Beasts of Fire Slot Overview
Beasts of Fire is a buffalo-themed slot from Play'n GO with a 5-reel setup in a 3-4-4-4-3 layout. You start with 576 ways to win, but meteor symbols can expand the grid up to 12,348 ways. I quite liked the backstory here; apparently a supernatural meteor crashed into the Great Plains and gave a herd of buffaloes mystical powers. A bit mad, but it works.
My first impression was that it felt like a decent spin on the popular buffalo genre. Not just another copy. The snowy mountain backdrop is a bit muted, but the reels themselves are colourful enough with all the animal symbols landing in stacks. Plays fine on mobile too, which is handy for a quick session on the bus.
Symbols and Paytable
Lower paying symbols are your standard 10, J, Q, K and A card values, paying between 1.2x to 2.5x for five of a kind. Not thrilling, but they pop up often enough. Premium symbols include a raccoon, eagle, cougar, bear and the top-paying buffalo, which pays from just two on the reels. Five premiums land you between 3x and 6x your stake.
Wild is a buffalo-in-sunset image appearing on reels 2, 3 and 4 only. It subs for everything except scatters and meteors but holds no value on its own. Golden coin scatters also only show up on the middle three reels. Then there is the meteor symbol, exclusive to reel 3, which kicks off the respin feature. Symbols land stacked pretty regularly, which helps build combos.
Symbol Payouts
Bonus Features
Several features keep things moving here. The Charging Buffalo feature triggers randomly in the base game and floods the reels with extra buffalo symbols. You are not guaranteed a win from it, but your chances of a proper premium payout go up noticeably. Decent little surprise when it fires.
Land a meteor on reel 3 and you trigger Meteor Respins. All reels expand by one row, boosting your ways to win. New meteors mean more rows, up to three expansions total, maxing the grid at 12,348 ways. During respins the Charging Buffalo feature is more likely to trigger as well, so these two mechanics work together nicely.
Three golden scatters on reels 2, 3 and 4 launch the Burnin' Power Free Spins. You get 10 free spins, and the buffalo symbol is swapped for a Fire Beast worth double. You can still trigger Meteor Respins inside the bonus, and the expanded reels stay put between triggers. Retrigger with three more scatters for another 10 spins. Grid resets on retrigger though.
Bonus Buy Options
Land 3 scatter symbols on reels 2, 3 and 4 to trigger 10 free spins. All buffalo symbols are replaced by Fire Beast symbols worth twice as much. Reel expansions from Meteor Respins persist throughout the feature. Retrigger possible with 3 more scatters for 10 extra spins.
Land a Meteor symbol on reel 3 to trigger respins. Each Meteor expands all reels by +1 row, up to 3 times, increasing ways to win up to 12,348. Also boosts Charging Buffalo trigger chance.
Randomly triggered during the base game. Increases the number of high-paying buffalo symbols on the reels for the current spin.
RTP, Volatility and Max Win
RTP sits at 96.24% by default, which is fair enough for a Play'n GO release. Do check your operator though, because the RTP can be adjusted lower. Volatility is rated high at 7 out of 10, so expect some dry patches between wins. Max win is 25,000x your stake, which is proper big for this volatility bracket.
Here is the honest bit: the odds of actually hitting that 25,000x are roughly 1 in 100 million spins. So manage your expectations, mate. For a relaxed session the base game does enough to keep you ticking over, especially when the Charging Buffalo or Meteor Respins pop up, but the really big payouts are rare.
