Panda's Gold - Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Introduction 

This 5x3 Realtime Gaming demo slot is a China and animal themed slot that offers a fast-paced spinning experience. It has three bonus games, in which free spins can combine with multipliers to create lots of winning potential. You pay to play on 50 paylines but get 88, meaning lots of ways to win with every spin. Having said that, this is a high variance game and wins will not necessarily fall regularly.

Theme, graphics & soundtrack 

Panda’s Gold offers cute graphics and a popular theme, similar to that featured in the Panda Panda slot. There is no shortage of Chinese imagery and the feel is all about good fortune, prosperity and wealth. The spinning action is set around a serene lake complete with vines and walkways. The calm scene is complemented by an equally zen-like soundtrack.

Panda's Gold RTP and variance 

This is a highly volatile slot with an RTP of 96 per cent.

How to play Panda’s Gold

This is an easy game to play, but here are a few pointers should need them:

1. Choose your total bet size, from 1.00 to 12.50. This pays for 50 lines but you play on all 88 lines.
2. You can choose to use the autoplay feature, which will set the reels to spin automatically.
3. Your total bet is displayed clearly on the screen, as is your total win.
4. You can access the paytable through the information tab. This is also where you will find information about the bonus games, the wilds and the scatters.
5. You can play the game at double speed in turbo mode.
6. You can opt to turn off the soundtrack if you prefer a silent playing experience.

Bet sizes & paytable wins 

If you choose to play Panda’s Gold, you will notice that all the wins end in the number eight. This is because eight is considered a lucky number in Chinese culture. Symbols that can create winning combinations include the nine to ace playing cards, flowers, koi carp, ducks, peacocks and pagodas. Take a look at the prizes you could win for lining up five matching symbols:

- Duck = 888
- Peacock = 288
- Carp = 188
- Pagoda = 188
- Flower = 88
- Nine to ace playing cards = 88

All the symbols will pay from left to right with the exception of the fortune scatter.

Panda’s Gold bonus features

- Wild

This game features panda wilds, which appear on reels three, four and five and can substitute for all other symbols except the scatter. 

- Scatter

The scatter symbols are the Chinese fortune character. The scatters are the key to three free spin bonus rounds. 

Here is what you can be awarded, depending on how many scatter symbols you manage to land: 

Five scatters - Fortune free games
Four scatters - Wealth free games
Three scatters - Prosperity free games

The main feature starts if you land at least three fortune scatters in a normal game. If you get three or four of the scatter symbols, you will get a respin to see if you can do better. An improvement from three scatters to four scatters will get you a second respin to try to get even more. Once the game has finished respinning, the number of scatters will determine which of the free games you will get, along with a standard number of eight free spins. You can get eight more free spins if three or more scatter symbols land again during your bonus games. Here is the lowdown on each of the three bonuses and what they offer in addition to the free spins.

- Fortune free games

 This can offer up to 40x wins. All the prizes that you land during your free spins will have a 5x multiplier. If the winning combination also features at least one of the panda wild symbols, your prize will be multiplied by another 8x. 

- Wealth free games 

Any win featuring the panda wild at least once will net you a prize of 8x its normal value.

- Prosperity free games

Any prizes that include at least one panda wild symbol will be tripled.

Panda's Gold review: our verdict

Without a doubt, the main feature of this game is the three free spins bonuses that you can trigger. These are key to the big wins and can be really lucrative if you have the playing budget and patience to wait for the prizes to arrive. The excitement of the bonus games provides a nice contrast to the very chilled-out base game, but you might not enjoy feeling so relaxed for long periods of time if you like to spin to get the adrenalin racing.