Gold Digger Megaways

Gold Digger Megaways: Slot Overview

Gold Digger Megaways is a slot that surprises in a couple of ways. On the maker's side, Gold Digger turned out to be an unforeseen hit of sorts and one of iSoftBet's most played slots during its release year in 2020. For us, Gold Digger Megaways loaded without any mention of the ubiquitous Hold&Win label, which seems to be on everything iSoftBet does lately. Oh wait, there it is, clearly displayed once you're past the load screen. It makes sense since the original was all about tapping open the right rock to trigger a fairly sophisticated streak respin bonus round full of all sorts of modifiers. Fans will be pleased to know it has returned, this time boosted by the power of Big Time Gaming's Megaways engine and a new character.

Gus is back too. The moustachioed miner hangs out on the left side of the screen, lobbing modifiers at the grid, and offering general commentary or words of encouragement. Then there's his loyal canine Boomer, also assisting players from time to time. Mining games abound, as you are no doubt aware, and even though Gus looks like 50 other slot miners out there, he and his doggie pal are an amiable duo that add a bunch of personality to the game. Aside from them, the view of the mine competes with a larger game grid than before, plus a Gold Bet option, feature buy button, and a box of gold-bearing ore in the corner.

Gold Digger moves from its traditional 5x3, 20-payline game grid to one made up of 6 reels plus a top tracker reel to provide up to 117,649 ways to win. The lowest number of possible ways is 324, or when engaging the Gold Bet, 10,000 is the lowest number of Megaways. The Gold Bet adds 50% extra to the regular stake value, which ranges from 20 p/c to $/€20 per spin. A medium volatile game, RTP varies depending on how you play the game, from 95.97% in regular mode, 95.98% when using the Gold Bet, or 96.86% when buying the bonus round.

As for the paytable, eight regular pay symbols are used in the game, forming wins when matching tiles land left to right from the first reel. The four low pays are J-A card ranks worth 0.5 to 0.75x the bet for six, whereas high pays are lamps, picks, gold carts, and Gus worth 1.5 to 25x the bet for six of a kind. Appearing only on the top tracker reel, wilds substitute for any symbol except gold nuggets to form winning combinations.

Gold Digger Megaways: Slot Features

When the original Gold Digger slot dropped, the Hold&Win series was more or less a twinkle in iSoftBet's eye, rather than the mainstay it has developed into. As such, the bonus round was known as Gold Link Respins back then. Now it's called Gold Hold & Win Respins and is joined by Cascading Wins, Mining Modifiers, plus a bonus buy.

Cascading Wins

Every winning symbol is removed from the reels and replaced by cascading symbols falling from above or to the side in the case of the tracker reel. This may lead to new wins and the cascading stops when no more combinations are created.

Mining Modifiers

On any spin in the base game, one of these modifiers may randomly activate:

• Max Megaways – the reels are filled with symbols, so the max number of Megaways is produced.
• Mystery Blast – mystery TNT boxes land, which Gus blows up to all reveal the same identical symbol.
• Boomer Bonus Add – Gus lets Boomer loose to sniff out an extra gold nugget. This always triggers the Gold Hold & Win Respins bonus round.
• Boomer Lose To Win – Boomer is summoned to change a losing spin into a winning one or trigger a bonus.

Gold Hold & Win Respins

Landing 5 or more gold nuggets in the base game triggers the Gold Hold & Win Respins. This bonus game is played on a separate reel set where only gold nuggets or special reel booster symbols may land. Here, 3 respins are awarded, to begin with, and every time a new symbol lands, it resets the respin count. When respins run out, the accumulated prize is awarded. Gold nuggets have values of 1x to 20x the bet or jackpot values. These are Mini, Major, or Mega, worth 25x, 50x, or 100x the bet. Reel boosters behave like so:

• Blues Gems add one additional space to their respective reel until they reach the top of the mine.
• Green Gems increase all landed nuggets to the next possible value.
• Red Gems award an extra life that is used once when respins run to zero.
• Purple Gems increase the win multiplier by +1 each time. Multipliers are applied to total winnings when the bonus ends.

One more feature is Boomer's Boost which activates randomly and sees Boomer add extra nuggets or boosters to the grid.

Bonus Buy

Another potentially useful extra the original Gold Digger did not have is the chance to buy the bonus. The cost for doing so is 75x the bet and guarantees 5 gold nuggets will hit.

Gold Digger Megaways: Slot Verdict

Players who dug Gold Digger should be delighted with the re-release. iSoftBet hasn't just stretched the original game out to fit on an enlarged Megaways grid but have injected a few new bits as well. Gus' friendly presence was felt throughout Gold Digger, now the introduction of Boomer, his dog, ups the likeability stakes in what was already a highly personable game.

Boomer isn't just a cheerful chum to have around; his modifying abilities actually came in pretty handy during the test. He literally saved one bonus round by dropping an extra life onto the reels on the final respin, thereby resetting the count back to three. At its core, the respins bonus round remains the same, with a couple of alterations. One is the larger reel set than before; the other is you don't have to collect three gems to benefit from their modifying abilities. Just one is enough. Plus, you've got Boomer in there doing his thing and three modest jackpot nuggets as well. On the whole, it's not a gigantic change, but the updates felt like they streamlined the experience, making it at least as fun as it was before, if not more so.

Gold Digger Megaways ended up being a successful remake in practically all regards. It boasts an extra character, ups the charm, adds additional features, and offers an expanded bonus game. In short, iSoftBet has wedged in just about everything needed to tempt fans back underground for a repeat performance.