Relax Gaming, which is owned by Kindred, has partnered up with casino streaming community Casinogrounds once again for its online slot product Net Gains, making this their third collaboration following Iron Bank (2020) and Beast Mode (2022). A band of humanlike animals set sail from Venice Beach in search of gold in Net Gains. Of course not! In 2019, a 600-pound bluefin tuna was sold in Japan to sushi restaurant owner Kiyoshi Kimura for $3.1 million. If you were able to catch a few of those, you’d probably be ‘printing. We apologize in advance if we resort to any streaming cliches while discussing Net Gains. Net Gains is not a ripoff of Fishin’ Frenzy or Big Bass Bonanza, which is excellent news for those who are sick of these kind of games. It’s a unique beast of the deep, with a lot of tricks up its sleeve. Let’s set sail and see what we can haul in with our trawl. Please accept my apologies in advance for any fishing clichés that may appear.
Net Gains, as referred to, is located in the ocean, where a boat bobs up and down as upbeat music plays in the background. We rejoin the Lion and his pals the Shark, Croc, and Rhino on board as they hang traps over the side in search of marine life. The visual style and mood are very different from the two previous installments, Beast Mode and Iron Bank. The audiovisual presentation is, however, excellent; it’s hard to find fault with it. There is an upbeat buzz in the air, and any concerns that the game’s less detailed visuals might have induced have been swept away in a wave of seawater and fish guts. To hear Letsgiveitaspin (Kim), a casino streamer, yell out his signature “ding ding” catchphrase, click the bell in the upper left corner of the video window.
Net Gains is a very volatile slot (ranked 5 out of 5), which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given that it was developed in collaboration with a streamer community. It also offers a variety of gameplay options. Typically, a player will select a wager of 10 pence to sixty pounds or euros each spin and then hit the play button. In addition, players have the option of activating the Special Bet, which raises the per-spin cost by 20% but increases the bonus-round trigger probability by 82%. Finally, players can pay 100 times their bet to unlock the bonus round. Since it is a Relax Gaming creation, you can count on a reliable RTP of 96.1% during normal play and 96.5% during the feature buy.
Net Gains has a 5-reel, 4-row matrix with a whopping 4,096 possible paylines. This occurs when three or more successive reels have the same symbol from the first reel, reading left to right. You need at least three of a kind to win, and the prizes for getting six of a kind range from 2% to 25% of your wager for the chests, booze, octopi, crabs, and lions, respectively. When a winning combination is made, it is removed from the board and the symbols below it cascade into the empty spaces. After the symbols have fallen, if a fresh win is made, the cascade procedure will begin again. Final reels 2-6 wild sharks aid complete methods to win by substituting for regular pay symbols.
The Upside of Slot Machine Extras
The rules of Net Gains emphasize the use of the number three often. For example, there are three types of mystery symbols available in the main game, and three types of bonus rounds that may be earned naturally or purchased. The three hidden icons in the original game are:
The same sort of mysterious symbol is shown every time.
When activated, the octopus mystery symbols transform the current symbol set into a mysterious format.
After winnings are calculated, bomb mystery symbols will destroy any non-mystery symbols.
One mystery symbol may disclose a scatter symbol if two scatter symbols have already been gathered. In addition, the mystery symbols are not cleared from the board, but rather remain there until the following cascade.
Bonus Turns
Free games are triggered by collecting three scatter symbols, and players may select between three different bonus rounds: Sticky Mystery Free Spins, Stacked Wilds Free Spins, and Coin Collection Free Spins. In all three, getting an extra spins symbol means getting an additional pair of free games. If this symbol is destroyed, it is removed from the grid. Hot Mode can also activate at any time during a bonus round. There’s a better possibility of striking a major target when it does.
Free, Unknown, and Sticky Spins
During the bonus round, which consists of 5 free spins, any of the three mystery symbols (normal, octopus, or bomb) may appear on reels 2 through 6. At the end of each sequence, the hidden symbols all turn out to be the same. If an octopus mystery sign is struck, it will reveal its category. On Reels 2-6, all visible occurrences of this kind will change into mystery symbols. After that, the octopus changes into a standard mystery sign. Mystery bombs work the same way as ordinary ones, revealing a symbol, but then erasing any regular ones that weren’t part of a victory. It becomes a standard mystery sign after that. In this round, one free spin is earned for every three times a cascade occurs, and one mystery symbol is added to the reels at the conclusion of each free spin. The counter does not clear itself between turns.
Free Games with Stacked Wilds
This one gives you 7 free spins and two different kinds of wilds on reels 2-6. There are two types of wilds: multiplier wilds, which can increase your bet by a factor of 2–5, and countdown wilds, which constantly count down from 3. When employed in a winning combination, countdown wilds have their counter reduced by 1. Include them in a victory when they are showing a value of 1, and they will be deleted from the grid. Any remaining countdown wilds after a spin will fall to the bottom of the reels for the following spin.
Bonus Spins for Collecting Coins
In the first stage of the Coin Collection bonus, you’ll get 8 free spins during which coin symbols with predetermined multiplier values may appear. There are three levels, from bronze (1x-40x) through silver (3x-100x) to gold (10x-2,500x). On the first spin and during cascades, the rightmost reel is open to a collector symbol. Coin values are rewarded if they land at the same moment. Any coins that make it to the next cascade will still be given out. There is a chance (one every spin) of obtaining a persistent collector that moves to the bottom of the grid and remains there for the duration of the feature, picking up coins. When a persistent collector appears, an additional +5 free spins are added to the total. If four or more coins are struck without a collector present, the coins are retrieved and their values recorded. If a collector lands on a future cascade during the same spin, the money they saved will be paid out. Coins that land give an extra point to a meter. When the meter hits 10, you get an additional spin and the betting limits for each coin type go up by one. Even if the range doesn’t expand after five rounds, you still get an extra turn. Finally, a coin rain may occur, showering the reel with 10 identical coins.
Winners at the Slots?
Even though there was a lot of information to take in, using Net Gains is actually rather simple. Game phases are zipped through, cascade wins are unleashed on impact, and the occasional mystery sign is revealed—though some of them may feel as priceless as pearls. It was extremely difficult to decipher the bomb mystery sign. Net Gains may not have been as effective as the first two slots from this partnership because it is the third one between Relax Gaming and Casinogrounds. Maybe it’s because it doesn’t have the same level of visual detail as a bank heist or the same complex backstory as a trip to the cultural melting pot that was Beast Mode. The cast of Net Gains is fun, but ultimately it’s just a bunch of buddies out fishing.
The good news is that Net Gains also features the type of gameplay that can break through it to produce thrills. All three games have the unique feature of offering players a variety of extra rounds from which to choose, and this flexibility is often appreciated. All three might provide thrilling moments during testing, with the screen becoming completely covered with wilds or mystery symbols at random. The Coin Collection bonus round was reminiscent, with some improvements, of the ubiquitous money symbol gather function found in fishing-themed slot machines. This was probably done on purpose so that those who enjoy collecting monetary symbols can continue to do so without missing out or being forced to switch games when the desire arises. While the maximum win in Iron Bank was 30,000 times the stake, the maximum win in Beast Mode was just 15,000 times the bet.
The decline in maximum wins is reflective of a similar decline in innovation in Net Gain’s games. Don’t get us wrong – we had a great time reviewing and playing Net Gains, and you won’t find a shortage of meaty features to tinker with either. Net Gains isn’t quite as impressive as the last two, but when it’s hot, it’s still a lot of fun.
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