Treasures of Kilauea

Treasures of Kilauea: Slot Overview

Volcanic eruptions are one of the most awe-inspiring events in the natural world. They give us a glimpse of the titanic forces bubbling away beneath our feet, capable of great acts of destruction but also of creation. Take the Hawaiian islands, for instance, which were formed by volcanic activity that began over 70 million years ago. At the moment, there are 6 active volcanoes in Hawaii, one of them being Kilauea, the star of Treasures of Kilauea, an online slot from Microgaming associate PearFiction Studios.

In Treasures of Kilauea, PearFiction has brought their volcano to life, where it sits on the side of the screen, blinking, chuckling, snoring, bubbling, or coughing, and at regular intervals launching wild symbols onto the game grid. Volcanoes might be pretty scary for some people, so PearFiction has made theirs as amusing as possible to take any potential edge off. The game is not as ominous as Play'n GO's Gold Volcano, for example, since PearFiction has used a light, pacey, brightly coloured approach instead.

When making a volcano-themed slot, there's a growing tradition of tinkering with the reel setup to form vaguely volcanic shapes. Gold Volcano had extra rows, Push Gaming's Mount Magmas had it in the bonus game, and now Treasures of Kilauea, to a lesser degree. In Treasures of Kilauea, the grid comprises 5 reels holding four symbols each, plus a 3-symbol horizontal reel on top, giving the game a mini-Megaways look. Bubbling away in the back, the math model is a highly volatile one with four RTP settings, maxing out at 96.35%, before going as low as 86.79%. It can be played on any device, where players may select bets of 10 p/c to $/€50 per spin.

While it looks mini-Megaways-ish, Treasures of Kilauea possesses a fraction of the number of winning ways. Making their way across the grid are 40 fixed paylines, blasting out coins when three or more identical symbols land from the leftmost side. Symbol values, well, they're not great, starting with the 0.5-0.6x the bet wins awarded when landing five of the 10-A low symbols. Highs aren't much better, where landing five of the premium mask symbols is worth a payout of 0.9-1.2x the bet. There are wilds and multipliers, but line wins can only do so much in Treasures of Kilauea.

Treasures of Kilauea: Slot Features

To reflect the fact Kilauea is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, Treasures of Kilauea uses a system whereby frames are collected and filled with wilds every ten spins. In addition, every 50 spins, the volcano adds even more wilds to the reels. On top of these extras are a couple of less regular features – free spins with added wilds and five jackpots.

Lava Spins and Eruption Spins

When Volcano Symbols land, they place a frame around the position they were in. Then, on the 10th spin, the symbols in each framed position are transformed into wild symbols. After any win evaluation, these Lava Frames are cleared. Eruption Spins occur every 50 spins. During an Eruption Spin, the Lava Frames turn symbols wild as normal, plus additional wilds are randomly awarded. If a wild lands on another wild, it becomes an x2 wild. Two counters above the reels keep track of how many spins are left before the next Lava Spin or Eruption Spin occurs. Lava Frames and spin counters are saved at each bet level.

Free Spins

Free Spins symbols appear in the base and bonus game. Landing at least three of them in the base game triggers the free spins feature where players pick one of these choices:

• Three scatters – 15 free spins with 5 wilds, 10 free spins with 7 wilds, or 5 free spins with 10 wilds.
• Four scatters – 30 free spins with 5 wilds, 20 free spins with 7 wilds, or 10 free spins with 10 wilds.
• Five scatters – 45 free spins with 5 wilds, 30 free spins with 7 wilds, or 15 free spins with 10 wilds.

During free spins, wilds are added to random positions on the game board. Retriggers award the corresponding number of free spins initially chosen.

Jackpots

The centre position of the top reel has a golden frame around it. Landing an Idol symbol in the frame triggers the Jackpot Wheel, which spins to award 1 of 5 jackpots. These are the Micro, Mini, Minor, Major, and Mega, worth 18x, 30x, 100x, 500x, and 5,000x the bet, respectively.

Treasures of Kilauea: Slot Verdict

For the right player, it's not hard to visualise Treasures of Kilauea being just the right slot. It's a game full of features and slot devices that are common, but PearFiction has packaged them in a way that manages to be quite fun. The ten-spin wild cycle system reappears now and then, from games as diverse as IGT's Scarab to Kalamba Game's Caribbean Anne (amongst others). In Treasures of Kilauea, it's back, and has been bolstered by a new 50 spin mechanic as well. When combined, the two accumulation features did a remarkable job of keeping the balance more or less hovering around baseline most of the time. Of course, other results may be wildly different to how they turned out for us during the review.

The way PearFiction appears to have achieved a form of balance is by counteracting the added wilds with meagre pay symbol values. This wouldn't be such an issue in a game with a shedload of ways. However, in Treasures of Kilauea, with just 40 paylines, a full screen of the most valuable symbol is worth 48x the bet. Okay, maybe the Eruption Spin spews forth a bunch of x2 Wilds, yet even then, the payout is unlikely to be a major windfall.

And so, making major gains is tough without triggering the Jackpot feature. This proved to be rather tricky to accomplish. In free spins, the Idol symbol did tease a lot more than in the base game, so presumably, the bonus round offers better chances of leading to a jackpot. As such, it might be optimal to pick the option with the highest number of free spins when the bonus round triggers? You get fewer wilds, but line wins are pretty pitiful anyway, whereas having more free spins potentially provides more chances to land an Idol. This is all theoretical, by the way, with no official numbers adding weight to the hypothesis.

In many ways, Treasures of Kilauea is classic PearFiction. Its bright, colourful, packs mainly standard extras and relies on a jackpot system to reach its full potential. So, if a jackpot slot that keeps you busy in the base game with regular, albeit limited, features in a playful environment sounds neat, Treasures of Kilauea might be a match.