Mermaid’s Treasure Trove

Mermaid's Treasure Trove: Slot Overview

Editor's note: This review is based on an early access version of the game. We may update the review after the full release if necessary.

How long can you hold your breath for players? Hopefully, a long time because we are plunging beneath the water's surface in Pragmatic Play's online slot Mermaid's Treasure Trove. Down here, we're hoping to bump into mythical creatures, clusters pays, and some wild multiplier mayhem. If we're lucky. To focus those expectations even further, picture something closer to Pragmatic Play's Fire Portals slot, only this time reimagined in an aquatic realm where clusters combine, multipliers rise, and the ocean floor lights up with energy. With that in mind, let's take that deep breath and head under.

In the slot world, the sea is absolutely bursting with ancient structures, like subterranean Greco-Roman temples, and powerful entities brandishing staffs or tridents. And krakens, there are a lot of them in slots, too. There are none in Mermaid's Treasure Trove, but there is a mermaid, floating next to the reels, all bare midriff and scaly tail. The rest of the locale is pretty ordinary underwater slot stuff; impressive buildings, clear water, and a general feeling of azure mystique.

The action unfolds on a shimmering, gold-rimmed 7x7 grid, where wins form whenever clusters of 5 or more matching symbols connect. Each winning cluster bursts away in a splash, making room for fresh symbols to tumble into place. This cascade can chain together for as long as new wins appear, creating the potential for continuous action. Hidden in the depths of the underwater grotto is a highly volatile math model, offering a max RTP of 96.54%. Bets range from 20c to $/€240 per spin, and players can opt for the ante bet, which boosts the chance of triggering free spins - though it comes at the cost of a 50% higher stake.

As for pay symbols, from lowest value to highest, there are shells, starfish, fish, horns, harps, treasure chests, and crowns. Clusters of 5 OAK of these symbols pay 0.2x to 0.75x the bet, and the biggest 15+ OAK clusters are worth 20x to 150x when they hit.

Mermaid's Treasure Trove: Slot Features

Multiplier wilds are one of Mermaid's Treasure Trove's key features, which appear in the base game and in free spins. Free spins and super free spins may be accessed directly using the bonus buy options.

Multiplier Wilds

The multiplier wild substitutes for all symbols except scatters. When a win without one is cleared, a multiplier wild drops into an empty space, starting at x1. Each time it contributes to a win, its value increases by +1, then it shifts one step in a random direction. If multiple wilds connect in the same win, they merge into a single wild, combining their multipliers. Priority for merges is given to the combo with the most wilds, then the one with the highest-paying symbol. Regular pay symbols can also land with multipliers of x5 to x100. If they're part of a win with wilds, their values are added to the wild multiplier. If no wild is present, a new one is created with the combined value. Multiplier wilds persist through tumbles until the spin ends.

Free Spins

Hitting 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 scatters triggers 10, 12, 14, 16, or 18 free spins, respectively. During free spins, multiplier wild symbols remain on the screen until the round ends. If multiplier wilds are present on the triggering spin, the round starts with them on the grid in the same positions. Each landed scatter in the feature awards +1 free spin.

Feature Buy

Two feature buys are present in Mermaid's Treasure Trove. They are a free spins trigger for 100x the bet or a super free spins trigger for 400x, where wild symbols start with an x10 multiplier rather than x1.

Mermaid's Treasure Trove: Slot Verdict

It was hard to know where to begin, as Mermaid's Treasure Trove wasn't a slot that evoked strong emotions in any direction. It's all nicely presented, ensuring the mermaid's domain is a cheerful place to be, but almost to the point of being bland. There isn't a lot to see down here that's especially distinctive or hasn't appeared before. Iin fact, much of it basically recycles the mechanics seen in Fire Portals. The doop-doop noise the reels make as they settle for each spin adds to Mermaid's Treasure Trove's hypnotic effect, lulling players into a glazy-eyed, somnambulist drift state, waiting for excitement to come floating by.

That it did, at times. Hints appeared in the base game, as tumbles rolled into wild multipliers and they knocked out wins. Nothing incredible, but they pique interest in what the bonus round might be capable of. Free spins were orders of magnitude better than the base game on account of wilds not leaving the screen till the feature ends. Merging when part of the same win is a little annoying, since a crowd of wilds jumping around the screen might have been more useful than merging them together, albeit their multiplier values are added when this occurs. It was a little bit predictable, having seen elements of this sort of thing in games like Jammin' Jars or Propaganda. Mermaid's Treasure Trove keeps the flow simple and streamlined, though one of its biggest contributions is the multiplier adding pay symbols, which admittedly is quite good. Super free spins, too, supplied the most thrills, due to the starting x10 leg up, so what a pity they can't be triggered organically.

Should Mermaid's Treasure Trove open its coffers wide, it can bestow wins up to a cap of 10,000x the bet. There's no doubt the game can pump out exciting consecutive win action, especially when it involves wild multipliers merging with big values attached, and pay symbol multipliers help, but a lack of major x-factor prevented Mermaid's Treasure Trove from being really special.