Xmas Coins Slot Review
Snowflakes drift across a deep purple-blue night sky over a neon-lit city street, where pink and violet spires rise behind two decorated Christmas trees and a script “Fortune” sign glows low on the right. It’s a lush, cartoonish take on a festive night, and it’s the wrapping on a game that hides most of its paytable behind a bonus round. FUGASO has built a 3×3 slot where the richest symbol does nothing until a feature switches it on, which is a strange and confident idea for three reels.
Xmas Coins runs on a 3×3 grid at high volatility, which is a lot of voltage for three reels. It belongs to the same Running Wins family as Striking Blitz: Running Wins 3×3 and sits alongside compact coin-chasers like 3X Atomic Coins in the studio’s catalogue. Small reels, a four-step jackpot ladder, and a bonus round hiding inside a bonus round.
Symbols and Pays
Everything here happens on three reels and three rows, so every win is a three-of-a-kind line. There’s no scatter-pays sprawl and no cascading to keep track of. What lands is what pays, which makes the game quick to read and quick to play.
The symbol set mixes classic slot furniture with the Christmas theme. Bells, BAR symbols, sevens and a full fruit bowl fill out the reels, with the fruits covering grapes, lemons, oranges, cherries, plums and watermelons. The named values below are multiples of the total bet shown on screen, not a line bet.
- Wild (777): x50 for three
- Bells: x30 for three
- BAR BAR: x20 for three
- Fruit symbols (grapes, lemons, oranges, cherries, plums, watermelons): shown as icons without quoted values
The wild is a red seven wearing a snowflake, and it substitutes for everything except the Bonus and Super Bonus symbols. That exclusion matters more than it sounds, because those two coins carry the whole bonus structure and can’t be faked by a helpful wild. Neither bonus can be triggered by proxy.
Because the pays are quoted against the total bet, there’s no mental arithmetic to do between line stakes and screen stakes. A x30 bell win on a 1.00 bet is 30.00, plainly. On a grid this small, that clarity counts for a lot.
The gap between the wild and everything else shapes the base game more than any single rule does. Below the bells, values fall away quickly: the BAR BAR pays 20x, less than half the wild’s 50x, and the fruits sit somewhere beneath that again. With only three positions per reel, each dropped tier is a real step down in what a filled line is worth.
The RUNNING WINS Game
The main event has a single entry condition: three Bonus Symbols of any kind. On a 3×3 grid that’s a clear, legible target, and the gold coin Bonus Symbol only ever lands on reels 1 or 3, so the middle reel never carries it. Here’s the round at a glance:
- Trigger: three Bonus Symbols of any kind
- Bonus Symbol landing positions: reels 1 or 3 only
- Bonus Symbol pays: during the RUNNING WINS Game only
- Escalation: the Super Bonus Symbol, reel 2 only
Once inside, the Bonus Symbol starts paying, and it only pays here. It’s inert in the base game and switches on for the duration of the round. That structure gives the base game a simple rhythm: land coins, get paid in the round they open.
The round then unfolds in a fixed order. Any further gold coins on the outer reels pay out at their round values while it runs, and if a Super Bonus Symbol shows up on reel 2, the Xmas Bonus Feature fires on top. Each layer only exists inside the one before it, so there’s no route to the deeper features that skips the trigger.
It also means the base game isn’t carrying much beyond those coins. The regular symbols pay their three-of-a-kind values and nothing more elaborate happens on a losing spin. What you see on the first spin is the whole of the base game, permanently.
The Xmas Bonus Feature
Inside the RUNNING WINS Game there’s a second layer. The Super Bonus Symbol is a blue coin that lands only on reel 2, and when it arrives during the round it triggers the Xmas Bonus Feature. A bonus inside the bonus, gated to a single reel.
The division of labour is tidy: gold coins on the outer reels build the round, the blue coin in the middle escalates it. Reel 2 is the only place the feature can start from, so the middle reel carries a different job to its neighbours. The outer two reels open the door; the middle one decides how far the round goes.
The trigger stacking is worth spelling out. A Super Bonus Symbol on reel 2 does nothing on its own in the base game, just as the gold coin does; it only counts once the RUNNING WINS Game is already running. That makes it the rarest and most conditional symbol on the grid, and the one every spin of the round is quietly watching for.
The Jackpot Ladder
Above the reels sits a four-step jackpot ladder. The values are shown in credits at a bet of 1.00, so they’re best read as multiples of your stake rather than fixed figures. Quoted at that bet:
- GRAND: 1,000x the bet
- MAJOR: 150x the bet
- MINOR: 50x the bet
- MINI: 25x the bet
The GRAND at 1,000x is the top jackpot on the ladder. The MINI at 25x is low enough to feel reachable, while the MAJOR at 150x sits in the interesting middle ground: bigger than a decent base game hit, smaller than a life-changing one.
It’s worth noticing how the ladder steps. From MINI to MINOR is a doubling, MINOR to MAJOR is a tripling, and MAJOR to GRAND is a near-sevenfold jump. The top rung is deliberately set apart from the other three, which is where the high volatility lives.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 6.4/10
Playing Xmas Coins is mostly a waiting game with a scoreboard. Almost nothing in the base game matters beyond the coins on reels 1 and 3, and the whole point of sitting down is the round they open, with a jackpot ladder glowing over a snow-covered city that never stops twinkling. That’s the one reason to choose it: a small, honest chase with a clear target at the top.
The best thing here is the layering. A symbol that only pays inside its own round, then a second feature locked behind the middle reel, gives three reels more depth than the format usually manages, and the 25x MINI keeps the ladder feeling reachable even when the GRAND is a distant dream.
The problem is everything between bonus rounds. Below the 50x wild the paytable falls off sharply, and the fruit symbols are loose change, so long stretches pass without a win worth counting. It’s a good fit for anyone who likes tight three-reel games with a jackpot to climb towards; anyone who wants sprawling features and constant action will find the tree fairly bare.
Xmas Coins FAQs
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What is the biggest jackpot in Xmas Coins?
The GRAND jackpot tops the ladder at 1,000x the bet, with the MAJOR at 150x, the MINOR at 50x and the MINI at 25x below it. -
Is Xmas Coins high volatility?
Yes, Xmas Coins is a high volatility game, so wins can be spaced out and the jackpot ladder does the heavy lifting. -
What is the grid size of Xmas Coins?
Xmas Coins uses a compact 3×3 grid with three reels and three rows, and every win is a three-of-a-kind combination. -
How do you trigger the RUNNING WINS Game in Xmas Coins?
Land three Bonus Symbols of any kind and the RUNNING WINS Game begins. The gold coin only appears on reels 1 or 3, and it pays out only while the round is running. -
What does the Super Bonus Symbol do in Xmas Coins?
The Super Bonus Symbol is a blue coin that lands only on reel 2. When it appears during the RUNNING WINS Game, it triggers the Xmas Bonus Feature. -
What does the wild substitute for in Xmas Coins?
The wild, a red seven with a snowflake, substitutes for all symbols except the Bonus and Super Bonus symbols, so it can’t help trigger either bonus. -
Does the Bonus Symbol pay in the base game in Xmas Coins?
No. The gold coin Bonus Symbol pays only during the RUNNING WINS Game, so in the base game it’s just a symbol working towards the three-coin trigger. -
When is Xmas Coins released?
Xmas Coins’ release date is 27 December 2023. -
Who makes Xmas Coins?
Xmas Coins is made by FUGASO, and it forms part of their Running Wins series of three-reel games. -
What theme is Xmas Coins built on?
Xmas Coins takes place on a snowy festive night in a neon-lit city street, complete with decorated Christmas trees and glowing pink and violet spires in the background.
