Treasure Ireland

Treasure Ireland: Slot Overview

You come across the word Ireland in an online slot title, and it can only mean one thing, right? Leprechauns surely, since they are one of the ongoing staples of the iGaming world. And yep, Treasure Island from Games Global studio Northernlights is indeed a leprechaun slot. However, players fed up with Celtic games might want to hol' up before fleeing to the rolling green hills. The reason why is Northernlights has taken the leprechaun theme on a different tangent and stacked it with some interesting gaming ideas along the way, resulting in something that's not the standard, run-of-the-mill Irish-inspired stuff.

For one thing, Treasure Ireland's base game takes place at sea, wah what? Yep, the leprechaun in this game has left the green grass of Ireland behind and is boating off to somewhere more tropical. Buy or trigger free spins naturally, and the round takes place on a sandy, palm-treed island where the digging for treasure may take place. Treasure Ireland's gaming grid sits on the back of a boat, made up of 5 reels occupied by 5 rows each, which can grow to larger proportions during the bonus round.

Statistically, Treasure Ireland is a medium volatile slot with a default return to player of 96.16%. Its hit rate is quite high, at 41.99%, and wins land along 20 paylines when the gaming grid is at its smallest size or up to 30 when fully extended. The bet limits are 10 c to $/€40 per spin, and three bonus buy options are on hand to skip the waterborne journey (the base game).

Coin-shaped 10 to A card ranks are Treasure Ireland's low pay symbols, worth 1.5 to 2.5 times the bet for a 5 OAK hit. Highs are a mug of beer, purple boots, a green hat, and a pipe paying out 3 to 10 times the bet when hitting a line of 5 matching symbols. Wilds are able to appear in great numbers, as they are sticky in free spins and are present on all reels. Wilds substitute for all of the pay symbols and are worth 10x the bet for a line of 5 wilds.

Treasure Ireland: Slot Features

Treasure Ireland has a fairly long list of features, including the Compass Meter, a Win Breaker Chase, Nudging Scatter Respins, Win Breaker Free Spins with a barrel of special awards and 4 jackpots.

Compass Meter

Each reel in the base game has a Compass Meter with 4 segments located beneath it. When a Compass symbol lands in the base game, it fills one of the segments of the Compass Meter beneath it. When all 4 segments are filled, on the next spin, Compass Wilds are placed on the reel. On each following spin, the stack of Compass Wilds reduces by 1. Compass Wilds are saved per bet.

Win Breaker Chase

The current Win Breaker value is shown on the left boat sitting above the reels. The scatter symbol appears only in the base game and when 2 scatters hit, they add +1 token to the Win Breaker Meter. When the meter is filled (it takes 25 tokens to do so), a higher Win Breaker value is reached. When a new value is reached, the meter resets and there is no maximum Win Breaker value. Meter progress is saved per bet.

Nudging Scatter Respin

Also, when 2 scatters land on the top 3 rows, the Nudging Scatter Respin triggers. Any reels with a scatter are held and nudged downwards. The other reels respin. Respins continue till a scatter reaches the bottom row or 5 scatters land. Free spins are triggered if 3 or more scatters land.

Win Breaker Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters triggers free spins with the Win Breaker multiplied by 1x, 1.5x, or 2x. Free spins continue until a win occurs that reaches the Win Breaker limit on a single spin. Landing a Treasure Chest symbol on a free spin awards one of the following if it reveals a Clover:

• Low pay symbols are removed from the reels for the rest of the feature.
• A cash prize of 1x to 10x the bet.
• An increase to the Win Breaker limit of +1 to +10.
• An extra life that allows the limit to be broken once without ending the round.
• Reel expansion that increases the grid height by 1 up to 6 rows high.
• The Mini, Minor, Major, or Grand Jackpot is worth 50x, 150x, 750x, or 5,000x the bet, respectively.

The Treasure Chest symbol leaves behind a sticky wild that remains active until the free spins round ends. The Win Breaker value resets when used in free spins.

Buy Bonus

From the buy bonus, players can buy the free spins round with a Win Breaker limit of 10x, 30x, or 60x, for a cost of 46x, 106x, or 278x the bet, respectively.

Treasure Ireland: Slot Verdict

Nowadays, thanks to long-haul flights, you can travel from Sydney to New York in like 20 hours. Back in the day, that trip would have taken days, weeks, maybe months, and was fraught with peril. Treasure Ireland transports players to an earlier time of lengthy sail ship travel in more ways than one. The game's skin, obviously, is one way, and it was nice to have a leprechaun slot located at sea rather than bounding across the rolling hills of Ireland for a change. Treasure Ireland might not ooze shamrocks from every single orifice like a more classically presented leprechaun slot, but is all the better for it.

The second way Treasure Ireland felt like a long sea voyage was the way it might suit players who like to settle down for a lengthy session in an attempt to get the most out of a game. There are bonus buys, which didn't turn out badly on the whole, but they kind of felt a little bit like cheating. Okay, maybe not cheating, but imagine riding a helicopter to the top of Mt Everest, hopping out, taking a few selfies, then heading back to base camp to post them on socials to get some likes and make your friends jelly. Something like that. Some may find it more satisfying to grind through the base game, increasing the Win Breaker (which theoretically has no limit) and hitting a few compasses along the way.

Funny, the compass idea brought back memories of Cash Compass from Hacksaw Gaming while the Win Breaker smacked of Slotmill's slot The Big Hit. Have to say The Big Hit was the more knife-edged nail-biting experience of the two, but Treasure Ireland wasn't bad either. Same concept – win, just don't win so big as to shut down the free spins round, or win massive, i.e. hit the Grand and call it a day. The Big Hit has far greater potential at 20,000x the bet compared to Treasure Ireland's 5,000x potential if bigger winning potential is a must. If not, then Treasure Ireland is an enjoyable leprechaun game that, despite the commonplace character, delivered surprises thematically and mechanically.