Winstar Slot Review
Against a nebula and a candy-coloured comet, fifteen reels positions glow like a wall of stars, and every one of them matters on every spin. Winstar’s argument is that a slot needs nothing more than that: no free spins, no pick’em round, no trail, just three rules printed on the glass and a 5,000x prize for filling the screen. It’s a bet most studios wouldn’t take, and it’s what makes this one worth a look.
Blueprint Gaming built this one around stars and little else. It runs on a 5×3 grid at 96.00% RTP, with a maximum win of 250,000x the total bet, a ceiling far above most of the studio’s fruit-machine output like Fishin’ Frenzy and Ted. Few moving parts carry that number: every symbol pays adjacent, one mystery symbol reveals at random, and a full grid of the right star pays 5,000x.
How Winstar Pays
Three rules run the entire game, and none of them is a bonus round:
- All wins pay adjacent, rather than on fixed winlines running left to right
- All starburst symbols in view reveal a symbol at random, converting together
- A full grid of one symbol pays 5,000x, shown for the white star and the red star
Wins Pay Adjacent
The first rule reshapes everything else. Matching symbols don’t need to sit on a fixed winline, they pay when they land next to one another anywhere on the grid. Three stars clustered in a corner count. The same three symbols scattered across separate reels don’t.
That single change makes the 5×3 grid feel bigger than its fifteen positions, because a winning cluster can form in far more shapes than a winline allows. A run of J symbols can start on the middle reel, drop down a row, and keep going. A winline can’t do that.
It also keeps every spin live until the last position settles. On a winline game, the fifth reel arriving blank ends the suspense. Here, a symbol landing in a corner can connect two clusters that were worth nothing on their own, so nothing on the board is dead until the spin stops.
The shape of a win matters as much as its size. A compact two-by-two block of stars in the middle of the grid is one cluster and one pay. The same four symbols stretched into a line that hooks around a royal can pick up extra symbols along the way and grow into something much larger by the time the win is counted.
Symbol Values
All values below are multiples of the total bet:
- White Star (sunburst): three pays 50x, four 150x, and five 250x
- Red Star: 30x, 100x and 200x for three, four and five
- Star (blue/green/coloured): a trio is worth 20x, rising to 50x and then 150x
- A / K: the three-symbol pay is 10x, climbing to 20x and 100x
- Q / J / 10: 5x at the bottom, then 10x, then 50x at the top
The ladder drops fast. The white sunburst star pays five times what the royals do at the top of the scale, and the card symbols fill the lower half of the grid far more often than the premium stars do. Wins are multiplied by the line bet at the staked amount, so these figures hold at any stake.
Note the shape of the ladder, too. Every symbol pays on three-of-a-kind, which matters more than usual under adjacent pays, because small clusters form constantly. The five-of-a-kind values are where the spread opens up: the white star’s 250x top pay is the single best five-symbol result on the grid short of a full board.
The two royal tiers are close enough to feel like one band. A, K, Q, J and 10 all sit within touching distance of each other, so most small wins look and pay alike regardless of which card landed. The real steps are between the royals and the coloured stars, and again between the coloured stars and the two premiums at the top.
The Starburst Symbol and the Full Grid
Random Symbol Reveal
The gold and rainbow starburst symbol is the game’s one true special. It never pays on its own. Instead, all starburst symbols in view transform together, each revealing the same randomly chosen paying symbol.
The mechanic is blunt but effective. Because every instance reveals the same symbol, a screen with several starbursts in view converts them all at once, and the adjacent-pays rule decides what that cluster is worth. Reveal the white star with a handful of starbursts sitting in a chain, and the win builds itself.
Where the starbursts land decides how much the reveal is worth. Instances bunched into a corner produce one modest cluster. Instances strung across the middle rows can bridge into the paying symbols already on the board, connecting shapes that would never have formed from the raw spin alone.
The reveal also flattens the symbol hierarchy for a moment. On a raw spin, a royal is a royal and pays like one. When starbursts convert, the reveal can turn a forgettable board of near-misses into a grid of white stars, which is the whole distance between the bottom of the ladder and the top of it.
Full Grid Pays x5000
The third rule is the big one. Fill every one of the fifteen positions with the same symbol and the full grid pays 5,000x the total bet. The award is shown for the white star and the red star specifically. Everything has to match, all fifteen positions, one symbol.
How that award combines with any adjacent win those fifteen matching symbols have formed isn’t stated on the game’s information screens, so the 5,000x stands on its own as printed.
The starburst reveal is the natural bridge to it. A grid heavy with starburst symbols all revealing the white star is the one route where fifteen matching positions arrive in a single stroke rather than fifteen separate lucky landings.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7/10
Playing Winstar is a lot of waiting for a wall of stars, and that’s honestly its appeal. One mechanic, the starburst reveal, does everything, and the dream it sells is a screen that flips into fifteen matching symbols while you watch. Nobody comes here for variety; they come for that moment.
The full grid award is the best thing about it, because the reveal gives the 5,000x a real route instead of fifteen separate miracles. The worst thing is everything around that moment: the royals pay badly, the premium stars rarely show, and long stretches feel like filler between reveals.
It’s for players who’d rather chase one big screen than count features, and it isn’t for anyone who wants a bonus round to break up the spin. For its type, though, this sky is worth a look, and it pays to keep an eye on those starbursts.
Winstar FAQs
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What is the RTP of Winstar?
The RTP is 96.00%, based on long-term payback and gameplay. -
What is the grid size of Winstar?
Winstar runs on a 5×3 grid with fifteen positions, and all wins pay adjacent rather than on fixed winlines. -
What is the maximum win on Winstar?
The maximum win from a single game is 250,000x the total bet. -
Who makes Winstar?
Winstar is made by Blueprint Gaming. -
When is Winstar released?
Winstar’s release date is 1 October 2016. -
How does the starburst symbol work in Winstar?
The gold and rainbow starburst symbol doesn’t pay on its own. All starburst symbols in view reveal the same randomly chosen paying symbol, so a screen with several of them converts in one stroke. -
Which symbols can trigger the full grid award in Winstar?
The 5,000x full grid award is shown for the white star and the red star. Those are the two symbols worth watching when the starburst reveal lands, since fifteen of either is the biggest single result the reels can produce. -
Do wins in Winstar have to land on a winline from left to right?
No. All wins pay adjacent, so matching symbols pay when they sit next to one another anywhere on the grid, in any shape.
