games

Dead Canary

It turns out that life in the mines doesn’t have to be so miserable - unless you happen to be a canary. After successfully finding the perfect brew recipe for the perfect beer, it’s now time to accompany our favourite angry dwarf on his quest for true love... It goes without saying that such a journey will require tonnes of explosives, heaps of treasure as well as a handful of trusty old canaries to scope out those dusty mines.

20-12-2022

Release Date

96.02%

RTP

Volatility

26.20%

Hit Frequency

1 in 7m

Max Win Probability

65 000 x bet

Max payout

1 in 197

Free Spins

3-4-3-4-3-4

Reels/Rows

Yes

Feature buy-in

Yes

Bonus mode

€0.20/€100.00

Min/Max bet

Dead Canary summary

Life in the mines can be miserable, but Nolimit City is here to lighten the mood with the Dead Canary slot. Join our favorite angry dwarf as he searches for true love and hidden treasures deep underground. The game begins on a unique 3-4-3-4-3-4 grid where half the rows are initially blocked by barriers, requiring you to blast your way to victory. If you want to grab some dynamite and explore these caverns without any financial risk, you can play for free right here on Playin.com.

Base Game Mechanics and Features

Clearing the blocked rows requires explosive action. Every winning combination, Wild Mining trigger, or xBomb explosion will shatter a barrier and open up more space for new symbols. The xBomb Wild Multiplier is your best tool in these dark shafts, substituting for regular symbols before blowing up in a cross pattern to destroy adjacent blocks and increase your win multiplier. The Wild Mining feature activates when matching symbols align diagonally without creating a win, rewarding you with up to three wild bombs to keep the chain reactions going. You also have the option to activate the xBet feature to pay a little extra for a guaranteed scatter symbol and an instantly unlocked barrier on your very first drop.

Bonus Rounds and Free Spins

Uncovering three scatter symbols initiates the highly volatile Canary Freespins. The grid expands, and the triggering scatters remain on the board inside silver or gold cages. These birds act as collectors, gathering coins, multipliers, and special modifiers like the rat or dwarf during your spins. The collected values are only awarded when the bird loses all three of its hit points from gas or xBomb explosions, after which it respawns to collect again. Silver cages collect from adjacent diagonal spots, while gold cages collect across entire diagonal rows. You can practice keeping your birds alive and test these intricate mechanics in a free slot tournament to compete against other miners for real cash prizes.

Volatility Rating and Potential

Nolimit City shows no mercy when it comes to the math model, assigning this mining adventure an Extreme volatility rating. The ultimate goal is the Happy Wife, Happy Life payout, which awards the massive maximum win potential of 65,000 times your base bet. Because the exploding barriers and bird collection features are incredibly unique and can be highly punishing, preparing yourself with virtual currency is a smart strategic decision. Using your Playin coins allows you to learn how the different vault and cage modifiers function completely risk free before you dig in with real money.

Reviews

8.83

9.0

Bigwinboard

Nolimit City's previous below-ground mining games have been heavy affairs, and Dead Canary keeps the tradition going with an equally weighty experience. The three games share a few things in common. One is the inventive base game grid layouts, where things such as expansions and reel unlocking capabilities are rife. Dead Canary takes this a step further, where the grid's almost leaning quality might make it a little tricky to grasp how wins are formed and, at times, why a win happened at first. The dropping, sliding effect of the collapse mechanic felt similar-ish to the one used in ELK Studios' slot Cluster Slide. You do get used to it after a while, and it offers a new slant on the action to try out. Speaking of action, the base game actually saw quite a lot of it. Wins were plentiful, as were collapses, but payout values, even after a semi-lengthy game round, tended to be surprisingly on the low side. This wasn't as detrimental when playing regularly, yet with the xBet switched on, the game chewed through the balance at a noticeably faster rate. The flip side is that the free spins feature did trigger a lot more when the xBet was activated. As an indicator after tracking the first 1,000 or so spins (if memory serves), the first 500 were played in the regular mode, triggering free spins three times with a max payout of around 70x. The next 500 were with the xBet on, resulting in around half a dozen free spins triggers with a top payout of 183x. That seemed like a lot of triggers, considering the official free spins frequency is 1 in 197 spins, though, of course, this is simply an indication from a small sample size, which could go either way out in the wild. Bonus round wins could have been higher if canaries didn't have to die before they awarded their values. Bonus rounds were quite busy, too, with loads of landing, collecting, gassing, unlocking, multiplying and so on, but returns could be so-so, regardless of the flurry. As mentioned, one of the reasons is because if those canaries don't perish, bad luck, you miss out. Unlike regular hold 'n wins which award everything that hits, you've got to land something decent, then hope the bird gets nuked or gassed so you can collect. It's kind of like commodity traders making a fortune when wars push commodity prices up. Back in the gambling realm, Canary Free Spins also brought to mind Push Gaming's Mad Cars, where juicy AF car symbols could land, but if they didn't pass the finish line, oh well, no money for you. So yeah, the tease might be strong with this one. Of course, this is Nolimit City, so those familiar with their work probably aren't expecting to just tap a rock and watch gold come pouring forth like a shaken beer can. Mining is hard work, and Dead Canary can be, too, though it is another highly creative game like nothing else out there. It can frustrate but also reward to the tune of up to 65,000x the bet. So, for a challenge or to experience another Nolimit City envelope-pushing slot, Dead Canary is worth a prospect.

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8.5

AboutSlots

Like people who promptly insist not to read manuals when building furniture, you also will be able to grasp the game on your own eventually, but it's highly recommended to read through this review to get a better overview and preparation for the visit. That said, it is a lovely sequel within this mining series, where the angry dwarf now can be stated to be a happy dwarf after meeting his woman. The question however is how long he remains happy and can live in peace, as the Canary birds could be plotting a revenge for their fallen members. It remains to be seen...

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9.0

Online-Slot.co.uk

In summary, the Dead Canary slot offers something new and distinct. It still remains true to Misery Mining but has innovative gameplay giving it a unique feel. If you fancy getting down and dirty in mineshafts by blowing up canaries and rats, Dead Canary is well worth going of a quest for true love for.

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Highlights

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Wild Mining xBomb®

Live Streams

Game Features

Wild Mining

Wild Mining is triggered in the main game when 3,4 or 5 of the same kind of paying symbols align diagonally, when there is no winning combination. The triggering symbols will be removed and create a Wild symbol in the middle positions of the alignment: - 3 symbols award 1 Wild bomb. - 4 symbols award 2 Wild bombs. - 5 symbols award 3 Wild bombs. Wild bomb explosions will increase the win multiplier by 1 for the next collapse. All other symbols will explode, except xBomb® symbols. If a Scatter symbol gets blown away, it reappears in a random position in the next collapse.

Scatters

In the main game, the Scatter symbols can land on any reel, but if it lands behind the barrier it will not come in play until it is unblocked. Scatter symbols will stick to their positions and remain there during Canary Freespins, unless any Scatter symbol lands in the vault position. It will then be pushed to an available space towards the centre. There are two types of Scatter symbols: - Silver cage Scatter symbol. - Gold Cage Scatter symbol. Three Scatter symbols of any kind will trigger Canary Freespins.

xBomb Wild Multiplier

An xBomb® Wild symbol substitutes for any symbol except Scatter symbols. An xBomb explodes symbols in a cross pattern next to it, except Scatter symbols and other xBombs and will increase the win multiplier by 1 for the next collapse. All xBombs will explode before the next collapse.

xBet

At a cost of an extra 40%, the player is guaranteed a Scatter symbol and the first barrier to be unlocked. The payout for each symbol is not affected.

Bonus mode: Canary Freespins

Three Scatter symbols of any kind triggers Canary Freespins. The reel area becomes a 4-3-4-3-4-3-4 with the four vaults in the corners being locked. The four vaults are locked in freespins but collect coins and multipliers from the three neighbouring positions. The vaults can be opened by xBomb explosions. When a vault gets unlocked, everything that is collected will be awarded as a win at the end of the bonus mode. Scatter symbols start with 1x and can collect coins, multipliers, upgrades, the rat and the dwarf enhancer. - Silver cage Scatters: Collect in an x-shape 1 position from itself - Gold cage Scatters Collect in an x-shape from the entire rows All coin values are valued as ( X ) the active bet. Scatter symbols and vaults will stop collecting after 65,000x. The Scatter symbol furthest to the left will pick up first. Scatter symbols start with 3 hit points and the collected wins will only be awarded if the birds die. xBombs and gas makes the Scatter symbol lose one hit point. When the bird dies it will respawn in its cage. Canary Freespins start with 3 spins. xBombs reset the spin count to 3. Scatter symbols will be randomly positioned from any bonus buy.

Happy Wife, Happy Life

The max payout of the game is 65,000 times the base bet. When the total win exceeds this amount, the game round will end and 65,000 times the base bet is awarded.

Nolimit Bonus - Feature Buy Functionality

Buy your way straight into one of the different bonus features, ranging from 68-500 the base be

* The Nolimit Bonus feature may however be removed in some regulated markets.

Game xMechanics

xBet®

At an extra cost per spin, the player gets an increased chance of getting into the Bonus Modes. The way this happens varies from game to game. The payout for each symbol is not affected.

xBomb®

An xBomb Wild symbol substitutes any symbol except for the Bonus symbols. An exploding xBomb Wild removes adjacent symbols except for Bonus symbols and will increase the win multiplier by one for the next collapse. All xBomb Wilds will explode before the next collapse, except when the Wild Mining feature is triggered. An xBomb Wild will explode when there is a win, no matter if it’s a part of the winning combination or not. It will explode and trigger a new collapse if there isn’t a win, and wild Mining feature is not triggered.