Treasures of Kilauea Slot – Free Demo

Volcano Symbols Leave Lava Behind

PearFiction Studios has been making volcano-sized promises with Treasures of Kilauea. The Jackpot Wheel carries five prizes, named Micro, Mini, Minor, Major and Mega. It is a 2022 launch constructed around a Jackpot Wheel and a duo of counters that tick down in the base game. Six free spins rounds turned up across the 390 spins I played. There are still hopes attached to a game that dangles a 5,000x max win over your head, despite the recognizable form of the thing.

Treasures of Kilauea is a 40 payline slot with angular reels that are 4, 5, 5, 5, 4 symbols tall from left to right. The outer reels are the short ones, so the grid narrows at both ends. A top reel spins horizontally above them, lines pay left to right on neighbouring reels, and only the highest win per line counts. A win has to begin on the leftmost reel, so a run of matching symbols that starts on reel two pays nothing. The game is themed on the Hawaiian volcano of the same name. The high symbols are purple, red, blue, green and orange masks, with A, K, Q, J and 10 underneath them. Every Volcano symbol leaves a lava frame behind, and the frames are what the features are made of. The Volcano is itself one of the symbols a wild will not substitute for. The Treasures of Kilauea online slot contains 2 base game features with wilds, doubled wilds and a five-tier Jackpot Wheel. The Wild x2 is a base game symbol only. But it all comes down to the free spins, which I will examine further below.

Masks, the Idol and What a Wild Will Not Cover

Symbols on the reels feature the Volcano, the Idol and the scatter. The scatter shows up both in the base game and inside the free spins. The Volcano leaves a lava frame wherever it lands, and the Idol only counts on the top reel. It has to be the centre position of that reel, not just anywhere along it. The wild symbol substitutes for all symbols except the Idol, the Volcano and the Scatter, while a Wild x2 doubles the win it substitutes into.

A Pair of Counters Under the Base Game

Treasures of Kilauea is a hectic slot. Of my 390 spins, 120 paid something, which is 31%. It has 2 features that run off counters in the main game, and the left counter runs from 10 down to 0 for the Lava Spin. It arrives on a schedule rather than at random. The right counter runs from 5 lava spins down to 0 for the Eruption Spin. Five lava spins at one every ten spins works out to an Eruption Spin every 50 base spins. Both reset when the feature finishes:

Lava Spin - The lava frames collected on the lower reels turn those symbol positions wild every 10 spins. When the left counter reads 0 the spin plays out with a row of lava wilds filled in across the lower reels, the jackpot ladder down the left of the screen and a banner over the top reel reminding you that an Idol there triggers the Jackpot Wheel.

Eruption Spin - Every 5 lava spins the lava frames turn positions wild on all reels, additional wilds are awarded at random, and a wild landing on a wild becomes a Wild x2. Wilds reach the whole grid on that spin rather than the lower reels alone.

Jackpot Wheel - 1 of 5 jackpots is awarded by an Idol symbol in the centre of the top reel. They are Mega 5,000x, Major 500x, Minor 100x, Mini 30x and Micro 18x.

Trading Free Spins Against Wilds

3, 4 or 5 Scatter symbols landing on the reels trigger the free spins. This is where the fun begins.

Players are presented with three choices and are invited to select one, and because the decision trades spins against wilds, the pick is anything but decorative. The wilds land on the lower reels for the duration of the round. In detail, the prizes are:

3 Scatters - With 5 wilds, 15 free spins; with 7 wilds, 10; with 10 wilds, 5. Both the 15 and the 5 came up in my session.

4 Scatters - With 5 wilds, 30 free spins; with 7 wilds, 20; with 10 wilds, 10. The 20 came up twice, on spins 124 and 311.

5 Scatters - With 5 wilds, 45 free spins; with 7 wilds, 30; with 10 wilds, 15.

The selected wilds appear at random on the board, and retriggers award the same count you selected, at the present number of wilds. Not one of my six rounds retriggered. For the duration, the bet and lines are fixed to the triggering spin.

Minty’s Closing Thought: A 96.32% RTP is the figure on the tin, and my 390 spins gave back 79.1% of what went through them, with 42% of the winnings arriving in six free spins rounds that never once retriggered.

390 Spins on the Kilauea Reels

I can see why PearFiction has hung its Jackpot Wheel where you cannot miss it, and what everyone is apt to ask themselves instead is this - does it have any potential? The five tiers sit in a ladder down the left of the screen while you play, Mega at the top and Micro at the foot. Well, in the base game there is little to no potential outside the counters, so it all comes down to the free spins.

The advantage is that the max win is 5,000 times the stake, perched at the top of the wheel as the Mega jackpot, but the drawback is that you need the Idol to land in the centre of the top reel to get anywhere near it.

Treasures of Kilauea is an amusing slot, there is no doubt about that. It took me from a starting balance of 100,000.00 down to 99,837.20. But my 390 spins at a 2.00 stake returned 617.20 of 780.00 wagered, a 79.1% return, with six free spins rounds that paid 258.00 between them - 42% of everything won - and a best spin of 34 times the stake. That was spin 142, a 5 free spin round worth 68.00 that lifted the balance to its peak of 100,027.00. The counters can hand you a wild-heavy Eruption Spin on the way if lucky, letting players collect something while they wait. Of the 120 spins that paid, 66 handed back less than the stake. It's a medium volatility game. The longest I went without a win was 14 spins, ending on spin 188. So don't expect insane things to happen, other than a lava frame silently turning a position wild that is.