Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold slot review
Barcrest released Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold in 2016, an innovative follow up to the original Rainbow Riches slot. This one boasts 12 bonus features, including a magical purple fairy who might award you one at random.
Besides its bonuses, the slot is played across two reels, one being a 5×4 grid and the other being a 5×12 grid. It also has a variable RTP that starts at 94% but can increase to 98%, depending on your current bet and game mode. If this has caught your interest, keep reading my Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold slot review to find out more.
Highlights
Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold slot review summary
If you were a fan of Rainbow Riches, there’s a lot you’ll find appealing in Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold from a design perspective. The slot features the same iconic leprechaun figure, with similar imagery. It’s just cleaner, brighter, and better designed but still retains that retro vibe.
Animations wise, there’s not a lot going on, but the reels spin much more smoothly. Otherwise, symbol animations are limited, and even the bonus fairy doesn’t do much. There’s an Irish-style track that plays when you’re spinning the reels, but stops when the reels do. During bonus features and Premium Play, the music is faster paced and more consistent.
Although it doesn’t re-invent the wheel when it comes to audiovisuals, Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold is a standout slot when it comes to bonus features, with 12 available in the base game. The only downside is the variable RTP, which is lower when you’re working with a smaller stake.
Pros
12 bonus features
Two sets of reels
Maximum win of $250,000
Cons
Average wins are low
Wins are infrequent in base game
RTP varies depending on your stake
Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold comprehensive review
My Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold comprehensive review takes you through the key areas of the slot. This includes the Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold slot RTP, its volatility, the bonus features available, and its symbols and payouts. I’ll also explain how the slot works and how to play it.
RTP and volatility
The Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold slot RTP varies. When your bet is less than $2, the RTP is 94%. If your bet is more than $2, the RTP adjusts to 96%. Not all of the paylines are active for all of the betting options. When the bet is at $0.10, only 20 lines are active, and the number of lines will increase as you adjust your bet. There’s also the option to play in Premium Play mode, and that has an RTP of 98%.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| RTP | 94-98% |
| Maximum win | $250,000 |
| Number of paylines | 100 |
| Volatility | Medium |
The Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold slot has medium volatility and is played on two sets of reels: the main reel set and the colossal reel set. The main reel set is a 5×4 grid, and the colossal reel set is a 5×12 grid. These reels spin independently of each other, and paylines don’t connect or cross over between the two reel sets. There’s a maximum of 100 paylines, which are divided between the two reel sets.
Having a lower RTP for a lower bet value isn’t great. For starters, it’s putting the RTP below the industry average, and it means that to get within that average, you must play with a higher bet. It makes having an accessible lower bet range a less attractive option, which isn’t ideal for low-risk players.
Another game by Barcrest, previously reviewed slot Mighty Black Knight, has the same RTP, and it caused the same issues. The two reel sets are a cool feature, similar but different from Mighty Black Knight. Makes your spins much longer, but gives you an extra chance for a win.
The medium volatility is something to be wary of. I drained my bankroll in two gaming sessions of 30 minutes each. That’s pretty fast, so I’d recommend placing your bets with caution and managing your bankroll carefully.
Bonus features
The Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold has 12 bonus features in regular game mode and an additional two in Premium Play.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Bonus features | Wilds, , free spins, scatters, gamble, Magic Wilds, Wild Burst, Magic Symbols, Multipliers, Super Wild Stacks, Balloon Bonus, Reel Win Shuffle, Premium Play, Stacking Wilds, Free Spins Trail |
| Top features | Fairy Bonus |
| Jackpot | N/A |
Wilds
There are four variations of the Wild symbol. Three of them have the word Wild across the front, with slightly different backgrounds. The fourth has the Rainbow Riches logo on it with a green and purple background. This symbol can transform into a different Wild symbol.
All Wild symbols substitute for all the symbols, except for the bonus balloons symbol. Any stacked Wild symbols will transfer from the main reel set to the corresponding reel on the colossal reel set.
Free Spins and Bonus Symbol
The bonus balloons symbol appears only on reels 1, 3, and 5 of both sets of reels. It performs like a scatter symbol, and when it appears on three or more reels, the bonus balloons symbol triggers the free spins game. The symbol can also land on both sets of reels to trigger free spins.
When three or more symbols appear on the reels, the picture changes to show the leprechaun asking you to pick a bunch of balloons. The number of balloon bunches available depends on the number of bonus symbols you had. It also determines how many bunches you can pick.
If you get three bonus symbols, you get one pick. If you get four symbols, you can choose two balloon bunches for more free spins. Five symbols will give you three picks, and six will give you four.
When you’ve chosen your balloon bunch, the game reveals how many free spins you’ve won and takes you to the free spins round.
Free Spins Gamble Entry
Once you’re in the free spins round, you’ve got a choice: play your free spins, or gamble for more. If you click gamble, you’ll be shown several dials with different numbers of free spins, all of which offer more free spins than what you currently have.
Choose the dial you want to spin. The arrow will spin round and round until it stops. If it lands in the green, you get the additional free spins. If it lands in the red, you lose all your free spins and return to the base game.
The gamble entry is only available when you’re playing with a bet of $0.50 or higher. You can win a maximum of 100 free spins.
Fairy Bonus
On any spin, a purple fairy can appear in the top left corner of the game window. The fairy can award one of seven potential Fairy Bonuses, both in the base game and in free spins games.
Magic Wilds
Blocks of Wilds appear on some of the reels. The Magic Wilds will move up and down until they stop and settle in a position. Any wins are then processed.
Wild Burst
Butterflies appear from the fairy’s want and float onto random reel positions. The butterflies will change into Wilds, and any wins are processed.
Magic Symbols
Any card symbols change into wishing wells. The wishing wells then all transform into the same symbol, potentially creating further wins.
Reel Win Multipliers
The fairy awards a multiplier for that spin, which is multiplied by any wins. The multipliers that can be awarded are x2, x3, or x5.
Super Wild Stacks
Blocks of Wild symbols will expand to fill the reel on the main reel set first, and then transfer to the corresponding colossal reel. This bonus only takes place in the base game.
Balloon Bonus
If two bonus balloon symbols land on the reels, the fairy can add an extra bonus symbol to trigger the free spins bonus.
Reel Win Shuffle
The fairy can shuffle the reels up and down before stopping in a random position to complete a win.
Premium Play
If you press the crown button, you can choose your Premium Play mode. Premium Play is played on a classic format of three reels and one payline. The aim is to start spinning the reels until you get three in a row, which will award you with five Premium Play Spins on the two reel sets from the base game.
The first option costs $2 per spin, the second costs $5 per spin, and the third costs $10 per spin. The Premium Play Spins are like free spins and don’t cost you anything.
Stacking Wilds
This bonus is available in all three Premium Play modes. One or more Wild symbols can expand to fill the reels on the main reel set. It will then transfer to the corresponding colossal reel.
Free Spins Trail
This is only available in the second and third Premium Play options. With this bonus, a free spins trail is placed above the reels. Every bonus symbol that lands on the reels during the Premium Play Spins will light up a box on the free spins trail. If you fill the trail with all seven symbols, you’ll win a free spins balloon pick.
In the third option, it’s a Mega free spins trail, and it requires five symbols for a Mega free spins pick.
There’s a lot going on when it comes to bonuses in Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold. It not only builds on the original Rainbow Riches slot, having almost no bonus features, except for a free spins round, but it goes above and beyond, even introducing a bonus awarding fairy.
The fairy doesn’t always award a bonus, it needs to be said. During my first gaming session, the purple fairy appeared eight times before it awarded a single bonus to me. There were a few standout incidents where I had a big win, while others were quite average.
One of them was when I had a bet of $30, but landed wins across all 100 lines. This was thanks to getting the base game stacking Wild bonus feature and also being awarded the Magic Wilds feature by the fairy on the same spin. I won a total of $1,131, my biggest win across two days of testing the slot.
The Premium Play feature is quite good if you want to change up your game modes a bit, since the base game moves quite slowly, and bonus features don’t come around often. Free spins don’t trigger frequently in the base game.
After playing the game multiple times across two days, I managed to land three bonus symbols once. Unfortunately, I chose to gamble my 10 free spins to hopefully get 30, but instead, I lost all my free spins. The balloon pick feature does make the free spins feature feel more creative, and the gamble feature is a nice touch for players who want to increase the risk.
Symbols and paytable
Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold has 11 paying symbols, which include the balloon bonus symbol. The lowest-paying symbols are card symbols: spade, heart, diamond, and club. These all have the same payouts. They award a payout of 10x your bet for three of a kind and 100x your bet for five.
The next four symbols are items typically associated with leprechauns: the horseshoe, the four-leaf clover, the harp, and the toadstool. The horseshoe and four-leaf clover have the same payout values, awarding 10x your bet for three symbols and up to 150x for five symbols. The harp and toadstool pay out better, awarding 200x your bet for five symbols.
After that, there’s the rainbow symbol and the leprechaun symbol, which can cover multiple symbol positions. The rainbow’s payouts are double what the harp and toadstool can award, giving you a payout of 40x your bet for three symbols and 400x for five. The leprechaun will pay out 50x for three symbols and 500x for five.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Theme | Irish |
| Reel layout | 5×4 or 5×12 |
| Highest paying symbol | Balloon |
| Adjustable paylines | Available |
| Visuals | Classic |
| Sound | Catchy |
| Mobile quality | Good |
The balloon bonus symbol is the only symbol that has two sets of payouts: one for the base game and one for Premium Play. It’s also the only one that can award a win for six symbols.
Three symbols will award a payout of just 2x in the base game, but it’s worth 200x your bet in Premium Play. Five or six bonus symbols in the base game will award you with a win of 20x your bet. In Premium Play, it’s a win of 2,000x your bet.
Combination wins in a single game of Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold are limited and can’t exceed $250,000. All wins are calculated in multiples of stake by line.
The payouts are all pretty good, and there are fair increases from one symbol to the next. The bottom four symbols all have the same payout values, which is typically something I dislike, but the increases in the higher paying symbols are steady and rewarding.
With the middle of the road symbols, we jump to maximum wins of 150x and 200x, after starting with a win of 100x for five symbols.
Ultimately, I had more wins thanks to stacks of Wilds than to actually landing good wins on the reels, although occasionally there were one or two instances.
How to play the Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold slot
To start playing, press the green spin button. This button sits inside the panel on the right, where you’ll also find the “i” button and the Premium Play button. If you press the “i” button, you’ll get the paytable and information on all the bonuses. The Premium Play button takes you to the Premium Play options.
To hide the panel, press the green arrow on the side of it. Use the same button to open the panel.
Underneath the main reel set, there’s the stake, total win, and current balance. To adjust your stake, press the green arrow button. This opens the stake settings, where you can increase or decrease your stake using the plus and minus buttons. Increasing your stake also increases the number of paylines that are in play.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Min bet | $0.10 |
| Max bet | $500 |
| Autoplay | N/A |
| Turbo mode | N/A |
| Game history | N/A |
The stake per two lines starts at 0.01, which covers your total stake from the values of $0.10 to $0.50. At this point, the number of paylines increases from 20, 40, 60, 80, until it hits the maximum of 100.
After that, the stake per two lines increases more steadily: 0.02 for an overall stake of $1, 0.04 for an overall stake of $2, and so on, until it hits the maximum of 10.00 for an overall stake of $500.
In the top left corner of the game window, there’s the “?” which has more game information, and underneath it, there’s the settings button. This allows you to mute the game.
Casinos where you can play the Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold slot
Barcrest is a provider known for its innovative slot mechanics and classic styles. There are several legal online casinos in US where you can find their games, but for Rainbow Rches Reels of Gold, I recommend trying these:
| Casino Logo | Rating | Bonus | Go-to-casino button | Show more | T&C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
89/100
Expert rating
by Paul P.
91%
Playscore
based on
|
100% up to $1,000 + $25 On The House
|
Play now players accepted |
|
Visit BetMGM.com for Terms and Conditions. 21+ years of age or older to wager. MI, NJ, PA or WV only. Excludes Michigan Disassociated Persons. All promotions are subject to qualification and eligibility requirements. Rewards issued as non-withdrawable site credit, unless otherwise provided in the applicable Terms. Please Gamble Responsibly. Gambling Problem? 1-800-270-7117 for confidential help (MI), 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ, PA & WV). |
2
|
88/100
Expert rating
by Paul P.
92%
Playscore
based on
|
$20 Bonus Dollars + 100% up to $1,000
|
Play now players accepted |
|
Visit Borgata.com for Terms and Conditions. 21+ years of age or older to wager. NJ only. All promotions are subject to qualification and eligibility requirements. Rewards issued as non-withdrawable site credit, unless otherwise provided in the applicable Terms. Please Gamble Responsibly. Gambling Problem? 1-800-GAMBLER. |
3
|
91/100
Expert rating
by Denise M.
84%
Playscore
based on
|
100% bonus back up to $1,000
|
Play now players accepted |
|
|
1
|
94/100
Expert rating
by Sophie P.
81%
Playscore
based on
|
50,000 Gold Coins + 1 Sweeps Coin
|
Play now players accepted |
|
|
2
|
94/100
Expert rating
by Paul P.
91%
Playscore
based on
|
1.5 million WOW Coins + 35 free Sweepstakes Coins
|
Play now players accepted |
|
|
3
|
93/100
Expert rating
by Sophie P.
79%
Playscore
based on
|
50,000 Gold Coins + 1 Sweeps Coin
|
Play now players accepted |
|
|
4
|
89/100
Expert rating
by Sophie P.
77%
Playscore
based on
|
50,000 Gold Coins + 1 Sweeps Coin
|
Play now players accepted |
|
|
5
|
89/100
Expert rating
by Paul P.
81%
Playscore
based on
|
10,000 Gold Coins + 2 Sweeps Coins
|
Play now players accepted |
|
|
6
|
89/100
Expert rating
by Paul P.
79%
Playscore
based on
|
25,000 Gold Coins + 2.5 Spree Coins
|
Play now players accepted |
|
|
7
|
89/100
Expert rating
by Paul P.
87%
Playscore
based on
|
Up to 120,000 Gold Coins + 10 Sweeps Coins
|
Play now players accepted |
|
|
8
|
89/100
Expert rating
by Vule P.
79%
Playscore
based on
|
500 Gold Coins + 3 FREE Sweeps Coins
|
Play now players accepted |
|
|
9
|
89/100
Expert rating
by Paul P.
89%
Playscore
based on
|
Up to 650,000 Gold Coins + 1,400 Fortune Coins
|
Play now players accepted |
|
|
10
|
88/100
Expert rating
by Paul P.
96%
Playscore
based on
|
250,000 Gold Coins + $25 Stake Cash
|
Play now players accepted |
|
Expert verdict
If you’re a fan of bonus features, Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold is worth trying out. It’s a much more engaging slot game than the original Rainbow Riches slot, while still retaining a lot of the classic design features that fans of retro slots might look for.
Like the Rainbow Riches slot, the free spins don’t trigger as often, but this game has way more to it than that. The bonus fairy is a fun, quirky touch, and a cute way of awarding random bonus features. Plus, some of these bonus features can be pretty lucrative, which makes up for the less regular payouts you might see from the base game in general.
For those players that like to play a more high-risk game, there’s Premium Play mode to change things up, and there’s a gamble option during the free spins bonus, too. The RTP does vary, so less experienced players will want to watch out for that if they’re playing with a lower betting range.
It’s a wide betting range in general, starting at $0.10 and ending with a maximum bet of $500, so I’d advise planning your bets cautiously, since the medium volatility can also catch you off-guard.
FAQs
What is the Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold slot RTP?
The slot has a variable RTP. It starts at 94% when your bet is less than $2. After that, it increases to 96%. If you’re playing in Premium Play mode, the RTP is 98%.
What is the maximum win potential in the Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold slot?
The maximum combined win in a single game of Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold is $250,000.
Does Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold have a progressive jackpot?
No, the game doesn’t have a progressive jackpot, but it is loaded with 12 bonus features in the base game.
What’s the bet range on the Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold slot?
The Rainbow Riches slot has a bet range of $0.10-$500.
How do I trigger free spins on the Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold slot?
If you get three or more bonus balloon symbols, you’ll trigger the free spins pick me feature, where you pick your free spins at random. After this, you could gamble your free spins to win more free spins, but you also risk losing them all.
