Thunder Clash

Thunder Clash Slot Review

A bearded stone face watches over a still northern lake, dusk mist swallowing the mountains behind it, a brazier burning on a carved pillar at the water’s edge. Thunder Clash asks a lot of that mood, because its reels alone won’t carry you: the base paytable tops out at 1.2x the stake for five premium symbols.

That’s a deliberate build. Betsoft has handed this game’s earning power to two features instead of its symbols, and that’s a defensible choice only if those features pull their weight – the question this game lives or dies on.

It’s a 5×3 grid with 243 ways to win, and the top of the prize ladder is a 2,000x Grand. Fans of the studio’s recent runs at the format, like Gold Nugget Rush 2 and Phoenix Inferno, will recognise the shape, as will anyone who has spun The Collector.

Ways, Symbols and Pays

Wins pay left to right on adjacent reels, with 243 ways to win across the 5×3 grid. The highest win per way pays, and coinciding wins on different ways combine. Payouts scale with the selected bet, so every figure below moves up or down with your stake.

Every value is a multiple of the total bet rather than a line stake. There are two symbol tiers:

• Hammer, Helmet, Horn and Shield (knot): 0.12x for two, 0.4x for three, 0.8x for four, 1.2x for five
• Pink, Red, Green and Blue diamonds: 0.04x for two, 0.2x for three, 0.48x for four, 0.8x for five

Two of the same premium symbol is enough for a small return, which is unusual in itself – most ways-to-win games start paying at three. It’s a paytable built for the features to do the paying, not the reels, and symbol luck matters far less here than feature luck.

Wild Symbols

The wild appears on reels 2, 3, 4 and 5 only, and substitutes for every symbol except these four:

• The orange coin
• MINI
• MINOR
• MAJOR

It won’t help you build a bonus trigger, then, but it covers everything the paytable above cares about. With four of the five reels able to carry it, the wild has plenty of room to work with.

Stacked Mystery Symbols

Each reel carries stacked mystery symbol positions. After the spin completes, they’re all replaced with one random symbol – and every mystery position on the grid fills with the same symbol for that spin.

The replacements come from the paying symbols only: the hammer, helmet, horn and shield, plus the four diamonds. A full mystery stack can’t turn into bonus coins or wilds, so the mechanic is purely a paytable amplifier.

When the mystery positions align across adjacent reels, they convert into the same paying symbol at once – four stacks of shields landing together is the kind of hit this exists for. Because all positions resolve to one symbol, a single spin can suddenly fill three or four reels with the same icon, which is the only route to the paytable’s bigger ways wins.

The Nudging Multiplier Wild Reel

Reel 3 is the special one. When a partial stack of wild reel lands there during the base game, it nudges up or down to create a full wild reel. The full reel then carries a random multiplier, applied to any winning combination it takes part in:

• 2x
• 3x
• 5x
• 8x
• 10x

Second Chance Respin

If the multiplier wild reel produces no win, it doesn’t leave empty-handed. The reel is held in place and a free respin runs on the remaining reels, played at the triggering bet. Any wins are then evaluated and paid.

It can only happen once per spin, so there’s no chain of respins – just one insurance policy on a dead centre reel. The full sequence runs like this:

1. A partial wild reel stack lands on reel 3
2. It nudges up or down into a full wild reel with a random multiplier
3. If no win forms, the reel holds and the other reels respin once, free
4. Wins, if any, are then evaluated and paid

One structural rule matters more than it looks: the Hold & Win Bonus cannot land at the same time as the nudging multiplier wild reel. The two features are mutually exclusive, so a spin is always doing one job or the other.

The Hold & Win Bonus

Land six or more scattered BONUS symbols anywhere on the reels and the Hold & Win Bonus begins. The triggering symbols lock in place and three respins are awarded. Every new BONUS symbol that appears locks in place and resets the respin count to three.

The round ends when the respins run out or all 15 positions are filled, at which point every locked prize pays out. Ordinary symbol pays don’t apply during the round – it’s coins only, and the coins carry the ladder:

• Orange coin values: 1x to 10x the bet
• MINI: 15x the bet, per locked MINI symbol
• MINOR: 30x the bet, per locked MINOR symbol
• MAJOR: 200x the bet, per locked MAJOR symbol
• GRAND: 2,000x the bet, for locking all 15 positions

The fixed prizes stack: each locked MINI pays its own 15x, each MINOR its own 30x. A screen with several jackpot coins gathered alongside value coins is where the round’s real potential sits.

The respin reset means one late symbol can extend a round that looked finished. A full grid isn’t required, either – the round pays whatever is locked when the respins expire, so a modest cluster of value coins still returns something.

The bonus is played at the bet of the triggering spin. And as above, it can’t coincide with the nudging multiplier wild reel – the two are kept apart entirely.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7/10

Thunder Clash is mostly a waiting game in a beautiful waiting room – that dusk shoreline does a lot of quiet work while the reels trickle out fractions of your stake. The reason to sit through it is the coin round, and it’s a good one: the stacking fixed prizes mean a screen of MINOR and MAJOR coins builds past anything the value coins can offer, and the respin reset keeps a round breathing after it looks finished.

Everything around that round is thinner. The base paytable is light, the mystery stacks can only amplify symbols that don’t pay much to begin with, and the exclusion rule means the multiplier reel never arrives to rescue a bonus-less session at the moment you’d want it. The Norse gods gave this game one good weapon and kept the rest.

It’s a sound pick for hold and win players who don’t mind quiet reels between bonuses; big-paytable hunters will find the thunder rarely strikes on the symbols. The coins are where the storm is.

Thunder Clash FAQs

• How many paylines does Thunder Clash have?

  Thunder Clash has 243 ways to win on every spin, paying left to right on adjacent reels.
• What is the grid size of Thunder Clash?

  Thunder Clash is a 5-reel, 3-row video slot.
• Who makes Thunder Clash?

  Thunder Clash is made by Betsoft.
• When is Thunder Clash released?

  Thunder Clash’s release date is 25 August 2023.
• How do you trigger the Hold & Win Bonus in Thunder Clash?

  Land six or more scattered BONUS symbols anywhere on the reels. The triggering symbols lock in place and three respins are awarded, with each new BONUS symbol resetting the count to three.
• What does the Nudging Multiplier Wild Reel do?

  A partial wild reel stack on reel 3 nudges up or down to create a full wild reel carrying a random multiplier of 2x, 3x, 5x, 8x or 10x, applied to any winning combination. If it produces no win, the reel is held and a free respin plays on the remaining reels, once per spin.
• Can the Hold & Win Bonus and the Nudging Multiplier Wild Reel happen on the same spin?

  No. The two features are mutually exclusive – a spin can produce the nudging multiplier wild reel or the Hold & Win Bonus, never both at once.
• What do the Stacked Mystery Symbols do in Thunder Clash?

  Each reel carries stacked mystery symbol positions that are all replaced with one random paying symbol after the spin completes. Every mystery position on the grid fills with the same symbol for that spin, and the replacements come from the paying symbols only – never bonus coins or wilds.