This Fire In The Hole review looks at a mining-themed slot from an innovative and award-winning developer. Nolimit City is known for producing games with extremely high levels of volatility and massive potential wins, and this March 2021 release is no exception.
Prepare to delve deep underground and learn all about this 96.06% RTP slot, including the Lucky Wagon Spins and xBomb Wild features.
| Software Provider | Nolimit City |
| Release Date | March 2021 |
| RTP | 96.06% |
| Volatility | Very High |
| Max Win | 60,000x |
| Reels x Rows | 6 x 3-6 |
| Minimum – Maximum Bet | $0.20 - $50 |
| Number of Paylines | Up to 46,656 |
| Themes | Mining |
Fire In The Hole Details, RTP and Volatility
Let’s begin our Fire In The Hole review with a look at the game’s key stats. Most versions of this game offer a solid 96.06% RTP. Take care though, for some casinos use less-rewarding rates of 94.11% and 90.02%.
A maximum potential win of 60,000x awaits, a figure that blows most slots out of the water. That figure is due to the extremely high volatility level, which is a common feature of Nolimit City titles.
The action takes place on a grid of six reels and three rows, though more can be uncovered as you mine. This makes for a possible 46,656 paylines on which to form wins. Play from $0.20 per spin, up to a maximum of $50.
Theme & Graphics in Fire In The Hole
As slot themes go, mining is fairly common, but Nolimit City always knows how to differentiate itself from the crowd. This release is not as dark as many of the developer’s other titles, but there is still a moody undertone.
Gameplay marches along to a slow-paced, heavy tune, punctuated by the explosions of mining activity. During the bonus, this music becomes even more ominous, and wouldn’t feel out of place in a Rammstein track. What’s more, the game’s main character is an angry-looking dwarf who can be heard snarling.
Fire In The Hole Slot Features
Like many Nolimit City slots, there are plenty of features to keep us entertained. We’ll discuss these in the following section of our Fire In The Hole review.
Regular Symbols
Ten ordinary symbols are used to form winning combinations. The five lower-paying playing card icons are K through 9. These pay between 0.2x and 0.3x for three on a payline, up to a maximum of 1.5x for six.
Five higher-paying symbols are depictions of mining equipment. From lowest to highest, these are the pickaxe, rope, mining boots, satchel and lantern. The highest-paying symbol returns 7.5x for six on a payline, with smaller prizes of 4x, 2x and 0.75x for five, four and three.
Collapsing Mine
At the beginning of each spin, you’ll notice three active rows, with three more covered. To unlock those and cause the mine to collapse, creating additional ways to win, one of three things must happen:
- Form a winning combination;
- Trigger the Wild Mining feature;
- Blow up an xBomb wild with no win.
Winning symbols involved in a collapse are removed, making way for more to tumble in.
Wild Mining
Should you line up three, four or five of the same symbol horizontally without a win, the Wild Mining feature triggers. The symbols which activated the bonus are removed, leaving wilds in the central positions. That means one wild symbol for a line of three, with two and three resulting from a line of four or five.
In addition, all other regular symbols are blown from the reels, replaced with new ones.
xBomb Wilds
The xBomb Wild acts as any regular-paying symbol to create wins. If a spin results in a payout, any xBomb Wilds on screen will explode, wiping out adjacent symbols and allowing new ones to fall onto the grid. This occurs regardless of whether or not the wilds were involved in forming the win.
Every exploding xBomb Wild increases the multiplier by one, enhancing the next payout.
Scatters
A gold nugget bearing the letter “S” serves as the game’s scatter. Collect three, four or five to activate the Lucky Wagon Spins. Three triggering scatters opens up two rows of the bonus game’s reels. For each additional scatter, an extra row is uncovered.
Lucky Wagon Spins
You’ll start the feature with three spins, but for every coin that appears, the counter resets. As you play, carriages on the top row reveal various game modifiers, detailed below:
- Coin Values: This sets the value of any coins appearing below. It can range from 1x to 100x.
- Multipliers: Carts full of gold represent multipliers. These enhance the values of any coins already on the reel below, ranging from 2x to 25x.
- Dynamite: These perform multiple actions. It first increases the coin value by the number of sticks of dynamite, before blowing up blocked positions and activating chests on the bottom row.
- Bag: Coins on that reel are bagged up and deposited into one space.
- Chest: All coins on the grid are collected and deposited into one space.
- Dwarf: This collects all coins on the reels like the chest, but continues to do so for subsequent spins.
Feature Buy
Buy your way directly into the feature using the yellow star symbol, which presents you with three options:
- 60x: two open rows;
- 157x: three open rows;
- 500x: all four rows open.
How to Play Fire In The Hole Online
Before playing Nolimit City’s Fire In The Hole slot, select a stake by tapping the coin icon in the bottom-left corner. You may also toggle the lightning bolt symbol opposite to change the gameplay speed.
When you’re ready, hit the curved arrow to spin. Alternatively, use the triangular “play” button to configure as many as 1,000 automatic spins. To win, match at least three symbols on a payline from left to right, starting from the first reel.
Try the Fire In The Hole Demo for Free before playing for real money
With so many features and mechanics to get your head around, we strongly recommend trying our free Fire In The Hole game. This allows you to learn how the game works before risking real money. It’s always better to make your mistakes in demonstration mode first.
Fire In The Hole Review – Our Final Verdict
We love Nolimit City slots. They usually feature large maximum potential payouts, as well as dark and creative storylines that often contain controversial elements. However, with the release of Fire In The Hole xBomb, the developer managed to steer away from any negative press. In addition, the now-popular xBomb Wild was introduced.
This is a great addition, which really spices up the boring old wild symbol, bringing the game to life. What’s more, the dynamic reel grid and Wild Mining features keep you on your toes and it feels like there’s always something happening.
Admittedly, not everyone will enjoy the high volatility level. At least there’s a Feature Buy, with three different settings, to help offset that. A minor gripe is that the feature itself took a little while to understand. Still, once you’ve seen it in action a few times, it comes together nicely and is a thoroughly enjoyable bonus game.
Similar Slot Games
If you enjoyed our Fire In The Hole demo, you may also be keen to learn about these similar games.
- Diamond Mine 2 Megaways: The Megaway engine provides up to 117,649 ways to win in this Blueprint Gaming release with a similar mining theme.
- Misery Mining: The second game in the Nolimit City series, this highly-volatile 96.09% RTP slot also features xBomb Wilds.
- Mining Factory: A highly volatile five-reel slot by TrueLab Games with a more modern theme of Bitcoin mining, plus a healthy RTP of 96.40%.
