast away up to five outcomes at random and a Free Spin Offer appears, made up of spins, a starting multiplier and a bonus credit prize.
Here’s the interesting part: rejecting an offer doesn’t end anything. Outcomes keep being removed until you accept one or only two remain, and at that point you pick a chest and take whichever outcome it hides. Every rejection raises the floor of what’s left while shrinking the field, so the trigger becomes a genuine gamble rather than a formality.
Megascatter Enhanced Bonus Round
Land the Purple Chest Megascatter among your triggers and the round starts with an advantage: the lowest ten Free Spin Outcomes are removed automatically before anything else happens. The floor rises before the cannons even fire, which makes reel six worth watching on every spin.
Free Spins and Retriggers
Whatever outcome you accept, the free spins begin at that starting multiplier and climb from there. The multiplier is unlimited and increases by one after every reaction, so a long chain is where the round’s real potential sits. The stake that triggered the round applies throughout, and total winnings are credited at the end.
Retriggers work differently here. In the free spins, the Gold Chest Scatter appears on the extra reel only and the Megascatter doesn’t appear at all, which changes what a scatter on that reel is worth:
- 3 Gold Chest Scatters on the extra reel: 5 extra free spins
- 4 Gold Chest Scatters on the extra reel: 10 extra free spins
Because the extra reel feeds every reaction, scatters arriving there can land mid-chain, and a busy extra reel is a welcome sight when the multiplier is already climbing.
Bonus Buy
There’s a Bonus Buy menu, and it sells the free spins round outright. You set a Free Spins Stake with the plus and minus buttons, that stake applies to every free spin in the round, and the purchase is deducted from your balance on confirmation.
- Free Spins bonus: 120x the Free Spins Stake
- Chance of an Enhanced Bonus Round per purchase: 22.93%
- Bonus Buy RTP: 96.23%
The buy RTP matches the overall figure, so there’s no mathematical premium for skipping the base game. What you’re paying for is speed, plus a near-one-in-four shot at the Megascatter round that starts ten outcomes lighter.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.8/10
Most of a session on Pirate Pays Megaways is spent waiting for the Kraken, and the game is honest about that. The base game is a long sail between sightings, kept afloat by a compass wild that occasionally stitches four reels together and a pays ladder that rarely gives back more than pocket change. The reason anybody chooses this ship is the trigger itself: twenty outcomes on the table and a decision that’s genuinely yours to make.
The Kraken round is the best thing here, because rejecting an offer is a real choice with a real cost. That’s also the weakness: the base game leans on one wild to carry everything between bonuses, and it isn’t enough to make the waiting interesting.
This is a game for players who want the bonus trigger to be a decision rather than a door, and who don’t mind dead spins to get there. If you want a busy base game, this deck has too little on it. For the rest, the Kraken is worth the wait.
Pirate Pays Megaways FAQs
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What is the RTP of Pirate Pays Megaways?
The RTP is 96.23%. The Bonus Buy runs at the same 96.23%, so buying the bonus doesn’t change the expected return. -
What is the hit frequency of Pirate Pays Megaways?
Wins land on 37.22% of spins, which is a comfortable rate for a Megaways game and keeps the reactions ticking over. -
How many paylines does Pirate Pays Megaways have?
There are up to 117,649 ways to win. Matching consecutive symbols from the leftmost reel pay regardless of symbol height, and the number of ways changes with each spin. -
What is the minimum and maximum bet on Pirate Pays Megaways?
Bets run from 0.2 to 20 per spin. The stake you use to trigger the free spins also applies for the whole bonus round. -
Can you buy the bonus on Pirate Pays Megaways?
Yes. A Free Spins bonus costs 120x the Free Spins Stake, and each purchase carries a 22.93% chance of awarding the Megascatter Enhanced Bonus Round. -
How does the Kraken Bonus Round work?
Three or more Scatters trigger it. Twenty Free Spin Outcomes are shown, cannons remove them one by one, and you either accept a Free Spin Offer or keep rejecting until only two outcomes remain and a chest pick awards one at random. -
What does the Wild Compass do in Pirate Pays Megaways?
It’s an extra-reel-only wild. The needle lands on a direction and Bird Wilds fill every available position it covers; if the compass survives a reaction, the needle spins again for a fresh direction. -
Can you retrigger free spins in Pirate Pays Megaways?
Yes. During free spins the Gold Chest Scatter appears on the extra reel only, and three of them award 5 extra spins while four award 10. -
What is the maximum win on Pirate Pays Megaways?
The maximum win is 104,400x your bet. The unlimited free spins multiplier climbing by one per reaction is the most realistic route there.
