Pandas Fortune

A popular Asian theme that you'll see from time to time is the panda, and Panda's Fortune by Pragmatic Play is centered completely around this animal. He takes an important role in the game itself, but you'll also see a lot of other Asian motifs as well. The graphics of this game are pretty good, and there are plenty of ways to win, but it also has a pretty high volatility. This means you'll need to adjust your bet sizes to be a bit lower than usual until you get used to the swings that come along with this level of variance.

Format and Layout

In terms of layout, everything here is pretty straightforward with five reels and three rows. There are 25 paylines of action available, and you can bet between one and 10 coins on each of those lines for an overall betting range of 25 to 250 coins per turn. Since the coins can run from $0.01 to $0.50 apiece, the minimum bet size is $0.25 per spin. You can also wager as much as $125 on the maximum side, and it's clear from this huge range of bet sizes that you can play at whatever stakes you're comfortable with.

Wild Panda Symbol

The panda is the star of the show, and it appears on the second, third, fourth and fifth reels only. He won't get you any payouts to himself because he doesn't appear on the first reel. However, he is a wild symbol, and he helps by substituting for anything but the scatter symbol in this game. He's in the name of this title for a reason, and that reason is that he helps to give a ton of value by getting you payouts that you couldn't have gotten without him.

Bonus Yin-Yang Scatter

The scatter symbol is the yin-yang bonus symbol, and it's one of the two most important symbols in the game (the other being the wild). Five of a kind pays you 100 times your total bet, which is like a 2,500x line bet payout, making it one of the largest wins for a single combination in the game. Four gets you 15x, and three pays 2x, both of which are also times your total bet.

Because this symbol can win no matter where it lands on the game board, it's worth quite a bit more than it may seem. Keep this in mind when you're looking at the other payouts and the way the pay table is structured.

Free Spins Bonus Feature

You can also win free spins with the scatter. Three or more gets you a set of free spins, and you'll win between eight and 15 free spins for this feature. During this feature, the second, third, fourth and fifth reels all have a mystery symbol that shows up stacked. At the end of the feature, they'll all turn into the same non-scatter symbol that is chosen at random. This can become the wild as well, which means major, multi-line payouts are available. You can add five free spins to the round with three or more of the yin-yang anywhere on the reels during the feature with no maximum limit.

Static Jackpot Feature

There are three static jackpots. The grand is worth 800x, the major worth 200x and the minor worth 25x. When you get five of a kind with a golden version of the paying symbol on the fifth reel, you'll trigger that jackpot. This is one of the main things in this game that adds so much volatility.

Other Notable Wins

Five of the butterfly gets you 200x. You can win 150x for five of the purple line or 100x for five of the green frog. Five of the blue fish or banzai tree pay 100x as well. The five card rank symbols pay 50x for five of a kind of any of them, making it really easy to keep up with all of their top payouts.

In Summary

The Panda's Fortune slot by Pragmatic Play has a lot to offer players with a different way of awarding big jackpots that we haven't seen used very much. With the combination of the golden fifth reel symbols used to trigger the jackpots and the free spins feature, we think this game has a lot of value packed into it. The high volatility comes from how much value is put into these features, as the regular payouts are actually pretty balanced, so you'll get an interesting style of gameplay with a good level of visual appeal with this title.