PINWHEEL PRIZES
HOW THE ADVANTAGE WORKS (Cat & Tiger / Majestic Oasis)
WHEN TO PLAY
- Pinwheel Prizes features five pinwheels above the reels—green, blue, purple, orange and red. Each pinwheel has eight wedges that contain either credit prizes or credit prizes with free spins (the golden wedges). Landing a pinwheel scatter symbol will increase the credit value on one of the wedges of the corresponding color and can also randomly upgrade one of the wedges to a golden wedge (so it will now include free spins). If three pinwheel scatter symbols of the same color land, it will trigger a spin of the corresponding pinwheel, where the player will win one of the prize wedges. After a wedge is won, it resets back to its default state.
WHEN TO PLAY
- The green and blue pinwheels combined have at least 10 golden wedges.
- 15 or more golden wedges anywhere (look directly on the bet pad).
Additional notes
- The golden wedges always contain eight free spins, regardless of the color of the pinwheel. Therefore, free spins are free spins regardless of where you win them. The green and blue pinwheels are easier to trigger, therefore it is better to chase after golden wedges in those colors.
- At some point, the game is likely +EV based on the credit values alone, independent of the number of golden wedges. I haven’t done the math to figure this out, but I don’t think busting out a calculator to add up the values of all 40 wedges (and then doing that again for each bet level and denomination) is a worthwhile use of time inside the casino.
- Overall, this isn’t a very lucrative AP game since it is rare to find it in a playable state. A lot of hustlers waste money playing this when the game is not +EV.
- The pinwheels located towards the top begin with larger credit prizes than the pinwheels on the bottom. The pinwheel prizes at their reset values are not very lucrative, especially on green and blue.
- Wedges transform into golden wedges randomly, as opposed to when they reach a certain credit size. Therefore, it’s common to have golden wedges with small credit prizes and standard wedges with large credit prizes.
- Enhancing a golden wedge will increase the credit prize but will not add additional free spins.
- Green pinwheel scatters only appear on reel one, blue only on reel two, purple only on reel three, orange only on reel four and red only on reel five.
- The reels expand during the free spins bonus, so you have more chances to land additional pinwheel scatter symbols. The Cat & Tiger version features a standard reel that is seven symbols tall, while the Majestic Oasis version features a hold-and-spin area that uses the extra space.
- It’s common to get retriggers during the free spins bonus. Landing two bonus scatter symbols adds four additional free spins, while landing three bonus scatter symbols adds eight additional free spins. You can also get retriggers by winning one of the golden wedges during the bonus.
- When the reels expand during the bonus, the game screen physically rises up using a motor.
- The Cat & Tiger version has five RTP settings that range from 88.14% to 98.15%.
- The Majestic Oasis version has five RTP settings that range from 85.13% to 94.14%.
** You can look directly on the bet pad to see the number of golden wedges collected for each bet level. The number alone doesn’t always tell you if it is a play though. **
