Pirots 5

Pirots 5: Slot Overview

One of the grandmasters of building enduring slot series, ELK Studios has flapped its feathers and added another title to its insatiable CollectR slot range. This one is Pirots 5, and it sees the well-travelled quartet of birds back on Earth after dominating space. However, the crew crashed upon landing, which led to the burning of a theme park map, revealing a lost city of gold and the whereabouts of the traitor Captain Blackfeather. In simple terms, this translates to an Egyptian-themed version of Pirots, where the symbol gobbling CollectR action is augmented by grid expansion, upgrades, arrows, boulders, coins, and a whole lot more.

These birds have certainly racked up some exotic stamps in their passports, from Western to prehistoric, to space, and now Egypt. Not the most out there theme choice, but that hasn't stopped ELK Studios from designing a handsome Egyptian game, with the usual high standard of graphical polish and animated flourishes, as four birds collect tokens to move between worlds. Musically, Pirots 5 is a treat as well, containing a playful nod to a certain whip-cracking archaeologist amongst its rhythmic beats. There can be something a little underwhelming when a studio picks such a common theme, but in Pirots 5's case, there's nothing here that's going to damage your eyes for looking.

Pirots 5 is played on a 6x6 grid that is expandable up to 8x8, while featuring four collector symbols in the form of birds. Each bird takes turns collecting adjacent gems that are the same colour as itself and feature symbols, moving around the grid where possible. When no more birds can move, symbols drop in to refill the grid. The collecting feature continues as long as one bird can move. Rated 7 out of 10, Pirots 5 is a medium-high volatile slot, with five RTP configurations topped by a 96% variant. The stake range is ELK Studios' usual $/€0.20 to $/€100 per spin.

There are four types of gem pay symbols; each gem can only be collected by the same coloured bird. Gems may be levelled up to higher values. They start at 0.05x-0.1x per gem, and can level up to 7.5x-25x the bet. There are seven levels in total.

Pirots 5: Slot Features

Pirots 5 has a lot of features, like a lot, scattered throughout the base game and its various bonus features. Instead of trying to list them, let's just dive in.

Collectable Tokens

There are 9 collectable tokens in the game, three in each world - Cursed Temple, The Kraken, and City of Gold. Collecting all 9 tokens permanently unlocks the Boss Castle game. Tokens can appear in any spin, but not the Cursed Temple coins game and are worth 5x.

Symbol Collection & Feature Symbols

A meter above the grid keeps track of pay and wild symbols collected by the four main parrots. When the meter is full, one pending feature symbol is added. Up to three pending feature releases can be added, which are released when birds can't collect any more symbols. A feature symbol release converts a number of gems into random feature symbols.

• Captain Blackfeather - Triggers the Captain Blackfeather feature if a bird ends up adjacent to it.
• Bonus/Super Bonus Symbols.
• Wilds - Substitute any gems at the current payout level.
• Coins - A collected coin pays its value times the bet. A collected Max Win coin pays the remaining amount needed to reach the maximum win.
• Upgrade - Upgrades the payout level of the collecting bird's gems by 1-3 steps. It may upgrade other birds' gems if its own gems are level 7 already.
• Upgrade All - Upgrades all gems by 1-3 steps.
• Tokens.
• Transform - Transforms a cluster of gems next to the bird into gems of the same colour as the bird. It may also convert a random number of gems into feature symbols.
• Super Transform - Transform 2 or 3 times.

Switcheroo & Labyrinth

Two adjacent birds may perform a Switcheroo and swap places when they can't collect any more symbols. A super Switcheroo may even trigger, which moves one of the birds to the edge of the grid, or to the next collectable symbol in its trajectory. When three or more birds end up adjacent, they trigger the Labyrinth, though this is not possible in the Cursed Temple game. The Labyrinth feature removes all gems from random rows and columns, then birds are separated along them.

Captain Blackfeather

Captain Blackfeather may land on any drop, and his feature triggers if a bird ends up adjacent to him. Captain Blackfeather turns the triggering bird into a ghost, taking over its win counter, gems, and collectable feature symbols. Taken over gems become Blackfeather gems worth 0.15x to 30x each. There is even a chance Blackfeather takes over additional birds. After he collects all Blackfeather gems and feature symbols, he is removed.

Traps

Three traps come in the form of Arrow, Boulder, or Secret Door.

• Arrow Shooters - The arrow shooter feature is activated when a bird collects a symbol or walks on top of an arrow shooter trap. Arrow shooters appear on the rim of the grid and are kept pending. The arrows shoot when the birds cannot collect more symbols. If an arrow hits a bird, its gems are turned into gems of a random bird and the bird is removed. If all four birds are hit, a random number of gems are turned into coins. Removed birds can return on the next refill.
• Boulder - A boulder feature activates when a bird collects a symbol or walks on top of a boulder trap. It activates in a size of 2x2 to 4x4 before the next refill, by rolling across the grid, crushing gems, walls and birds in its path. Arrow shooters and feature symbols are not affected. Removed birds can appear on the next refill.
• Secret Door - The secret door is activated when a bird collects or walks on top of a secret door trap. It splits the 6x6 grid into 4 squares and rotates them, moving symbols, traps, and birds. Cross over floor tiles are placed, let birds cross to already collected positions. Entry to the catacomb is disabled.

Additional Features

• Cursed Temple - The Cursed Temple coin game triggers when the entire grid is cleared during the Secret Door feature. Played on an 8x8 grid with a cursed treasure in the centre, birds collect adjacent coins while symbols and birds reset the drop counter. If a bird reaches the cursed treasure with no more symbols to collect, the feature activates, adding the bird's win and dropping extra coins onto the grid. Coins can stack or double bird values. Captain Blackfeather can upgrade the cursed treasure, granting chances for extra coin rain, while the rotation trap may rotate sections of the grid to create new collecting opportunities.
• Charlie's Extra Chance - Charlie's extra chance may trigger when birds cannot collect any more by activating a random number of traps.
• The Cursed Treasure Coin Rain - The Cursed Treasure Coin Rain can randomly trigger in any game round, dropping coins onto the game grid.
• Portals - Portals may appear in the walls around the grid, and birds can use them to teleport if there are collectable symbols. Walls act as a tunnel if they connect two portals. Up to four portals can appear at the same time.
• Catacombs - Collecting a matching corner symbol sends the bird into the catacombs, while Captain Blackfeather enters if he has taken control of the bird. Inside are 4 coffins, gems, feature symbols, and hidden positions where birds can encounter mummies. Winning a fight awards a feature symbol, while losing sends the bird back to its corner and play continues. Captain Blackfeather automatically wins all fights, and defeating all four mummies adds coins to the former coffin positions before the bird returns to the main grid.

Bonus & Super Bonus

Collecting 3 bonus symbols in the base game triggers 5 free spins in the bonus round, starting with the current active rows and columns. If one of the bonus symbols is a super bonus, the super bonus is triggered. The grid size, collection meter progress, portals, and gem upgrades are persistent during the bonus game. The Captain Blackfeather is persistent between spins only if he remains inactivated. A collected bonus symbol during the feature awards an extra drop. The super bonus awards one cursed treasure coin rain at the start of each drop.

X-iter

The X-iter feature buy menu has five options. The Bonus Hunt costs 3x to have more than four times the chance of triggering a bonus; the Mega Hunt for 10x provides more than 20x the chance of a bonus game, or you can trigger the Cursed Temple feature for 50x the stake. Players may buy the bonus round for 100x or the super bonus for 250x.

Pirots 5: Slot Verdict

What starts with a wacky tale of theme parks, burnt maps, and traitors leads players into a wacky game of symbol collecting with four feisty parrots. Pirots 5 takes the infectious symbol-collecting formula that fans have warmly embraced and transports it into an Egyptian-inspired adventure filled with secrets, hazards, and opportunities for significant entertainment. At its heart, the game revolves around its CollectR mechanic, and key to note here is that the magic is still alive in part five. Keeping track of four charismatic parrots as they roam the grid, devouring gems and triggering features, is as satisfying as ever. Furthermore, as it has a tendency to do, ELK Studios has expanded on the formula, bringing something new to the Pirots bash.

To call Pirots 5 a feature-rich slot feels like an understatement. The series as a whole was already jam-packed with all sorts of extras, which is sort of the Pirots deal. Pirots 5 takes this to the next level, but despite being stacked to the brim, it's not an overly difficult game to follow. Effects tend to be siloed off from each other to a degree, so one minute you're collecting gems and feature symbols, the next, arrows are shooting in, the next, Blackfeather is possessing birds, the next, a mini game or bonus is active. There's a lot of stuff, but Pirots 5 has a way of doling it out in bite-sized chunks to avoid becoming overwhelming. The action can certainly escalate, though, since the birds remain as keen as ever to collect as much loot as they possibly can, and the various features are able to draw spins out to great lengths. As before, levelling gems up and grabbing coins is absolutely indispensable for extracting max value.

Few software providers are able to come up with so many ideas, then coherently pack them into a single game quite like ELK Studios. It's a trick the team has pulled off on many occasions, which naturally raises the bar for each new instalment. As a result, Pirots 5 arrives with the difficult task of following a series already held in high regard by many players. Impressively, it rises to the challenge by building upon the foundations of its predecessors without losing sight of what made them special. Inventive, packed with personality, and bursting with memorable moments, Pirots 5 showcases ELK Studios operating at the height of its creative powers. For fans of feature-driven slots, this is an adventure well worth embarking on.