Huff N’ Puff CollectR

Huff N' Puff CollectR: Slot Overview

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, well, it was 2023, so not that long, four feisty parrots landed on a gaming grid and set about chowing down gems in the eater slot Pirots. Way before that, casino game maker Light & Wonder brought the classic tale 'The Three Little Pigs' to life on the reels in its Huff N' Puff range, and now, thanks to ELK Studios, two popular gambling components have been mashed together to form one. There are no parrots, this time, but the studio has married thematic and mechanical elements together to create Huff N' Puff CollectR, a slot which boasts a lot of gameplay, gobbling, house building and huffin' 'n' puffin'.

Anyone who's played a Pirots slot will instantly spot the connection to Huff N' Puff CollectR. The main characters have changed, of course, and to celebrate the story, the background depicts a construction area where houses made of straw, wood and brick lie in various states of completion. In the story, the straw house is frowned upon because, whilst it was quick and easy to build, it couldn't stop the wolf. But brick buildings take a while to construct, so what if the wolf turned up before the brick pig was finished and just, like, squeezed through an unfinished part of the wall? Anyway, we'll put the what-ifs aside for now to concentrate on what Huff N' Puff CollectR constructs on screen.

The play area alternates between the default 6x6 and a maximum of 8x8, where pigs are able to wander around and collect symbols. After the shock RTP lift of Oxygen 3, ELK Studios sticks to the upgraded 96% level for Huff N' Puff CollectR, while the math model accompanying the game is highly volatile and bets of $/€0.20 to $/€100 can be wagered on each base game spin.

The regular pay symbols are four gems linked to each of the four pigs, coloured blue, green, purple, and red. Gems can be upgraded to higher payout levels, maxing out at level 7, where they are worth 1.5x-5x the bet each.

Huff N' Puff CollectR: Slot Features

Huff N' Puff CollectR has a lot of gameplay to huff through, such as symbol collection, a collection meter, feature symbols, a Golden Wheel, Hat Mania, Mega Hat Mania, Big Tony's extra chance, wolf demolition, corner bombs, bonus games, super bonus games, piggy coins, and feature buys.

Symbol Collection

Pigs move around the grid collecting adjacent gems of the same colour and any feature symbols. Collected symbols disappear, new ones drop in, and the process continues as long as pigs can still move. If two pigs get stuck next to each other, they may perform a Switcheroo and swap places or move elsewhere on the grid. If three pigs line up horizontally or vertically, they fight and clear gems in a 5x5 area before flying across the grid, removing gems and triggering features like corner bombs, wolf construction symbols, scatters, or super scatters. Gems removed this way do not count toward the collection meter.

Collection Meter

The meter keeps track of gems and wilds collected by pigs (except during wolf construction). When the meter is full, one pending feature symbol is released. Up to three feature symbols can be pending, and all are released simultaneously. A feature symbol release converts a number of gems into feature symbols. There are 9 feature symbols:

• Scatter, Super Scatter & Hat.
• Upgrade - Upgrades the payout level of gems of the same colour as the collecting pig by 1-3 steps, up to level 7.
• Upgrade All - Upgrades all four gems by 1-3 steps, up to level 7.
• Wolf Construction - Triggers the wolf construction feature. The wolf collects symbols column by column, though not the jackhammer and transform symbols. It is able to activate corner bombs. When collecting a pig, a fight takes place. If the wolf wins, the crane multiplier increases by 1, and the defeated pig is removed. If the pig wins a fight, the wolf construction feature ends, and the crane multiplier applies to the accumulated value. If all four pigs are defeated, the wolf collects all remaining symbols on the grid before the crane multiplier is applied.
• Transform - Transforms a cluster of gems next to the pig that collected the transform symbol into the same colour as the pig. It may also change gems into feature symbols.
• Jackhammer - Places pig tokens in empty grid spaces. Pigs can use these to cross empty spaces one time to reach additional symbols.
• Wild - Substitutes for any gem at their current level. Pigs cannot finish on a wild.

Additional Features

• Golden Wheel - When the pigs or wolf have collected all the collectable symbols on the grid, the Golden Wheel feature is triggered. The wheel can award Mega Hat Mania, Hat Mania, the bonus round, the super bonus, or an instant payout.
• Hat Mania & Mega Hat Mania - For Hat Mania, 3 drops are awarded on a 6x6 grid. Landing 3 or more hats awards +1 drop. Only hats up to 6x6 in size and blanks appear. Hats add or upgrade the position level they land on, from straw to wood to brick frames. A hat landing on a brick frame adds a brick frame to another position. When no drops remain, all frames in view reveal coin symbols depending on their level from 0.25 to 2,500. Mega Hat Mania is essentially the same as Hat Mania, but it is played on an 8x8 grid, and hats can be up to 8x8 in size. Also, at the start of the feature, a number of mega hat drops take place before the regular drops occur.
• Wolf Demolition - Wolf demolition can trigger when pigs are unable to collect more symbols. It removes all symbols and 1-3 pigs and drops them back in a different order.
• Corner Bombs - Bombs are located at each corner of the 6x6 grid. Each bomb and corner is assigned a different colour, linked to the pigs' colours. If a pig collects a symbol on top of a bomb of the same colour, it detonates when pigs can no longer move. This removes all pigs and gems in a 3x3 area. The connected pipeline section is removed as well. This is able to expand the grid up to 8x8. The pipe surrounding the grid acts as a tunnel when one of the sections has been removed. Pigs may move through the tunnel if they can collect symbols at the entrance and exit. Tunnel sections can reveal up to two feature symbols. A well becomes available in a corner when at least two pipeline sections have been removed. Pigs can travel between wells if collectable symbols are on top of two or more wells.
• Big Tony's Extra Chance - Big Tony's extra chance can trigger when the pigs cannot collect any more symbols. It activates 1-4 corner bombs, and pigs leave the game grid.

Bonus Game

Landing 3 bonus scatters triggers 5 free spins in the bonus game. Hat symbols add frames or upgrade them, and at the end of the round, coins populate the frames. Frames persist between free spins. Landing 3 or more hats on the same spin awards +1 spin. A collected bonus symbol in any bonus round triggers the saw feature, where frames are created or upgraded on all positions the bonus symbol passes over. Progress on the collection meter and gem payout level is also persistent during bonus features. If one of the triggering scatters was a super scatter, the super bonus is triggered. This round starts with the saw feature.

Piggy Coins

Piggy coins can land on any spin or free spin. They get added to the Piggy Bank and can trigger the Super Wheel or Jackpot Wheel when added. The Jackpot Wheel, when triggered, awards 10x to 2,500x the bet, while the Super Wheel can award Mega Hat Mania, Hat Mania, the bonus, super bonus, or an instant payout.

X-iter

At the X-iter, players can activate the Bonus Hunt for 3x to make it 3 times more likely to trigger a bonus, a Wolf Construction feature for 25x (a super bonus is guaranteed if the bonus game triggers), or Mega Hat Mania for 50x. From there, it is possible to buy the bonus round for 100x or the super bonus round for 250x the stake.

Huff N' Puff CollectR: Slot Verdict

There is a lot to unpack here as Huff N' Puff CollectR absolutely bulges with features. ELK Studios has designed a bunch of Pirots slots by now, so the team has honed its craft when making these sorts of games, and it shows. The first Pirots slot feels almost quaint now by comparison, a little on the simple side when compared with what has followed. Not taking anything away from the original, though, as it remains a solid eater game. It's just that later releases have steadily built on top of each other, like a house, made of bricks. Despite the screeds of text on the paytable, what makes getting your head around how Huff N' Puff CollectR functions easier is the fact that a lot of it makes for repeat viewing. In fact, and this is just an observation rather than a dig, but it feels like ELK Studios took Pirots 4, and slapped extras on there that link it to 'The Three Little Pigs' theme.

Features also link to Light & Wonder's Huff N' games, as well. This includes hat symbols, adding frames, or upgrading frames, which go on to reveal prizes. The saw feature has deep roots, too, giving Huff N' Puff CollectR a real something old, something new feel, bonding the past and the present into one greedy little pig of a game. One area where Huff N' Puff CollectR differs from its parrot cousins is that ELK Studios has noticeably reduced the winning potential down to 5,000x the bet. What's a little odd is that the max win figure is less than something like Huff N' Even More Puff offered. Maybe ELK Studios chose to do it this way to ensure one of its flagship series isn't eclipsed by a rival franchise crossover?

Overall, Huff N' Puff CollectR is a feature-heavy slot that brings a land-based icon and an infamous eater franchise together in one wildly unforeseen mashup. Old-school degens might be scratching their temples trying to visualise how it all works just by reading the text , but in practice, Huff N' Puff CollectR is not hard to follow along. Better yet, it's arguably as action-packed as any of its CollectR predecessors, with flurries of entertaining munching a distinct possibility even if the max win is a teensy bit disappointing.