Concrete Cowboys

Concrete Cowboys: Slot Overview

Gobbling is back on the menu, players, as the originator of the CollectR mechanic, ELK Studios has turned its focus away from swashbuckling parrots to the makers of buildings that scrape the sky. The last time we caught up with the eating machine was in Pirots 5's exploration of ancient Egypt, and before that, Spark of Creation's mysterious exploration of the four elements. Concrete Cowboys is more grounded, as it follows four builders flaunting the rulebook as they construct downtown's latest skyscraper. Along the way, they're going to have to contend with Karen in HR, dynamite, tunnels, all manner of dangers, in a CollectR slot bulging at the seams with three minigames, bonus rounds, and a whole lot more.

Concrete Cowboys opens up to a section of downtime that doesn't really look like a construction site. Instead, a gaming grid rests on the roof of an already built structure, covered in symbols and workers. It's a little odd to see humans instead of animals running about the place, not forgetting beavers and pigs have done some CollectR-ing themselves in Dam Beavers and Huff N' Puff CollectR, respectively. Here it's all humans, as they go about busying themselves around the grid in the base and bonus rounds, as well as getting all buildy during minigames, which flip Concrete Cowboys into early console game/Donkey Kong-like mode.

In the base game, the action is carried out on a 5x5 gaming area using Collector symbols to win cash. Rated 7 out of 10, the math model is medium-high volatile, and is available with RTPs of 87%-96% depending on the operator and market. ELK Studio's X-iter feature buy is here with its additional betting options, while the base stake range is $/€0.20 to $/€100.

Concrete Cowboys has four Collector symbols that move around the grid. Collectors collect gems of the same colour as they are and all feature symbols they can reach. They are able to move horizontally or vertically to adjacent symbols of the same colour, and move across empty spaces. Collectors can move once before a symbol refills. When Collectors are adjacent to each other, they may switch places. When no more collections can be made, symbols drop, and new symbols come in from above. Collectors are not affected by gravity. Refills occur until no Collector can collect anything further. The four gem pay symbols can be upgraded to a maximum level of 7. At base, they are worth 0.05x-0.1x, while at the highest level they are worth 5x-12.5x the bet each. Wilds are considered payout symbols, as well.

Concrete Cowboys: Slot Features

CollectR slots come jam-packed with features, and Concrete Cowboys is no exception, with symbol collection, a Wrecking Ball, dead Collectors, feature symbols, Building Time, Employee of the Month, Heaven, the bonus game, super bonus game, and X-iter feature buys.

Symbol Collection & Wrecking Ball

The meter above the reels tracks collected gem and wild symbols until no more collections can be made. The first fill takes 20 symbols, the second fill 30, and the third fill 40. Up to three Wrecking Balls can be pending (by filling the meter). They trigger when wins and other features have been resolved. Wrecking Balls carry over to free spins if the bonus is triggered while they are pending. When triggered, the Wrecking Ball hits a section of the grid, destroying pay symbols and killing any Collectors it hits, causing a tumble.

Dead Collectors

Dynamite, an exploding Transform, and the Wrecking Ball can kill Collectors. When a Collector is killed, any symbols of its type left on the reels are transformed into wilds. The dead Collector does not appear on the next refill, nor do symbols of its type. If all 4 Collectors are killed, the Heaven minigame is triggered.

Feature Symbols

Feature symbols are activated after being collected. Their effects are:

• Upgrade - Upgrades the payout level of gems of the same colour as the Collector by 1-3 steps.
• Upgrade All - Upgrades all gems by 1-3 steps.
• Transform - Changes an adjacent symbol cluster to the active Collector's colour. Will be left to explode like Dynamite if no adjacent symbols can be transformed.
• Dynamite - Explodes all symbols in a random direction. Kills Collectors in its path.
• Coin - Instantly pays the amount shown.
• Tunnel - Allows Collectors to move to another cluster of its colour that it would not have been able to reach, or to switch places with another Collector.
• Walkie Talkie - Calls HR Karen to substitute one random Collector on the grid. If Karen ends up next to another Collector after collecting, she will remove it and its symbol type as well.
• Level Up - Expands the grid by 1 row and 1 reel, triggering a redrop. The grid has a maximum size of 8x8.
• Building Time - Triggers the Building Time game mode.

Building Time Mode

This minigame is played on a 5x6 grid. Void, gems, Upgrade All, Coins, and Spreader symbols may land to create rows next to multipliers. The sum of gems and Coins on a completed row is multiplied by the row's multiplier. Each of the 4 Collectors triggers a drop. When a row is filled, the Collectors are reset. If a row is not filled after the drops, the bonus ends. Spreader symbols fill all adjacent empty spaces on a row or column with copies of itself.

Employee of the Month

When all pay symbols have been collected from the grid, the Employee of the Month minigame is triggered. This feature is played on a 6x7 grid, with a Collector in the bottom left corner. Landing one or more Coins, Walkie Talkie, Ladder, or Accumulator symbols awards extra spins until no new symbols land. The Collector then moves to collect symbols on its level. Ladders let Collectors move up a level and are removed after use. Accumulators are a Coin with the value of all other Coins in view. The Walkie Talkie calls in another Collector, triggering a respin. If Karen triggers the feature, only Coins, Accumulator symbols, and duds land. Ladders are already placed to connect levels.

Heaven Minigame

The Heaven minigame is held on an 8x8 grid with maximum value pay symbols. Only pay symbols, Coins, and Tunnel symbols may land. The Wrecking Ball meter and bonus inventory are not used. Heaven continues until the end of the game round or until the next bonus drop.

Bonus Game

Players win 5 free spins when Collectors collect 3 scatters in a spin. Collecting a scatter during the bonus feature awards +1 spin. This is not mentioned in the rules, but it appears that the grid size and symbol value levels are persistent in free spins. Also, if one of the triggering scatters is a super scatter, 5 super bonus spins are awarded where all Upgrade symbols are Upgrade All symbols.

X-iter Feature Buys

The X-iter's Bonus Hunt costs 2.5x to have more than 3 times the chance of triggering the bonus round, or Mega Hunt for 5x, giving more than 6 times the chance. For 50x, players can buy into one of the three minigames at random, or 100x buys the bonus, 250x the super bonus.

Concrete Cowboys: Slot Verdict

Concrete Cowboys is another busy addition to ELK Studio's expanding CollectR portfolio, and one that doesn't lack ideas. The construction concept pushes the series into uncharted waters, introducing players to a cast of wacky new characters; not least among them is Karen from HR. Like their forebears, these builders just love to collect stuff, and there are numerous ways of doing so. The main way is collecting gems from the default grid, which benefits from levelling up symbol values, and has a lengthy list of feature symbols on the side. The Wrecking Ball idea is new, being both theme-related and releasing a symbol smash rather than a feature symbol when full. Smashing symbols to trigger a cascade keeps the action flowing, but killing Collectors is macabrely what you want, too, amidst the myriad of other modifying events.

Killing all the Collectors opens up the Heaven minigame, one of three that Concrete Cowboys has to offer. The most enjoyable during the review was Employee of the Month, which could stack decent results, though there is no stopping the others from doing so, either, when they're popping. In some ways, free spins were slightly anticlimactic since they more or less just replicate what happens in the base game, though with the added bonus of persistent grid and symbol levels, which can make a huge difference. Winning potential isn't huge per se, but the game has a fairly standard CollectR win cap of 10,000x the bet locked in place. As its predecessors have done, the journey is almost as exciting as the final reward, as Concrete Cowboys can unleash as lengthy a sequence of collect, feature, upgrade and so on and so forth as the best of them.

One possible downer is that even when Concrete Cowboys was producing solid results, it didn't exude quite the same free-for-all chaotic mayhem that a later Pirot slot throws off when it's got its feathers in a twist. This doesn't mean Concrete Cowboys is not enjoyable, though, far from it, as it absolutely bulges with extras, and gives CollectR fans a new way of chomping on their favoured mechanic.