Teatime Treasures

Teatime Treasures Slot Review

A grinning Cheshire Cat watches from the corner of the reels, toadstools crowd the stone wall that holds the grid, and a tea party is underway somewhere behind the scenery. High 5 Games have painted a lovely version of Wonderland here, all storybook foliage and gold filigree, but the painting is doing something unusual: nearly the whole game hides behind a single collision on reel five.

Teatime Treasures is a patient slot, and it earns that patience with the only respin chain we’ve seen where the feature visibly grows as it goes. It runs on a 5×5 grid with 25 paylines, a 96.0% RTP and mid to high volatility. If you want the studio on more familiar ground, Timeless Rose, Bohemian Bazaar and Da Vinci DeluxeWays are all reviewed here.

Paytable, Wilds and Reel Setup

All five reels are always in play, and line wins need adjacent symbols starting from the leftmost reel, with only the highest combination counting on each line. Wins are multiplied by the bet multiplier. The Cake Wild substitutes for everything except the train symbols and the gem, appearing on reels two to four on initial spins and reels two to five on respins. Four Wilds always combine with the fifth symbol on a payline for line pay purposes.

Paying symbols are all tea-party trinkets, with credit values shown without any bet modifiers:

• Pink Teacup – 10 for three, 20 for four, 200 for five
• Pocket Watch and Jeweled Egg – 5 for three, 10 for four, 100 for five
• Crown, Spade, Diamond and Club – 2 for three, 5 for four, 50 for five
• Cake Wild – 20 for three, up to 500 for five

Each of the three symbol tiers also comes in a colour of its own: the spade in green, the diamond in purple, the club in teal, so the lower half of the paytable reads as a suited set rather than a run of plain royals.

The gem symbol doesn’t appear in the base game at all; it only shows up once the feature machinery is running. Train symbols sit on reel five only, waiting. That layout is the whole setup: quiet reels, then a collision.

The Wild Train Feature

The trigger is a narrow one, and every part of it is pinned down by the reel setup:

• All three train symbols must appear together, and they only ever sit on reel five
• A Cake Wild must land on the same spin, on reels two to four
• When both arrive together, the Wild Train Feature begins

After winning combinations pay, the lead train symbol moves one position at a time towards any Wild or gem on the grid, and the other train pieces follow along the same path so the train stays in one connected row. When it reaches a Wild or a gem, that symbol is collected, and the process repeats until nothing collectible is left on the reels.

Each Wild collected grows the train. Positions covered always equal 3 + the number of Wilds collected, tracked on a rose meter beside the reels, so a productive respin can stretch the train across a good stretch of the grid.

Every Wild collected also drops 3 to 7 gem symbols into random unoccupied positions for the next respin. Those gems are wild too, substituting for everything except the Cake Wild and the train pieces, so they both extend the chase and help line pays along the way.

One subtlety sits in the substitution rules. The train pieces and the gem are wild for line pays, but neither of them counts as a Cake Wild for the feature’s purposes, and none of them stand in for each other. Collecting is done by the train itself; the only symbol that can start that collection chain is the cake.

Once all Wilds and gems are collected, a free respin is awarded, and the sequence runs on these rules:

• The whole train stays locked in place for every respin
• Respins play on different reels, with gems appearing on reels one to four
• The chain continues until the Free Games Bonus triggers, or until a respin collects nothing at all, which ends the feature

Free Games Bonus

Collect five or more Wilds during the Wild Train Feature and the Free Games Bonus starts with three free games. Free games run automatically at the same bet multiplier as the spin that started the feature, on different reels.

The train carries over intact. All train symbols remain locked where they were on the triggering respin, and on every free game the movement and collection process plays out just as before. Gems appear on reels one to three here, slightly less reel space than respins give them.

The counter works as a buffer. Every Wild and every gem collected awards one additional free game, and the bonus only ends when the count reaches zero, so a run of well-fed respins can keep the round alive for a long time.

A jackpot sign sits beside the reels throughout, reading 200,000 credits at a 100-credit bet, which works out to 2,000x the stake. That’s a tidy number for a train that can, in principle, keep collecting forever.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7.7/10

Most of your time with this game is spent in a beautifully painted waiting room. The reels are quiet, the trinket pays are small, and everything rides on three pieces of one train arriving together on reel five. That’s the one reason to sit down here: no other slot builds a bonus the way this one does once the collision finally lands.

Its best quality is that the round never resets. Every wild grows the train, every collected symbol banks another free game, so a good run compounds instead of restarting, and the tension holds all the way through. The weakness is the other side of the same coin: the trigger is pinned to a single reel and there’s no buy menu or scatter shortcut, so the quiet spells between chains run long at mid to high volatility.

This is one for players who enjoy a slow build and trust the payoff, and it’s a genuinely pretty place to wait. If constant feature hits are what you’re after, the Cheshire Cat’s grin won’t be enough to hold you.

Teatime Treasures FAQs

• How does the Wild Train Feature trigger in Teatime Treasures?

  The three train symbols need to appear together with a Cake Wild on the reels. The train pieces only sit on reel five in the base game, and the wild only appears on reels two to four on initial spins, so the trigger window is a narrow one.
• How do you start the Free Games Bonus in Teatime Treasures?

  The bonus is tied to the respin chain rather than a scatter. Land five or more Cake Wilds while the Wild Train Feature is running and the free games round kicks in, with further games added for every symbol collected after that.
• Can the Free Games Bonus retrigger in Teatime Treasures?

  Yes, in effect. Every Wild and every gem symbol collected during the bonus awards one additional free game, and the round only ends when the free games count reaches zero.
• What does the wild substitute for in Teatime Treasures?

  The Cake Wild substitutes for all symbols except the three train symbols and the gem. The train symbols and the gem are also wild, but none of them substitute for the Cake Wild, and they don’t count towards the Wild Train Feature either.
• How does the gem symbol work in Teatime Treasures?

  Gems never appear in the base game. During respins they land on reels one to four, and during the Free Games Bonus on reels one to three. Each gem collected by the train awards one additional free game, and each Wild collected drops 3 to 7 gems onto the reels for the next respin or free game.
• What is the RTP of Teatime Treasures?

  The theoretical return to player is 96.0%.
• Is Teatime Treasures high volatility?

  It sits at mid to high volatility, so expect longer gaps between the bigger respin chains and free games rounds.
• Who makes Teatime Treasures?

  Teatime Treasures was created by High 5 Games, and the Wild Train mechanic is one of the studio’s own trademarks. The game’s release date is 8 July 2020.