Gold Panning - Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Introduction

Gold Panning is a treasure hunter’s dream. Symbols consisting of rubies, diamonds and crystals are scattered across each of its five reels. Rubies are the most desirable since they pay out the most, but look out for high-value sapphires, amethysts, chunks of gold, emeralds and amber!

You might even dig up the odd fossil too, but these symbols are worth the least. A special crystal bonus symbol opens up the multiplier wheel, with plenty of ways to give your winnings a boost. Gold Panning’s best feature, however, is undoubtedly its thrilling cascading reels.

Cascading reels open up all kinds of new possibilities. On a standard slot the round is over when the reels finish spinning, but not so on Gold Panning. Winning combinations disintegrate to be replaced with new ones, so you can form multiple wins in just one round! This equates to a hugely impressive 768 ways to win, and it’s incredibly exciting to watch chains of combinations form!

Gold Panning is available for free at Fun Ta Gaming slots, so there’s no better time to visit the mountains!

Theme, Graphics and Design

Who wouldn’t want to pan for gold amongst the jagged canyons of the Wild West? Gold Panning’s rugged setting and heat-blasted visuals are immediately evocative of the American frontier, the gold rush and the dreams of wealth which compelled so many to leave their homes in search of treasure.

Gold Panning is satisfyingly chunky. The spin button is designed as a mining wheel, and when it’s pressed the slot creaks and groans into action. Everything has a wonderfully rickety property, which enhances the feeling of immersion that Gold Panning works so hard to create.

Symbols spin individually within iron cages, and they’re accompanied by grinding cogs and all kinds of other animated machinery. The funky background music seems a little out of place (Gold Panning would have been great with a classic Wild West score), but the reel sound effects remain some of the best in the business.

Gold Panning RTP & Volatility

There were no figures relating to RTP or volatility available when we wrote this review, but Fun Ta Gaming slots usually hover around the 96% mark and are often medium-high volatility.

How to Play Gold Panning

There’s a lot to learn in Gold Panning, so we’ve compiled a short guide to help.

1. The game controls sub-menu is accessed by pressing the small, upward-facing arrow at the bottom of the screen (it’s superimposed over the river).

2. Sound effects and background music can be adjusted to your liking by pressing the speaker icon.

3. Launch the main menu by pressing “?”.

4. Gold Panning packs a lot of information on the paytable, bonuses and even the games rules into this menu, so make sure that you scroll through everything and understand how the slot works.

5. Close the menu.

6. Bet controls are nice and simple, and you can alter your wager by pressing the - and + keys on the wager box.

7. Gold Panning’s autoplay function is a great way to automate the slot and keep your budget under control. Access it by pressing “auto” and then choosing a maximum of 50 spins.

8. It’s easy to get carried away on any online slot, so work out your budget before you start the session, and then press the cog-shaped spin button to get going!

Bet & Win Sizes

Gold panners can start with a bet of as little as 1, and this can be increased up to 500. The ruby symbol is the most lucrative, and a combination of x5 is worth x0.64.

There’s plenty more to discover down the mine, so let’s dig deeper into the paytable.

Five rubies = x 0.64

Five sapphires = x 0.56

Five amethysts = x 0.48

Five gold chunks = x 0.40

Five emeralds = x 0.32

Five lumps of amber = x 0.24

Although these paytable wins might seem on the small side, that’s to be expected with cascading reels, where multiple combinations can form on a single spin. There are 768 ways to win, so Gold Panning certainly isn’t stingy!

Gold Panning Multiplier Wheel

While Gold Panning does lack free spins, don’t let that put you off! The Multiplier Wheel feature is loaded with excitement and can pay out big if you get lucky!

Launching the Multiplier Wheel

You’ll notice a special bonus symbol appearing on reels 2, 3 and 4. If you’re able to land three or more of these, the feature will trigger.

Multiplier Wheel levels

There are five levels of wheel (from level 1 up to level 5), each of which is a different colour and displays different multipliers. For example, the multipliers on the level 1 wheel range from x1 to x4, but the top level features x5 to x9!

Playing the Multiplier Wheel

Players merely spin the wheel to win multipliers. Level-up symbols will take you to the next level. The max symbol is a shortcut to the highest level, but exit ends the game.

Concluding Thoughts

Panning for Gold is an exceptionally well-thought-out slot that manages to capture all the excitement and potential of the gold rush. It does this through a mix of clever design and gameplay elements engineered to build tension.

The reels themselves are beautiful to look at, and the clunking mine shaft sound effects are highly evocative. Cascading reels make every single spin feel more valuable and promise thrilling chains of winning combinations.

This is the slot for anybody who has grown tired of more traditional mechanics and wants a game that feels like it has near endless potential.

If gold mining slots like Panning for Gold have you itching for the mountains, we think you’ll love the Bonanza slot demo too!

Disclaimer: Gold Panning trademark / license is owned by FunTa Gaming. This site is not endorsed by FunTa Gaming.