Build the Bank Slot – Free Demo

A hard hat, a hammer and 3,125 ways to pair them

The studio's slot, Build the Bank, does deliver on its theme, and it is a 5-reel, 5-row, 3,125-way slot. The bet multiplier that scales the pays is the number of credits played divided by 0.25, so 0.50 credits a spin runs at a multiplier of 2. It profits from Any Adjacent Pays in the main game, with no bonus buy choice. The feature has to arrive out of the base game, since that is the only place a Scatter lands.

When you first launch the game, you'll observe a construction site, and it will also supply the reels for your session; symbols on the reels comprise the card ranks A, K, Q and J alongside four tools of the trade - a hammer, gold bars, a shovel and a hard hat. A Scatter can land as well, and it may carry a Credit Award, a Multiplier Symbol, a Special Award or a Respin Upgrade. The latter is the most lucrative. It pays 562.50 for a full gameboard. That number is printed in credits at whatever bet multiplier was live when the paytable frame was taken, so it is not a multiple of the stake. Combinations can land anywhere on the reels. 3 or more matching symbols on adjacent reels on a way will pay, with only the largest win paid per way. Credit Awards never turn up here; they belong to the feature alone.

Three rounds on a seven-row board

Build the Bank is all about the Mega Pile Feature. It is the only bonus the game has, and there are no free spins in it. It comes into play when 3 or more Scatters land entirely within the gameboard, and once triggered, the game will carry you to a separate board with a fresh reel layout where you'll see 5 reels by 7 rows. Every round populates that board with Credit Awards, Multiplier Symbols, Special Awards or Passive Symbols. The feature always lasts 3 rounds, though it instead stays active until 3 successive rounds award only Passive Symbols when triggered with a Respin Upgrade. It cannot be retriggered either way.

Each symbol in the feature now has its own behavior:

• Credit Award – Holds a cash value between 0.06 and 30.00.
• Multiplier Symbol – Once the rounds are finished, multiplies the Credit Awards on its row, its column, or all adjacent ones.
• Special Award – In that same round, populates extra Credit Awards across a row, a column or all adjacent positions.
• Passive Symbol – Does not hold a value, and it does not pay.

At the end of each round, Credit Awards and Multiplier Symbols fall to the lowest empty row in their column. The multipliers on offer are 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x and 10x. They remain to the end of the feature. Credit Awards are multiplied by the bet multiplier of the spin that triggered the feature. Fill the bottom three rows fully with Credit Awards or Multiplier Symbols and the Mini Bank Prize is awarded, the bottom four the Midi, the bottom five the Max. The Bank Prize ladder - Mini, Midi and Max - sits beside the feature board, and every rung on it rises with the bet multiplier. At their base values these are 37.50, 375.00 and 3,750.00, each of them only once per feature. A prize resets to its base value after it is paid, and the rules add that the Bank Prizes are increased periodically.

The Minty Summary: One Mega Pile Feature in 325 spins, landing on spin 139 and paying 34 times the stake, which was 13% of everything the run gave back. The other 324 spins were base game, and 325.00 staked closed at 256.50.

One Mega Pile in 325 spins

The unconventional bonus feature makes for quite a distinctive experience. Whatever the feature pays is added to what the triggering spin won on its own. It makes Build the Bank one of the more atypical slots I've encountered in a while, and it is also a volatile slot that is all about the Mega Pile Feature where the Bank Prizes are won. My balance went from 100,000.00 to 99,931.50 over the run. The base game does get a bit dull. Its longest stretch with nothing at all ran 18 spins and ended on spin 231. The feature can be hard to trigger - across 325 spins at 1.00 I saw it once, on spin 139. It did not come back in the 186 spins that followed. It paid 34 times the stake, which was my best win of the session and 13% of everything I won. The next four best spins paid 26.00, 23.00, 22.00 and 20.00, on spins 76, 316, 246 and 213. 82 spins paid at all, 42 of those less than the stake. The balance peaked at 100,000.10 on spin 4 and reached its lowest point at 99,916.70. 325.00 wagered came back as 256.50, a return of 78.9%.