Wild Mining XXXtreme

Wild Mining XXXtreme: Slot Overview

Should a casino game allude to the word 'extreme' in its title, then its maker kind of has to back up the boast with something that is pretty darn mind-blowing. In this judgemental spirit, NetEnt's XXXtreme range of slots has been a real mixed bag. The series exploded off the blocks in 2021 with a biggie, Starburst XXXtreme, then followed up later on with Taco Fury XXXtreme, a slot which felt like the antithesis of the word extreme. XXXtreme, in this instance, might refer more to the optional ante bets, but still. Anyhoo, this brings us to another instalment in the range, Wild Mining XXXtreme, a mining-themed release with fairly extreme-ish Elevate ante bets and an avalanching wins system that is the key to unlocking the game's best bits.

In a mildly unusual turn of events, gamblers spend their entire time playing Wild Mining XXXtreme above ground. There is no bonus round, so no transitioning under the earth occurs for a free spins phase, for example. Never mind, a deficiency in subterranean exploration doesn't mean you can't have fun, and Wild Mining XXXtreme does its hearty best to roll out the good times. Well, thematically, the vibe is upbeat and chipper; beneath the surface beats a cold, unfeeling, highly volatile math model, so this mine cart ride is able to deliver its share of ups and downs.

Wild Mining Xtreme's active mining area mirrors ReelPlay's 10K Ways slots, where a 6-reel grid lands 4 symbols on the leftmost and rightmost reels, with 5 symbols landing on the middle four reels. This setup produces 10,000 ways to win, left to right, from the leftmost reel. In this one, NetEnt has created three RTP options, with 96.02% as the highest. There's a strong focus on bet selection because, in addition to choosing a base 20 c to $/€20, players can activate the Elevate XXXtreme bets if they choose. One in particular lays out a direct path for possibly achieving Wild Mining XXXtreme's full potential.

The game has 9 regular pay symbols split into 9-A card ranks, then green, blue, and purple gems, as well as a miner as the higher paying symbols. Winning combinations 6 symbols in length pay 0.5 to 1 times the bet for the royals and 1 to 2.5x the bet for the rest.

Wild Mining XXXtreme: Slot Features

Wild Mining XXXtreme has an avalanche feature that not only removes and replaces winning symbols but also links to wild symbols and exploding bomb features. Other extras are Wild Mining XXXtreme's Elevate bets.

Wild Symbols

Symbols on the top rows that are part of a winning combination turn into wild symbols instead of disappearing. Wilds substitute for any regular paying symbol. Multiplier wilds multiply the number of bet ways that go through them with a multiplier value. More than one multiplier wild values are multiplied. Wild symbols have the same payout value as the miner symbol.

Wild Zippy

The Wild Zippy feature has 6 bomb symbols, which may land on the initial spin. When bombs explode, wild symbols appear in the position of the bomb and in the explosion's path.

• Simple Bomb - explodes its position after 3 avalanches.
• Vertical Bomb - explodes its position and adjacent symbols to the top and bottom of its position after 4 avalanches.
• Horizontal Bomb - explodes its position and adjacent symbols to the left and right of its position after 5 avalanches.
• Plus-pattern Bomb - explodes its position and adjacent symbols to the top, bottom, left and right of its position after 6 avalanches.
• Omni-directional Bomb - explodes its position and all adjacent symbols after 7 avalanches.
• Max Bomb - explodes all symbols on the reels after 10 avalanches.

When a Max Bomb activates, a total win of 25,000x the bet is awarded for the round. Exploded bombs do not affect wild symbols and other bombs. Bombs persist in the same position during avalanches, and they explode before wins are evaluated.

Elevate Feature

The Elevate Feature lets players pay extra for certain features. XXXtreme Spins 1 costs 10x the bet and turns winning symbols on the top row into x2 or x3 wilds. XXXtreme Spins 2 costs 50x the bet and turns winning symbols on the top row into x2, x3, x4 or x5 wilds, plus a Max bomb is placed on the reels at the start of every spin.

Wild Mining XXXtreme: Slot Verdict

As far as extreme-ness goes, Wild Mining XXXtreme is quite an extreme entry in NetEnt's range, though players do have some influence as to how wild the experience may be. At its baseline entry-level state, placing regular bets per spin, the game rests at its tamest level. This is the 'safe' option, shall we say, and while there is nothing stopping someone from getting the most out of the game playing it this way, the chances are it may take a lot longer to see the best bits while treading water through a bunch of dead/meh spins.

Elevate bets might be less wallet-friendly options, but they do ramp up the thrills since winning symbols on the top row convert to wilds with multipliers. Furthermore, one of the main advantages of forking out for XXXtreme Spins 2 is that a Max Bomb lands on every single spin. From there, all you need is 10 consecutive avalanche wins and boom, the 25,000x max win is yours. Obviously, that's no cakewalk, as it means lining up a lot of winning combinations in a row, one after the other. As a result, avalanches are one of the fundamental elements in Wild Mining XXXtreme. Not just to reach the max win, but also for activating the various Wild Zippy bomb symbols on the way.

Wild Mining XXXtreme can get repetitive since play boils down to essentially tracking avalanche wins in a base game. However, players can theoretically speed things along if they're willing to pay extra for XXXtreme Spins, meaning the game caters to a range of gambling appetites while presenting quite a compelling, and in some cases clearly laid out, chase to the top prize.