Aztec Treasure Hunt

Aztec Treasure Hunt: Slot Overview

It might shock some people to know that when Pragmatic Play (and pals) set out to make a Money symbol collection game, the studio doesn't always fall back on fish and fishermen to front the action. A variety of situations have and do arise for gamblers to get a collection hit without going anywhere near virtual water. A case in point is the slot you've got before your very eyes at the moment. Bearing the title Aztec Treasure Hunt, participants in this money search are treated to a very different biome to the sea, a specific culture, and Money symbol acquisition available at all times, as well as a progressive element changing up the distribution of rewards in free spins.

As the name makes crystal clear, for this slot, we find ourselves in a green, fecund patch of ground under the dominion of the mighty Aztec Empire. Northern Mexico is the present-day name for this territory, which has been colourfully rendered by Pragmatic Play's pixel people. Aztec slots are common, no arguments there, and Aztec Treasure Hunt doesn't do much visually to stick out from the bulk of its brothers and sisters. It is quite pretty if lacking a vibrantly individual soul, though, apart from a bumping panpipe audio number in the bonus round.

Neatly framed in stonework, Aztec Treasure Hunt's game grid is a 5-reel matrix, each reel dropping 4 symbols on each row, where 20 paylines are built in for triggering regular symbol wins. While no ante bet ships with Aztec Treasure Hunt, it does have a wide array of stake choices starting at 20 c per spin and going as high as $/€240. Most punters should be all right with the max RTP as well, coming in at 96.03%, though the highly volatile math model might not be everyone's first choice.

Aztec Treasure Hunt's regular paying symbols consist of 10-A royals, a sword, an axe, an Aztec lady, an Aztec man, and a golden statue-like object. The rewards for hitting 5 matching card ranks in a line are 2-6 times the bet or 10 to 50 times the bet for 5 of the high pays. Wilds appear on every reel, substituting for regular pay symbols. Wilds have the same value as the top golden symbol and are also used to collect Money symbols.

Aztec Treasure Hunt: Slot Features

Aztec Treasure Hunt is a game of collecting Money symbol values, which may be multiplied, both in the base game and in free spins, where a progressive feature is added.

Money Collection Feature

Money symbols appear on all five reels, landing with values of 0.5x to 50x the bet. Whenever Money symbols land at the same time as wild symbols, each wild symbol on the grid will collect the total value of all Money symbols in view. Wild symbols may also have a random multiplier of x2 to x50. For each wild, the multiplier applies to the total value awarded.

Free Spins

Hitting 5 or more Money symbols triggers 9 free spins. Before the round begins, the value of all triggering Money symbols is added together, and the total amount becomes the starting value for the progressive feature. In free spins, the values of landed Money symbols are collected. Each wild that lands awards the currently collected value multiplied by the multiplier it possesses, if any. Landing 5 or more Money symbols in the round triggers a further +3 free spins.

Buy Free Spins

It is possible to buy access to the free spins round by buying it for 100 times the bet. When buying the feature, 5 or more Money symbols can randomly hit on the triggering spin. The RTP for the feature buy is 96.04%.

Aztec Treasure Hunt: Slot Verdict

Aztec Treasure Hunt follows a trail laid down not just by a load of previously released Central/South American themed slots but by at least a couple of games in Pragmatic Play's bulging portfolio. These are Treasure Wild and the pointy-horned slot Black Bull. Those two games are closer to each other than they are to Aztec Treasure Hunt, admittedly, let's add. While all three knuckle down on collecting Money symbol values with the help of wild symbol collectors, Aztec Treasure Hunt steps things up a notch.

It does this by randomly bestowing multipliers onto its wild symbols, something the other two mentioned slots did not. A big move, but landing Money symbols at the same time as wilds with eye-popping multipliers isn't likely to drop with the frequency of rain in a tropical monsoon storm. Even doing so in free spins can be a tall order. There, you've possibly got the privilege of staring at a collected prize pot doing nothing as the bonus round spins out. However, gambling's gambling, random number generation and all that, and hitting a wild symbol holding a chonky multiplier to go with a bunch of Money symbols or an attractive free spins prize pot isn't totally out of the realm of possibility, either.

When compared to the two previously identified slots on Aztec Treasure Hunt's family tree, the inclusion of multipliers hasn't made an enormous impact on the top prize, which is capped at 5,000x, but it has dropped the chance of hitting the max win from 1 in 1,140,698 down to 1 in 771,821, which is a positive shift. In general, all things considered, Aztec Treasure Hunt takes a positive step beyond the related slots that it came before, though it's not a big-time attention grabber.