El Patron

El Patron: Slot Overview

To deduce whether 'El Patron' (The Patron) had any deeper significance, a Google search brought up a bunch of Latin American restaurants before realising that the name also refers to one of the most infamous crime lords of all time, Pablo Escobar. It wasn't all that long ago that we were asked to remove any reference to EL Chapo when publishing our review of Wild Chapo, so better say it right now - Stakelogic's game does not directly associate itself with Escobar as such, but it features many of the things no doubt part of his lifestyle, such as guns, bullets, bars, booze, and cash.

So much cash did Escobar have, he famously burned $2 million to warm his daughter, or so the story goes. Players shouldn't have much trouble keeping warm in El Patron as it is located in a sort of paramilitary-style base in the middle of a jungle on a hot and steamy day. A picture of El Patron hangs on a wall on the left side of the 5x5, 3,125 ways to win grid, with a jeep and parrots on the other. Above the main game grid are a couple of bonus reels, tying directly to most of the features covered below. A laid-back slinky backing track provides a bit of chill while contrasting, or complementing, the crime addled visuals and the constant hail of bullets.

Players get to dodge said hail of bullets by first selecting stakes from 25 p/c to $/€125 per spin. In addition, it's possible to activate the Super Stake option, which increases the chance of triggering free spins, whilst also doubling the spin cost. A highly volatile game, El Patron generates a default theoretical payback percentage of 96.50%, regardless of betting regularly or in Super form.

Eight normal pay symbols are used throughout the game, and all pay left to right starting from the left-hand side of the grid. Five of them are low pay cigar cutters, cigars, knuckle dusters, pistols, and whiskey bottles worth 2 to 6.4x the bet for five of a kind. Higher up the paytable are three tough chaps locked up behind bars as the premiums, paying out 10 to 80 times your stake for a five-symbol win. Wilds pop up in a multitude of forms as per the features; in all cases, they replace regular symbols to help complete line wins.

El Patron: Slot Features

El Patron uses San Quentin xWays style bonus reels to sling wild modifiers into the game, as well as free spins, a gamble option, and a potential buy feature.

Action Feature

Dealing with the 2 bonus reels first; the reel along the top contains action symbols, while the reel on the bottom contains wild symbols. If 2 symbols align on the top and bottom reels, they activate an applicable action, which will be one of the following:

• Expanding Wilds – a wild symbol lands on the reel and expands vertically to cover the reel.
• Dropping Wilds – 1 to 5 wild symbols land on the reel and drop down one position with respins on each drop until they fall off the grid.
• Multiplier Wilds – 1 to 5 multiplier wild symbols possessing values of x2, x3, x4, or x5 land on the reel. If more than one multiplier is used in a win, the values are multiplied.

Free Spins

Triggered when 3 scatter symbols land in view to award 12 free spins. During free spins, action symbols are replaced on the top bonus reel with machine-gun action symbols. When machine gun action symbols align with wilds on the bottom bonus reel, one of these modifiers takes place:

• Wild Symbols – 1 to 5 wild symbols are added to the reels.
• Multiplier Wild Symbols – 1 to 5 wild symbols with multipliers of x2, x3, x4, or x5 are added.
• Sticky Wild Symbols – 1 to 5 wilds that get locked into position until the end of free spins are placed on the grid.

Gamble Feature

After receiving a win, players may gamble their prize by guessing the colour or suit of a face-down card. Getting it right doubles or quadruples the amount respectively, while guessing wrong losses it all.

Buy Bonus

If such things are permitted where you live, buying your way straight to free spins can be done at a cost of 160x the bet. This will take you directly to the bonus round.

El Patron: Slot Verdict

El Patron comes across as the result of wild tequila fuelled night between San Quentin xWays and NetEnt's Narcos. Interestingly, Narcos was a slot branded directly from the Netflix series of the same name, while El Patron might well have been inspired by a series titled 'Pablo Escobar, El Patron Del Mal', made in 2012 before making its way onto Netflix. The original Colombian telenovela ran to 113 episodes, which was chopped down to 74 by Netflix. Despite the reduction, it still offers just about every detail most viewers could ever want to know about the crime lord's life.

As to the game, El Patron turned out to be entertaining enough without totally blowing us away. Plenty of bullets and dollar bills fly around the base game when symbols on the two bonus reels align, though they rarely managed to accomplish much. It felt like a case of quantity over quality, as if someone had brought an AK47 to an Olympic pistol event and sprayed bullets everywhere in the hope at least one of them hits the target.

This approach worked better in free spins, as the machine gun fires wilds across the reels, rather than putting them on just the triggering reel. Unsurprisingly, regular wilds were most commonly triggered, followed by multipliers, then sticky wilds. Bonus rounds were fairly eventful, but nothing like, say, San Quentin, where several moving parts can converge to create much more sophisticated mayhem. El Patron generally offers one moving part at a time, with little interaction with other features, so it lacks build-up. The payoff suffers too in some ways, with a win cap of 25,000x, which is a fairly impressive number.

For a taste of one of the most dangerous lifestyles on the planet from a safe distance, El Patron might be a fun option. It's not as explosive as it might have been and is bullied into submission by the heavyweight slot it partly resembles. However, there is entertainment here for players who don't necessarily require an all or nothing experience.