Hot Pepper

Hot Pepper is a cluster paying grid slot played on a 7x7 game grid set in one of the world's hottest and driest regions. A large wooden framed game grid connects desert plants, cacti, a lizard, rocky cliffs, and wide cloudy skies. The sand is almost blowing in with the wind. It might have felt a little more lifeless without the energizing soundtrack and the pleased sombrero-wearing chap on the reels. Pragmatic Play has placed several slots with similar themes in the same town, so the change in setting corresponds to a change in gameplay mechanics.

Players choose a stake tend to range from 20 p/c to £/€100 per paid game round to begin sampling some of the chilli goodness. Any device can be used to play a game with one of two RTP options: 96.45% or 95.02%. When you buy free spins on the higher RTP version, the return value increases by a notch or two to 96.79%, and the volatility is rated 5 out of 5.

When you push the play button, 49 symbols show up on the panel, and a winning group is formed when at least five matching symbols land in vertical or horizontal positions adjacent to each other. In descending order of value, clubs, hearts, spades, limes, tacos, piatas, and the happy chap in the hat appear. Five matching symbol clusters pay 0.1 to 1 times the stake, while larger clusters of 15 or more matching symbols pay 10 to 50 times the stake. Other symbols that will be discussed further below include wilds and scatters.

Recognizing how Hot Pepper works begins with the tumble wins mechanism. When a winning cluster appears, the symbols that made up the cluster are removed from the game board. The gaps are filled by symbols falling down from above; additionally, a chilli symbol is placed in one of the empty spaces as part of the Random Wild Multiplier feature.

Chilli symbols are wild, which means they can replace all other symbols except the scatter. A level from 1 to 5 is also chosen at random. The multiplier for the chilli wilds is determined by this level. The level then increases by one for every three wilds used in a tumble sequence on the same spin, up to a maximum of five. This progression is followed by levels and their values:

Level 1 - winning clusters of 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, and 11+ produce multipliers of x1, x2, x4, or x8.

Level 2 - winning clusters of 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, and 11+ produce multipliers of x2, x4, x8, or x16.

Level 3 - winning clusters of 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, and 11+ produce multipliers of x4, x8, x16, or x32.

Level 4 - winning clusters of 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, and 11+ produce multipliers of x8, x16, x32, or x64.

Level 5 - winning clusters of 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, and 11+ generate multipliers of x16, x32, x64, or x128.

Multipliers are applied to any win in which the wild appears, and if more than one wild appears in a cluster, the values are added together first. Level progress is reset at the end of the spin in the base game.

When three scatter symbols appear in a row, you will be awarded 12 free spins. Cluster wins in free spins always generate wilds at level 5 for the period of the bonus round. The round is extended by +5 free spins when three scatter symbols appear in a tumble sequence. Finally, free spins can be purchased for 100 times the total bet where available.