Hot Gems Xtreme: PowerPlay Jackpot Slot by Playtech

This is the PowerPlay Jackpot cut of Hot Gems Xtreme, a Playtech Origins slot set down a cartoon gem mine. A whiskered prospector tops the paytable, followed by an ore cart, a pickaxe and a lantern, then a spread of coloured gems down to the ruby and the purple stone. The whole thing runs on Ways Boost, which is the reason to play it.

The reels start at 6 by 4 for 4,096 ways, but every win adds rows and the ways count climbs with them. I watched it jump 4,096 to 15,625 to 46,656 on three spins, and the ceiling is 262,144 ways once the grid opens all the way up to eight rows. A multicoloured diamond is the wild and stands in for everything bar the specials. TNT and a fiery mystery symbol shake up the grid, the mystery tile flipping to reveal a matching symbol across the reels.

Three mine-cage Bonus symbols open the Free Games with Safety Levels. The name is the point here: the boosted ways you built up in the base game carry into the round rather than resetting, so the free spins can run at the full 262,144 ways from the off. Land the grid wide and it's the best the game gets, base max win capped at 10,000x your stake.

What this SKU adds over the plain Playtech version is the PowerPlay Jackpot, three progressive tiers called Mega, Peak and Mini. They show "Unavailable" in the free demo since progressives only pay for real money, and feeding them is why the RTP here sits at 94.94%, a notch under the base game's 95.81%. Treat the demo as a way to feel out the Ways Boost, not to chase the jackpots.