Diamond Miner DuoMax

Diamond Miner DuoMax: Slot Overview

Diamond Miner DuoMax is, you guessed it, a mining-themed online slot, this time from Yggdrasil Gaming partner Reflex Gaming. It is, also given away by the title, a DuoMax slot, which means not one but two win multipliers that rise following wins. Hey, if more is better, then two multipliers on a pay-both-ways gaming grid should be quite a thought. So, if claustrophobia isn't an issue, let's tap our way underground to see how Diamond Miner DuoMax fares.

If you're familiar with Reflex Gaming's work, then you probably won't be expecting cutting-edge visuals when loading up Diamond Miner DuoMax. That's good because, no, the game doesn't look amazing. Dated is what arose from the mental list of words to describe Diamond Miner DuoMax's appearance. Reflex Gaming slots cater for a specific taste, so if you're disagreeing with the negative feedback, that is excellent, more power to you, please enjoy. However, those outside the game's scope might need to rest their eyes for a bit before rushing on to find the next slot.

Deep down there, Diamond Miner DuoMax supplies a 5x3 game grid with 243 ways to win. However, it pays both right to left from the rightmost side and left to right from the leftmost side. Each side has an attached multiplier, too, upping the ante. Diamond Miner DuoMax is a highly volatile slot, with three RTP models available, so if you're holding out for the highest return value, that would be the 96% one. When ready to rock, bets of 20 c to $/€100 are up for selection. The Golden Bet can be activated at an added cost of 0.5x the stake to reduce the number of dropdowns needed to trigger a Big Blast Bonus from 4 to 3.

The low pays are J, Q, K, A, a gem cart, and a gem barrel, paying 0.3 to 0.5 times the bet for 5 OAK, then a lantern, silver bars, and 4 individual gems as the high pays. Hitting 5 matching high pays awards 0.6 to 4 times the bet. Five-of-a-kind wins pay once with the sum of the two multipliers. When wilds appear, they're able to replace any regular paying symbol.

Diamond Miner DuoMax: Slot Features

Diamond Miner DuoMax lists as its features a TNT bonus, dropdown wins, duo multipliers, Big Blast Bonuses, free spins, a free spins gamble and bonus buy options.

TNT Bonus

At random after a losing spin, the TNT bonus may trigger. TNT stops under a reel, blows up a column of symbols (removing at least 2 symbols), and new symbols drop in to guarantee a win or free spins trigger. This can also occur on a cascade sequence where it appears to have ended.

Dropdown Feature

Having a Dropdown feature means winning symbols are removed from the reels, leaving room for other symbols to drop down to replace them. If a new win appears after the dropdown, the mechanic triggers again. A wild symbol is placed in the empty spaces before other symbols dropdown.

Multipliers

Diamond Miner DuoMax has two sets of multipliers. The one on the left applies to left-to-right wins, and the multiplier on the right applies to right-to-left wins. Both ways wins are multiplied by the sum of both multipliers. Each Dropdown win increases the respective multiplier, depending on direction. The multipliers reset for each base game spin.

Big Blast Bonus

Above the reels is a meter that counts the winning dropdowns. In the base game, every 4 consecutive dropdowns award a Big Blast Bonus. When triggered, players randomly get one of these:

• Multiplier Boost - both multipliers are boosted by +x10, and this will be applied to the next dropdown if there is a win.
• Double Wild - 2 empty positions are filled with wild symbols instead of 1.
• Wild Stack - 6 wilds are added to one reel at random. Three are immediately visible, 3 are stacked above, so if there is a win they drop downwards.
• Extra Life - a non-winning dropdown in the current round will clear the grid except for wilds or scatter symbols, and a new set of symbols drops in for another chance to win.

Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols awards 7, 9, or 11 free spins, respectively. Players are able to gamble for more free spins when the bonus feature triggers unless they already have 16 free spins. Unsuccessful gambles send you back to the base game empty-handed. In free spins, the multipliers do not reset until the round is complete. In the round, 3 consecutive dropdowns trigger the Big Blast Bonus. Free spins cannot be retriggered.

Buy Free Spins

Players are able to buy entrance to free spins, and there are two options. For 100x the bet, 3, 4, or 5 scatters will trigger the feature, or for 300x the bet, you can buy 16 free spins.

Diamond Miner DuoMax: Slot Verdict

Reflex gaming really has a talent for making games look 10 to 15 years older than they actually are. It's an interesting situation. The studio keeps on making slots which look a decade behind the curve, but someone must be playing them, right? But who? Not gamblers who enjoy contemporary, cutting-edge slots that delight the senses, surely, though the music is upbeat. Diamond Miner DuoMax is an absolute prime example of the sort of eye-aching anachronisms the studio insists on designing.

Suffice it to say fans of Reflex Gaming's style should be as tickled by Diamond Miner DuoMax as non-fans will be repulsed. There is something to admire about a studio which has picked a hill it refuses to give up rather than move with the times. Although, this is a slot that functions with the help of DuoMax, which is, at the time of writing, a modern gaming mechanic. It isn't as catchy as its distant cousin, the regular 1 rising multiplier of DoubleMax, though. Maybe because while the multipliers here do rise following wins, they don't always double up. Therefore, play gets mired in a progressive multiplier quicksand at certain levels rather than just flying with the doubling-up action. Diamond Miner DuoMax can still hit 5,000x the bet, but it has less of a wild spirit to it than DoubleMax, in some ways.

And so, Diamond Miner DuoMax is a Reflex Gaming slot that is slung straight to the fanbase without much thought to bringing non-believers on board. At least, this is the impression it gave off being another clunky, dated-looking, steaming pile of no thanks.