Tempered Steel Slot Review
Steam rises off a stone-walled smithy where tongs glow red-hot beside the anvil, and the reel window sits bolted into a frame of scorched, riveted steel. Tempered Steel spends that atmosphere on something unusual: a free spins round that refuses to count spins at all, running instead until the last wild climbs off the top of the reels. It’s a structure most studios don’t touch, and BulletProof Games have built the whole game around it here.
The molten-gold title lettering isn’t just dressing either, because this is a game where metal is the point. It’s a 5×3, 20-payline slot with 96% RTP, high volatility and a 10,028x ceiling, and it sits alongside titles like 7th Squadron DoubleMax, Vault Raiders DoubleMax and Irish Pots MultiMax in the BulletProof Games catalogue. The forge holds more than the scenery, though: the free spins don’t run on a spin counter at all.
Base Game & Features
Wins pay left to right across 20 fixed lines, with three or more matching symbols from the leftmost reel taking the prize. Only the highest winning combination per line is paid. Stakes run from 0.20 to 100 per spin, and roughly a quarter of spins land some kind of win.
The wild is a busy symbol: the smith himself substitutes for everything except the bonus symbol, and he’s also the richest payer on the reels at 100x for five of a kind. Where a winning line starts with three wilds, the game takes the interpretation that pays most and awards that alone.
The rest of the paytable, at the default stake, reads as follows:
- Wild (the smith): 0.20x for two, 4x for three, 8x for four, 100x for five
- Crossed-blade emblem (purple): 2.50x / 5x / 40x for three, four and five
- Diamond blade emblem: 2x / 4x / 15x
- Red dagger emblem: 2x / 4x / 10x
- Red axe emblem: 1x / 2.50x / 8x
- Yellow sword emblem: 1x / 2.50x / 6x
- Heart and Diamond: 0.50x / 1.50x / 5x
- Club and Spade: 0.20x / 1x / 4x
Quenching
At random, the blacksmith’s tools heat up and drop into the barrel of water beside the reels. Steam billows up, and one of three modifiers appears: Lock and Spin, Bonus Frenzy or Forge Your Weapon. It’s the game’s central random mechanic, and it can fire on any spin.
Lock and Spin
The reels go into an extended spin with wild stacks in play. Any stack that lands fully in view locks onto its reel and awards a free respin to chase more stacked wilds on the other reels. If two or more stacks lock in on the same spin, only one respin is awarded.
The round ends when a respin fails to land a new locked stack, and all wins are then paid. It’s the only modifier that can chain itself, so a run of locked reels is the base game’s route to its biggest standalone hits.
Bonus Frenzy
Extra bonus symbols are added to the reels for an extended spin, with the added symbols set on fire as they pass. The point is simple: a much higher chance of hitting the three or more bonus symbols needed for free spins on that spin.
Forge Your Weapon
Three blocked-out weapons appear, and you press through the rock in three stages to reveal them before choosing one. Your chosen weapon is then added to the reels as stacks of three symbols, the reels land, and any wins are paid. It’s the one modifier with a decision in it, however small.
Tempered Steel Free Spins & Bonus Features
Three or more bonus symbols anywhere in view award the free spins, and this is where Tempered Steel breaks from the standard script: the round is unlimited. It doesn’t end on a spin counter. It ends when the last climbing wild leaves the reels.
Each of the five reels sits over its own smouldering kiln. On any spin, a kiln can be turned up, and the top wild of a stack appears at the bottom of that reel. More than one kiln can trigger at a time.
On each following spin the added stack climbs one position, and it keeps climbing until it disappears off the top and the kiln burns out. The round runs until every stack is gone, so a round only lasts as long as the kilns keep firing.
Entry matters, because the number of bonus symbols you trigger with sets the stack heights:
- Three bonus symbols: stacks start three positions high
- Four bonus symbols: stacks start four positions high
- Five bonus symbols: stacks start five positions high
Each reel carries only one stack. Once the final wild has been removed, a retrigger can be awarded at random: the five kilns relight, the stacks increase in length by one, and the climb starts again.
A retrigger on a three-symbol entry awards four-high stacks, and a retrigger on four awards five-high. A five-symbol entry can’t go higher, so it stays at five. Free spins play at the lines and bet of the triggering spin, and wins are added to whatever the triggering game already paid.
Buy A Bonus
Where territory rules permit, the free spins can be bought outright for 100x the base stake. The buy awards the feature via an entry spin that can produce three, four or five bonus symbols, so the stack heights you start with carry the same three, four or five range as an organic trigger.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.8/10
Playing this one is mostly waiting for the forge. The base game ticks along pleasantly enough in its sooty smithy, but you’re spinning through it towards the kilns, because that’s the only place this game really pays. And when it gets going, it’s brilliant: an open-ended round where every spin can light another stack, and a retrigger restarts the whole climb taller than before.
The weakness is what comes before it. A 100x top line pay means the base game can’t pay its own way, so the three modifiers carry a lot of weight for features that are mostly over in one spin. The choice is a five-symbol entry if you can get it: the taller stacks are where the 10,028x ceiling becomes even thinkable.
So it’s for players who like one big, open-ended feature and don’t mind a thin grind to reach it. Anyone who wants regular payouts along the way will find this fire takes its time to heat up. Get the kilns lit, though, and the wait stops mattering.
Tempered Steel FAQs
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What is the RTP of Tempered Steel?
The RTP is 96%, which sits right at the industry average. -
How do you trigger free spins in Tempered Steel?
Three or more bonus symbols anywhere in view award the free spins feature. The number of triggering symbols sets the starting height of the climbing wild stacks: three symbols start stacks three high, four start them four high, and five start them five high. -
What does the Quenching feature do?
At random, the blacksmith’s tools drop into the water barrel and steam rises, revealing one of three modifiers: Lock and Spin, Bonus Frenzy or Forge Your Weapon. Each one changes that spin in a different way. -
Can free spins retrigger in Tempered Steel?
Yes. Once the last climbing wild has been removed from the reels, a retrigger can be awarded at random. The five kilns relight, the wild stacks increase in length by one, and the feature continues. -
Can you buy the bonus on Tempered Steel?
Yes, where territory rules permit. Buy A Bonus costs 100x your base stake and awards the free spins feature, with an entry spin that can produce three, four or five bonus symbols. -
What is the maximum win on Tempered Steel?
The maximum win is 10,028x your stake. -
What does the wild substitute for in Tempered Steel?
The wild, shown as the blacksmith, substitutes for all symbols except the bonus symbol. It’s also the top payer on the reels, worth 100x for five of a kind. -
What is the hit frequency of Tempered Steel?
Roughly 24.4% of spins land a win, so about one spin in four pays something. That’s a fairly standard rate for a high volatility game, where the wins that do land tend to vary a lot in size.
