Hot Gems Xtreme Slot Review

Help a friendly prospector to strike riches with the Hot Gems Xtreme online slot from Playtech. Played out over six reels crossed by 4.096 ways, it’s a mining-themed game with a Ways Boost system that creates up to 262,144 winning ways.

Giant symbols, mystery icons, and a free games round with ever-expanding rows all feature in the Hot Gems Xtreme slot machine. It’s available to play on PCs and mobiles for a wide range of stakes to suit most budgets, so you won’t need to dig deep to enjoy this cartoon-style game.

Unearth the Sparkling Symbols

Like other slots based in the Old West’s gold mines, the reels sit against a backdrop of rock, wooden props, and chunks of gold. A rickety lift, held by ropes, frames the dark stone-effect symbol backing and the contrasting bright gems.

Eight jewels appear on the grid, plus higher-paying lamps, a pickax, and mine cart packed with treasures. The cheerful miner pays the most, with this white-bearded, gold-toothed character adding a humorous touch to the Hot Gems Xtreme online slot.

The pleasing visuals match a vibrant soundtrack, where the clacks of stone blocks join various bells, jingles, and other slot effects. It comes from the huge Playtech group and its Origins subsidiary. You’ll find it along with the rest of the range in PC and mobile-optimized formats at some of the top casinos.

Play Across the Six Reels

You play the Hot Gems Xtreme slot online with 20 coins, winning whenever symbols land across enough reels from the left side. It starts out with four rows and 4,096 ways to win, but as we shall soon see, the number of winning ways can explode to a vast 262,144.

With a bet range running all the way from just 0.20 to 240.00 per spin, it’s a game for just about any budget and comes with average returns of 95.81%. The paylines table lists how many coins each combination pays out –

Although it has no direct value, the blue diamond is a wild symbol, able to step in for all those listed above if it helps to create a win.

Expand the Rows

Cascades in real gold mines spell disaster, but they are very welcome additions to this game. The Hot Gems Xtreme online slot uses a cascading reels mechanism to potentially land win after win and expand the number of active ways. Winning symbols explode, and new ones drop down to fill the gaps, potentially creating further combinations and additional cascades.

But the clever part is the Growing Reels system that triggers at the same time. The number of rows increases by one for each cascade, and with more rows, you have more chances to land a win across the Hot Gems Xtreme slot machine reels.

If you expand the reels to a maximum of eight rows, you have 262,144 different possible ways to line up symbols and collect a prize.

Dig Into More Bonus Features

There are other routes to prize-winning combinations here, such as TNT sticks that transform into wild symbols before exploding. They take out all surrounding symbols to trigger a cascade.

Look out for flames covering random symbol positions in any spin, spreading around the reels once they come to a stop. Once the fire stops spreading, all spots covered in flames convert into multiple examples of the same symbol.

Giant symbols also appear at random on the Hot Gems Xtreme slot machine reels. These 2x2 and 3x3 images crush others below them, apart from bonus symbols, and make it easier to complete combinations.

Any three tunnel entrance bonus symbols lead to ten free spins. Four, five, and six or more bonus symbols unlock 12, 18, and 25 spins in that order. Safety Levels open up during this round, and once the number of rows expands to these levels, they remain active for any remaining free spins. Each win or TNT explosion moves the Safety Level up a row, and the free games retrigger with the appearance of three or more bonus symbols at once.

Try These Gems

The Diamond Mine slot from Blueprint Gaming uses the Megaways system to create extra winning ways. It comes with cascading reels, free spins, and a similar exploding TNT wild symbol.

Play the Gold Rush slot from Pragmatic Play, where you unearth more wild dynamite symbols, along with a progressive free spins round.

An Action-Packed Experience Underground

There are rich pickings in this virtual mine, with layer upon layer of bonus features and innovative gameplay. You won’t have to dig very far to start opening up the extra rows, with the Ways Boost system triggered on every winning spin. However, we found that the giant symbols, TNT explosions, and mystery symbol transformation features won’t always lead to a win.

Explore the potential of this virtual mine when you play Hot Gems Xtreme slot for free, then delve into it for real at the top Playtech online casinos.