Gold Digger Pokie
Software | iSoftbet |
Slot theme | Adventure |
Reel | 5 |
Paylines | 20 |
Progressive | No |
Reviewed & updated:
29.09.2024 By gambling expert
Andrew R.
Gold Digger Pokie Review
Gold Digger from iSoftBet (not to be confused with a similar title from Betsoft) is a mining-themed pokie that welcomes players from Australia to the most extraordinary adventure in their lives, to an underground gold mine. The pokie has a normal 5×3 field with 20 fixed paylines and the maximum payout in a base game reaches AU$500, no less its generous bonus feature with extremely high winnings. Apart from wild and scatter symbols, normal spins boast of three modifiers that can help a player find more winnings. The bonus game is based on a well-known Hold and Win model in which the winning items remain in place and award a respin for more wins. A short intro video to the pokie machine shows a cart driving into a gold mine where the pokie action takes place. Graphically, Gold Digger looks great though it lacks some sophistication and detail in comparison with some other pokies devoted to the mining theme. The screen is always animated slightly, even in between the spins: a skinny guy is standing to the left, ready to push a TNT plunger down and activate a reel modifier; stone blocks twinkle with gold inclusions; minor stones fall from the above every so often, etc. Though the design has a 2D style, it looks as if its elements are three-dimensional, which adds fun and draws attention of online casino players. Winning combos count traditionally, from left to right and there are no unexpected things in this regard. The mobile interface is user-friendly and suggests playing the pokie machine in a landscape mode as all main buttons controlling the gameplay are fixed to the right-hand side of the reels, without blocking the view of the reel area.Bet sizes and payouts
The number of lines is 20 and cannot be changed. There is only one changeable value that affects a bet size: a coin value. Clicking a Chip button to the right of the reels shows available coin value amounts. By changing them, you can place a bet from AU$0.20 to AU$20, not a big deal for high rollers but ideal for many other online casino players from Australia.
The pokie machine reels are home for ten symbols, eight of them are ordinary and bear no special features. These include J, Q, K and A playing cards that award 5 to 80 coins (AU$80 at max) as well as a set of theme-related symbols devoted to mining business: an axe (x100), an oil lantern (x150), a cart loaded with gold nuggets (x300) and a miner holding a nugget in his hand (x500). To summarize payouts for ordinary icons, the top three awards they produce are AU$500 (five miners), AU$300 (five carts) and AU$250 (four miners). Special bonus symbols and their awards are described here below.
Wild and scatter symbols
A big boom symbol is a wild. It has very limited powers in this online casino game because its only functionality is to substitute for ordinary icons. It holds no win multipliers or other special abilities. However, its being a substitute helps players form winning combos.
A shapeless piece of raw gold is a scatter symbol that always comes with a certain cash value on it, the size of which arises from the player’s bet. If four or less gold nuggets appear, they are totally useless and the cash amounts (in AU$, bitcoin, etc.) are not paid. But hitting five of these nuggets in any position triggers a bonus feature in which these and other cash sums will be of importance.
Gold Digger modifiers
A moustached guy looking at the player near the reels has a bunch of equipment to facilitate winning, and the related features are accompanied with eye-catching graphical effects and animations. The following are three modifiers that can get activated at any moment during the base play:
- A dynamite stick transforms three, four or five random symbols into wild
- An axe can turn a few symbols into nuggets. This can lead to a Gold Link Respins feature if five more scattered nuggets occur on display
- A TNT detonator explodes and turns all low symbols into high-valued ones.
Gold Link Respins
The pokie provider iSoftBet have used a Hold and Win approach for the bonus feature, which is found in some games from Booongo and Playson. Contrary to pokie machines where the Hold and Win round can lead to a progressive or fixed jackpot win, Gold Digger players may count for a decent win but not a certain jackpot prize.
The feature gets triggered by 5+ gold nugget scatters that award a player three respins. Each nugget carries a cash amount tagged to it. Every time a new nugget appears as a result of a respin, the respin counter refreshes back to 3.
During this absolutely profitable feature, four kinds of gems can also land and an online casino player has to collect three matching gems in order to activate a corresponding booster. Moreover, each gem that has just landed elongates duration of the feature by adding one respin. The gems are as follows:
- Blue “Arrow Up” gems: They add 1–3 extra rows to the game field, thus improving chances for landing a nugget subsequently
- Green “AU$” gems: They increase all cash values that have already landed
- Red “Heart” gems: Award one extra respin
- Purple “Multiplier” gems: They build up the multiplier used for all cash wins during the bonus feature.
Summary
Gold Digger is a seemingly simple pokie machine yet it has a number of quite unexpected bonuses that pop up here and there, boosting wins and adding fun. Gold Digger (by iSoftBet) has 5 reels, 20 constant lines, a wild symbol and a sought-after Respin feature with a high winning potential. Mixing up the gameplay are three Bonus Modifiers that are active in normal spins. A bet size is AU$0.20 to AU$20 a spin.