Solar Strike Hold the Spin

Solar Strike Hold the Spin Slot Review

Solar Strike Hold the Spin is built so that its jackpot ladder barely matters: the Grand is worth a tenth of the win cap, and every serious payout is manufactured by multiplier frames stacking on top of each other. That’s an unusual design choice for a hold-and-spin, and Gamzix commits to it fully. The screen commits to something too, a corona flaring behind the centre reel and everything below glowing like the inside of a furnace, though the fire is decoration and the frames are the game.

Underneath the heat it’s a 3-5-3 grid with 45 pay ways, running at 96.02% RTP and capped at 10,000x the bet. The Collect mechanic is the interesting part: a Sun symbol that doesn’t just bank coins but locks in place and gives the round a shape its respins alone wouldn’t have. Sister titles Lava Power: Hold the Spin and Grand Voyage: Hold the Spin worked the same seam; this one turns the temperature up.

Base Game & Features

The layout is the first thing to get your head around. The centre panel is tall and lit, the two side panels are shorter, and the whole reel area sits in a gold-edged cross floating on an ember-flecked backdrop. Wins pay across 45 ways, with only the longest matching combination per symbol paid and simultaneous wins on different ways added together.

Extra instances of a winning symbol on the same reels create more way wins. Wilds can appear on any reel during the main game, standing in for the paying symbols. Beyond that, the base game is deliberately quiet. Its real job is to feed two symbols towards each other: the Coin and the Sun.

The Sun and the Collect Feature

The Sun is a Collect symbol, and it can land only on the middle reel. When it arrives together with Coin symbols sitting on just one of the side reels, the Collect feature fires: every visible Coin value, Jackpots included, is gathered and added to the spin’s win. Simple, and quick.

Heap of Energy

Any Coin or Sun landing in the main game grants a chance of triggering the Heap of Energy feature. When it hits, the game adds Coin, Sun and Jackpot Coin symbols to the reels in quantities guaranteed to activate the Bonus Game. It’s the accelerator that stops the bonus being purely a three-symbol wait.

Inside the Bonus Game, Heap of Energy keeps working in two ways:

• At the start of each spin, it can add one to three Multiplier frames to random positions on the side reels
• After all symbols have landed, it can place extra Sun symbols in any empty middle-reel position

Solar Strike Hold the Spin Bonus Game

The Bonus Game triggers from Coins, Jackpot Coins included, on reels 1 and 3 with the Sun on reel 2, or directly from Heap of Energy. You start with 3 respins, and every Coin, Jackpot Coin or Sun that lands resets the counter back to three. Coins carrying random prizes land on the side reels, Suns appear only on the middle one, and the triggering symbols transfer in with you.

Each empty position spins individually, the round plays at the bet that activated it, and the total is added to the wins from the triggering spin. The round ends when the counter reaches zero.

Coin Values and Jackpots

Coin prizes during the round step through a fixed ladder:

• Coin symbols: 1, 2, 3, 5 or 10 times the bet
• Mini Jackpot: 25 times the bet
• Minor Jackpot: 50 times the bet
• Major Jackpot: 150 times the bet
• Grand Jackpot: 1,000 times the bet

Jackpot Coins settle their rung before the collection begins. The top rung, at 1,000x, is a tenth of the game’s overall 10,000x cap, so the ladder alone won’t reach the ceiling; the multipliers have to do the lifting.

Multiplier Frames

Frames arrive at the beginning of each spin in the round, up to three of them, on random side-reel positions. A frame starts at x2 and stays until the round ends. If one lands on a position that already holds a frame, the multiplier there grows by x1.

Any prize landing inside a frame is multiplied before the Sun gathers it. That’s how small coins turn into large ones.

How the Sun Collects

When the Sun lands on the middle reel during the round, it collects every visible Coin value on the side reels, Jackpots included, and adds them to its own value. Then it locks in place, and the Coin positions free up for new symbols. That’s the mechanic doing the heavy work: a collector that banks its haul and reopens space gives the round momentum the respin counter alone can’t.

Buy Bonus and Buy Super Bonus

Two purchase options shortcut the wait:

• Buy Bonus: 100 times the bet
• Buy Super Bonus: 250 times the bet

Both play one free main game spin guaranteed to activate the Bonus Game, at the bet you bought at. The Super version increases the chance of landing high-value symbols, which at 2.5 times the standard price is a steep premium for better coin quality.

The 10,000x cap ends the game round immediately once it’s reached. Everything above the rungs of the ladder depends on the frames.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7.1/10

Most of a session here is spent watching a beautiful furnace do very little, waiting for the Sun to find the middle reel. That wait is the whole reason to sit down at this one: no other part of the game can pay you anything worth remembering, and the game doesn’t pretend the base spins matter.

The strength is that the round keeps rebuilding itself. A Sun that locks and reopens positions means the board never fills up and stalls, and overlapping frames mean a modest coin can double or triple in value twice over before it’s banked. The weakness is the ceiling’s distance: coins top out at 10x and the Grand at 1,000x, so the 10,000x cap needs frames stacked on frames, and most rounds won’t get near it.

It suits hold-and-spin regulars who enjoy a slow burn and don’t mind a long, quiet warm-up. Anyone who wants things happening between bonuses will find the wait cold, whatever the corona says.

Solar Strike Hold the Spin FAQs

• What is the RTP of Solar Strike Hold the Spin?

  Solar Strike Hold the Spin runs at 96.02% RTP.
• How do you trigger the Bonus Game in Solar Strike Hold the Spin?

  The Bonus Game triggers when Coin symbols, including Jackpot Coins, land on reels 1 and 3 together with a Sun symbol on reel 2. It can also be triggered by the Heap of Energy feature, which adds symbols to the reels in quantities guaranteed to activate the round.
• How do the Multiplier frames in the Bonus Game work?

  At the start of each Bonus Game spin, the Heap of Energy feature can add between one and three Multiplier frames to random positions on reels 1 and 3. A frame starts at x2 and stays for the rest of the round; if it lands on a position that already has a frame, the multiplier increases by x1. Prizes inside a frame are multiplied before the Sun collects them.
• Does the Bonus Game retrigger in Solar Strike Hold the Spin?

  Yes. The round starts with 3 respins, and every time a Coin, Jackpot Coin or Sun symbol lands, the spin counter resets back to the initial 3 respins.
• What are the jackpot values in Solar Strike Hold the Spin?

  The ladder pays the Grand Jackpot at 1,000 times the bet, Major at 150 times, Minor at 50 times and Mini at 25 times. Jackpot Coins reveal their level before prizes are collected.
• Can you buy the bonus on Solar Strike Hold the Spin?

  Yes. The Buy Bonus costs 100 times the bet and the Buy Super Bonus costs 250 times the bet. Both play one free main game spin that is guaranteed to activate the Bonus Game, with the Super version increasing the chance of landing high-value symbols.
• What is the maximum win on Solar Strike Hold the Spin?

  The maximum award is capped at 10,000 times the bet. Once the cap is reached, that amount is paid out and the game round ends immediately.
• How many pay ways does Solar Strike Hold the Spin have?

  Solar Strike Hold the Spin is a 3-5-3 video slot with 45 pay ways. Only the longest matching combination per symbol is paid, and wins on different pay ways are added together. It’s made by Gamzix.