Black River Gold Slot – Free Demo

A row per avalanche

Every time an avalanche clears a win in Black River Gold, the grid gains a row. Black River Gold is a slot from ELK Studios, launched back in May 2020, and this one is looking a bit more intriguing than the grid alone implies.

It's a hectic slot. I gave it 310 spins at 6.00 a go. Its configuration is 6 reels, 4 rows that broaden to 8, and 4,096 ways that climb to 262,144. That widening only comes from wins, so a spin that pays nothing leaves the grid at the four rows it dropped in on. More on that later.

Revolvers, compasses and big blocks

There are low, mid and high symbols. They land in oversized blocks anywhere from 2x2 up to 4x4, wilds included. Wins run left to right, and a symbol needs to match across at least three adjacent reels to pay. That's where the avalanche comes to use: winning symbols are cleared and new ones fall in. Each avalanche appends one row to the grid, carrying it from four rows towards eight and the ways from 4,096 towards 262,144. ELK built Tahiti Gold and Ecuador Gold on the same expanding-grid avalanche idea.

A large symbol left with vacant space beneath it transforms into a Revolver and collects the symbols below it until it reaches even ground. A Revolver that fills up becomes a wild, and the Wild Compass matches symbols across itself and turns those matches wild. When it reaches the bottom row it becomes a wild itself. One managed it on spin 158, which paid 38.40, or 6.4 times the stake. There is no full-screen arithmetic to perform here. Of my 310 spins, 52 paid anything at all, and 26 of those paid less than the stake.

The max win is 5,000 times the stake.

Free Drops and the safety level

Landing three, four, five or six bonus symbols opens the bonus game, which awards 10, 15, 20 or 25 Free Drops, and wilds landing in the bonus are saved and stay sticky until used. The bonus symbols are scatters, so the three do not have to arrive on adjacent reels. A win lifts the safety level for the remainder of the round. So the broadened grid is retained rather than reset, and three or more bonus symbols during the round retrigger it.

310 spins at six a go

Hectic games like this may not appeal to everyone, especially those who enjoy plain three-reelers. The grid did run out to the full eight rows and 262,144 ways, but only on the longest avalanche chains. And yes, this game would be a grind if not for the 5,000x ceiling.

The main game grows a bit repetitive after a while. My longest stretch without a win was 20 spins, ending on spin 146. The bonus game didn't appear once in 310 spins.

Watching the reels, there appears to be a whole lot of large symbols drifting by. One did break, on spin 120, a 3x3 block coming apart across two avalanches for 44.40. Yet for some reason they never seem to break up into anything...argh...

Our Minty Verdict: Three hundred and ten spins gave back 26.2% of what I staked and not one Free Drop, so what I saw of Black River Gold was all base game — a grid widening a row at a time and then dropping back to four. The avalanche engine is a clever piece of design; on my run it reached its full eight rows only on the longest chains.

Where the 1,860 went

In my own 310 spins the balance never once rose above the 5,000 it began with. The low point was 3,626.60, which is also where it finished. 1,860 credits staked came back as 486.60, a return of 26.2%, and the best spin of the lot was a Revolver filling up for 9 times the stake.