Riptide Pirates 2: Kraken Riches Demo
Riptide Pirates 2: Kraken Riches Slot Review
Nailed It! Games have us exploring uncharted territory in their latest release, Riptide Pirates 2: Kraken Riches. After battling the legendary Kraken for its hoard of treasure in the original Riptide Pirates, we’re facing our toughest battle yet.
The life of Pirates has been held in high regard across a multitude of slot releases in the past, considered as one of the most popular slot theme choices, along with Egyptians and the Wild West.
Using Games Global’s platform as a means to release their games, Nailed It! Games has built quite a portfolio of innovative releases, including Gold Mine Stacks 2 and Grim Reaper Supermatch, but it’s not often that they return to the shores for a sequel or two.
Riptide Pirates 2: Kraken Riches builds upon popular mechanics and features found in the original release, with an introduction to Golden Riptide and Cannon symbols. With a fixed RTP of 96.15% and a high volatility score, this game can produce wins of up to 10,000x your bet, which is double the treasure reward from the original.
Switching out the fiery inferno backdrop for a much colder and wetter atmosphere, we’re hoping the damp and dreary weather has no significance on the outcome of gameplay – let’s walk the plank and find out, shall we?
Base Game & Features
Riptide Pirates 2: Kraken Riches takes us on a swashbuckling adventure across 5 reels, 4 rows, and 25 active pay lines. Winning payouts between 0.2x and 10x your bet are awarded when 2-5 matching symbols appear on adjacent reels, starting from reel 1.
The 4 highest-paying symbols fall to Pirate Characters, followed by a ship’s wheel, swords, and A, K, Q, & J card suits. Additionally, special Wild symbols can persist on all reels, substituting for all symbols except Riptide and Kraken symbols.
Like other symbols within the paytable, the Wild symbol offers a fixed payout between 0.1x and 10x your bet for a 2, 3, 4, or 5-of-a-kind win line. Lastly, Kraken Scatters are responsible for triggering the Kraken Bonus, appearing on all reel positions.
Riptide
Below each reel throughout gameplay, a special Riptide Collection bar is visible. Each time a Riptide symbol hits, it is added to its respective collection bar for that reel:
- Reel 1: Requires 1 Riptide symbol
- Reel 2: Requires 2 Riptide symbols
- Reel 3: Requires 3 Riptide symbols
- Reel 4: Requires 4 Riptide symbols
- Reel 5: Requires 5 Riptide symbols
When the required amount of Riptide symbols is acquired, a Stacked Wild symbol will fill the corresponding reel, causing it to move one position to the left with each spin, until it leaves the reel set.
If an additional Stacked Wild is awarded to an existing one, a x2 Multiplier is applied, further increased by +x1 for each additional Wild Stack. If a Golden Riptide symbol appears in view, it will fill the entire collection bar of its respective reel, thus triggering a Stacked Wild.
Lastly, a free Riptide Collections Boost is applied to each selected bet size at the start of each game round for the first time.
Bonus Booster
Another important collection meter is the Bonus Booster, which sits directly above the main reel set. During every spin, each visible Kraken Scatter adds 1 Point to the bonus booster.
When the Bonus Booster is filled to its maximum potential, it will unlock 4 Cannons. At the start of the Kraken Bonus, the mode will begin with the number of unlocked Cannons active, between 1 and 4; however, 1 Cannon is always guaranteed.
Furthermore, each Cannon can be randomly upgraded to a Golden Cannon before the Kraken Bonus begins. Golden Cannons will always hit a random Chest Icon within the first shot.
Bonus Gamble
Separate from the main game and only accessible to those within certain jurisdictions, the Bonus Gamble allows players to trigger the Kraken Bonus by landing at least 1 Cannon symbol during this time.
The Bonus Gamble is an individual 4-reel matrix with a 1 in 10 chance of triggering the Kraken Bonus. Each reel can reveal Regular & Golden Cannons or an ‘X’ symbol, which acts as a non-winning icon. The Kraken Bonus will begin with the amount and specific type of Cannons in play at the displayed bet size.
Bonus Buy
For players within permissible regions, they will have access to up to 3 Bonus Buy options, as follows:
- Option 1: Guarantees 1-4 active Cannons with a chance for 1 or more to become Golden for 100x your bet
- Option 2: Guarantees 4 regular Cannons with a chance for 1 or more to become Golden for 250x your bet
- Option 3: Guarantees all 4 Cannons to be active in a Golden state for 375x your bet
All of the above options facilitate a theoretical RTP of 96.15%.
Riptide Pirates 2: Kraken Riches has a 10,000x max win potential. If a game round exceeds this figure, the current mode ends, and the player returns to the base game with the qualifying amount.
Riptide Pirates 2: Kraken Riches Bonus
Triggering the Kraken Bonus requires at least 3 Kraken Scatters to land within the base game, awarding 3 Respins.
Once active, the round will begin with 1-4 Cannons active, with up to 3 chances to hit certain targets. If a target is hit, the current number of Respins is reset to 3. The goal is to eliminate as many targets as possible to receive a Prize from the following:
- Instant Prizes: Award 2x, 5x, 10x, or 1,000x your bet
- Bonus Boosters: 2, 3, 5, or 10 points are added to the Bonus Booster after the Kraken Bonus ends
- Jackpot Ships: Reveal jackpot prizes of Mini (15x), Midi (50x), Major (200x), Mega (2,000x), and Max (10,000x)
- Boats: Award a cash prize between 2x and 10x your bet. Boat values can be increased by the Prize & Persistent Prize boosters, as can the Double bonuses.
- Chests: Trigger instant prizes, special boosters, hunters, reinforcements, double, extra cannon, and rescue modifiers.
- Kraken: Defeating the kraken guarantees the maximum win potential of 10,000x your bet
In order to sink the bigger Kraken or Jackpot Ships, you will need to hit all of their sections on the grid. To elaborate on the individual Chest Modifiers, each displayed modifier will generate an action:
- Prize Booster: Adds a 2x, 3x, 5x, or 10x increase to all visible boats
- Persistent Prize Booster: With each respin, this modifier adds a 2x, 3x, or 5x increase to all boats
- Hunter: Targets one section of each Jackpot ship
- Reinforcements: Adds up to 7 boats to the grid
- Double: Increases the prize of all visible boats by double
- Extra Cannon: Awards an additional cannon symbol
- Rescue: Revives all boats and their starting prizes
Our Honest Verdict
After creating something quite spectacular in the original Riptide Pirates release, Nailed It! Games returns us to the rough seas for another deadly battle against the mother of all Krakens, but will its ‘Battleship’ style gameplay continue to impress us in the sequel?
As with its predecessor, Riptide Pirates 2: Kraken Riches has small bursts of excitement in the base game, while saving the best elements for the Kraken Bonus. The Riptide function is an engaging and consistent feature, while the Bonus Booster keeps players focused on the longevity of gameplay.
Most of the available gameplay has been pulled from the original release; however, there are certain upgrades which only the sequel offers, including Golden Cannon and Riptide symbols.
Riptide symbols are responsible for adding 1 point to their respective Bonus Booster, while a Golden Riptide symbol guarantees to fill its respective booster, thus instantly triggering the Stacked Wild symbol for that reel.
Given that Stacked Wilds move toward the leftmost reel before leaving entirely, it’s far more difficult to achieve a Stacked Wild on the rightmost reels. Stacked Wilds that begin on the rightmost reels have a higher longevity, with the potential to award bigger and better wins as they pass each reel.
Another interesting addition to this release is the Bonus Gamble. Unlike a standard bonus gamble we’re used to seeing, this one allows players to spin a separate 4-reel matrix to begin the Kraken Bonus with a higher advantage, but it is restricted to certain jurisdictions.
We’ll admit, of all the games we’ve played that tend to stray from the traditional slots setting, Riptide Pirates 2: Kraken Riches is one of the better offerings, as is the original release.
The 5,000x max win potential of Riptide Pirates has also been given a significant boost to 10,000x your bet in this release. If you’re not usually one to stray from traditional slots, you may want to make an exception for Riptide Pirates 2: Kraken Riches. The Pirate theme is average, but the game’s content is strategic and innovative.
*The images found in this slot review are currently from Demo Play. On average, our reviews are written prior to the initial release date and before real play is available.
