Honeylock’s Pots

Honeylock's Pots: Slot Overview

Three-pot/three-feature games have exploded recently, and now is the time for developer Quickspin to add another one. You can imagine how the idea of pots might have led to honeypots, then to bears, before ending up on the classic fairy tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears. However, Quickspin has reimagined the tale as Honeylock's Pots, where the bear family is connected to features and one to three of them can trigger as part of a hold 'n' win bonus round.

If you've played the Quickspin hit Big Bad Wolf, Honeylock's Pots looks a little like that. At least, it has the same sort of graphical quality to it, and the outdoor vibe is comparable. However, instead of a wolf antagonising the heroes, there's a leggy Goldilocks/Honeylocks character eating porridge, breaking chairs and whatnot. Fair enough, this is a slot, so it might have been uncomfortable if a curly, golden-haired little kid had appeared instead. A wide-open meadow is where the game is played, rather than the three bears' house that Goldilocks busts up in the tale, for whatever reason.

Honeylock's Pots is a medium volatile slot played on a 5x4 game grid. It has 30 paylines evaluating winning combinations left to right, starting from the leftmost reel. Players may stake $/€0.10 to $/€100 and the max RTP is 96.03%, though lower models are available, too.

J-A parchment-style card ranks are the low pays, awarding 1x to 2x for a 5-of-a-kind winning combination. The mediums are bowls of porridge, chairs, beds, and little houses, paying 8x to 20x for 5 OAK. Wilds land on all reels. They substitute all symbols except Honey symbols and pay 50x for 5 wilds in a winning combination. When a wild lands, it may expand randomly to cover the whole reel as part of the Honeylock Expand feature. If one wild expands all wilds in view, expand as well.

Honeylock's Pots: Slot Features

Honey symbols are needed to move into the bonus phase, and they bring with them three different modifiers. The bonus can be bought, and an Extra Bet is also available.

Honey Symbols

There are 3 Honey symbols that can trigger the bonus - Diamonds, Hearts, and Clubs. One of each may land at a time. Any landed Honey symbol provides the chance to trigger the bonus game with the corresponding feature. Diamond (Grabber), Heart (Expander), and Clubs (Prizepot). Up to three Honey symbols may land at once in the base game, triggering up to three features. In the bonus round, Honey symbols have a chance of triggering their feature if it is not already activated.

Honey Boost

If a Honey symbol lands but the bonus does not trigger, the Honey Boost may activate. The Honeylock will appear to trigger the corresponding feature for that Honey symbol.

Bonus

The bonus game may trigger when at least one Honey symbol hits. The Mama Bear, Baby Bear, or Prizepot symbols are active if their matching Honey symbols hit and triggered the bonus. On each spin, coins and/or special symbols may land and stick to the reels till the round ends. 3 spins are initially awarded, which reset when a new symbol lands. Coins have random values of 0.2x to 25x.

• Grabber Symbol - Adds the values of all other symbols in the unlocked area to its own upon landing.
• Prizepot Symbol - Each landed Prizepot symbol moves the Prizepot Meter forward one step. If the current step is linked to a prize, that prize is added to the Prizepot symbol. Step 2, 4, 6, and 8 awards the Mini, Minor, Major, and Mega, worth 10x, 30x, 150x, or 2,500x the bet, respectively.
• Expander Symbol - Unlocks 2-5 positions from the locked area. Up to 15 positions may be unlocked. The 8th and 15th unlocked positions award a maximum life increase of 1 to a maximum of 5 lives.

Feature Buys & Extra Bet

Players can buy the bonus round with 1, 2, or 3 features for 30x, 50x, or 85x the bet, respectively. By activating the Extra Bet for 2x the stake, the Honeylock Expand is guaranteed to occur when a wild lands.

Honeylock's Pots: Slot Verdict

Quickspin has once again turned to its book of fairy tales, one of those old, cracked ones with the gold-edged pages, to find inspiration for an online slot. It's also apparently been inspired by the current trend for this style of gaming. It's funny, one moment the online slots sun seems to revolve around all things scatter pays, then it's all three pot feature games. Developers can't seem to get enough of them, and hopefully, players feel this way, too, because there are a lot of these sorts of titles to choose from now. Honeylock's Pots sits somewhere around the middle of them, being neither a powerful beast that devours all in its path nor a feeble release with absolutely nothing to offer.

A 2,500x the bet, relatively low max win is one thing stopping Honeylock's Pots from attaining growling papa bear status. The other is gameplay, which basically centres on a pretty basic hold 'n' win game with jackpots and a bit of modifying ability. The modifiers do improve the experience, such as the Grabber causing baby bear to fly around pulling in values, and the Expander providing extra space to land stuff. The Prizepot is important, too, since it's the one that may lead directly to the Grand prize, equating to the Honey's Luck win cap in one go.

Oh well, that was Honeylock's Pots. It's a lite game, the three bears inject novelty, and each one has been neatly integrated with the features, so while it didn't make a deep impression, it could be one for hardcore three-feature enthusiasts with an interest in reimagining fairy tales to enjoy, not too hot, not too cold, and all that.