Grunt Gold

Grunt Gold: Slot Overview

We might live in a post-tulip world of cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and a host of other asset classes, but solid gold continues to shine as brightly as ever. Humans want the stuff, and so, according to software provider Bullshark Games, do orks. At least, they do in the Hacksaw Gaming partner's online slot Grunt Gold, where three chests trigger various modifiers in a fantasy-themed game where players face off against savage orcs guarding treasure hoards. It's been a while since greenskins have populated a slot, so why not come see how much of the hoard they're willing to part with.

Grunt Gold divides its time between two different locations. In the base game, players find themselves outside, with a gaming grid next to a spiked fence, and an orc character swaying side to side in the foreground. Trigger or buy free spins, and play moves indoors to a fiery dungeon of chains and stone. Both phases are artistically agreeable, with graphics that are more cheerfully charming than fantastically immersive. So while the audiovisuals are neat, don't expect to be drawn into an elaborately rendered Tolkienesque world of wonder.

The game creates winning combinations when matching symbols land on 3 or more adjacent reels from the leftmost side. This means on the 6x4 gaming area, there are 4,096 ways to win. A cascade mechanic is in operation, as well, removing winning symbols and filling empty poisons with a symbol drop. Cascades continue until no new win appears. Hammering away in the distance is a highly volatile math model, and there are two RTP variants, topping out at 96.22%. Picking stake goes from $/€0.10 at minimum to $/€50 at max.

On to the symbol list where we find clubs, diamonds, spades, and hearts on the lower side, then anvils, tongs, hammers, maces, axes and swords on the higher. Landing 6 matching symbols in a win pays 0.5x when made up of card suits, or 0.8x to 2.5x when made up of premiums. Wilds are present on every reel, awarding 5x the stake when six of them create a win, and also substituting for all regular paying symbols.

Grunt Gold: Slot Features

Grunt Gold's features consist of three Bounty Chests triggering an assortment of modifiers, a Gold Grab round, an Endless Hoard round, and feature buys.

Bounty Chests

Three Bounty Chests are displayed above the reels. When Token symbols land, they add 1-7 points to a Bounty Chest, before being removed. Rarely, Tokens may add points to all Chests, and the most a Chest can hold is 7 points.

• Green Bounty Chest - 5 or 6 points award a cluster of 3 or 4 matching symbols to the grid. 7 points award a cluster of 5 or 6 matching symbols. Wilds cannot be added, and added symbols do not replace existing wilds.
• Blue Bounty Chest - 5 or 6 points award 1 or 2 wild symbols. 7 points award 3 or 4 wild symbols. Wilds are not added on top of other wilds. In regards to Green and Blue Bounty Chest boosts, if no positions are available, fewer or no symbols are added.
• Red Bounty Chest - 5 or 6 points award 2 or 3 multipliers of x2 to x10 to random grid symbols. 7 points award 4 or 5 multipliers. When symbols with multipliers are part of a win, their multiplier applies to the win. Multipliers can be added to existing multipliers. Multiple multipliers in the same win are added together.

Gold Grab

Landing 3 or 4 scatters awards 8 or 10 Gold Grab free spins, respectively. This bonus has the base game mechanics, plus Bounty Chest points accumulate progressively. When a Chest reaches at least +5 points, its boost is applied on that spin and the Chest resets. Landing a scatter in any bonus game awards +1 free spin. Each scatter changes to a random pay symbol.

Endless Hoard

Landing 5 scatters in the base game triggers 12 free Endless Hoard spins. It functions under the same rules as Gold Grab except that at least 2 Token symbols land on the first spin.

Feature Buys

BonusHunt FeatureSpins cost 2x the bet to make each spin 3 times more likely to trigger free spins, while Hammer Smash FeatureSpins cost 50x to land at least 3 Token symbols, with one awarding 5 or more points. From there, Gold Grab may be bought for 100x or Endless Hoard for 250x the stake.

Grunt Gold: Slot Verdict

Not to be a green-skinned meanie, but Grunt Gold wasn't a slot which was hugely impressive. Its fantasy world, while fine, lacked depth, and it may struggle to really sink immersive hooks in and drag players away to an alternative world. Not that a slot has to be so convincing, but expectations were a little higher than what Grunt Gold delivered. There is some charm, however, provided in large part by the orc in the bottom left corner, so with enough imagination, Grunt Gold's appearance might be strong enough to encourage further investigation. Unfortunately, what followed wasn't particularly engaging either, making it hard to walk away from the game feeling completely satisfied.

One issue was that the Green and Blue Bounty Chest boosts didn't accomplish much a lot of the time. They added pay symbols or wilds here and there when triggered, but rarely managed to really fire. However, with so many ways to win in play, it's not difficult to imagine them linking a lot of wins together, so there is theoretical potential, and a 15,000x max win provides a sizable exclamation point. The Red Bounty Chest appeared to be the least likely to trigger, but again, should it do so to great effect, one can imagine it being potentially useful. To be fair, this is a game of chance, and there are possibilities for lucky players to be fortunate with this triple chest system.

And so, Grunt Gold was mildly entertaining at the time of review, but it wasn't the sort of slot that instantly grabbed attention in its tongs and beat it over an anvil with a hammer, in a good way, that is. No doubt the game has the technical capabilities to do so, but its failure to really wind up and deliver major hits with enough frequency during the review made it tough to want to return and repeat the experience.