What do you get when you cross a pirate with a parrot? A Pirot! Okay, maybe the pun in the title of the Pirots slot game doesn’t land quite as well as ELK Studios would have liked, but the developer has managed to put a fresh twist on the pirate genre if nothing else. The slot is themed around a group of ‘Pirots’, each of which comes with its own weapons and modifiers. Does the slot manage to do anything new with its gameplay, though? Let’s take a look at this Pirots slot review and find out. 

You can also give the Pirots demo, which you can find in this slot review, a try and see if it’s the right game for you.

ELK Studios always delivers fun real money slots online, and the Pirots slot is no different. The pirate theme is one with lots of potential, and the developer has fully exploited that. The game screen is an ocean of color, with the sea creating a deep-blue backdrop and the reels being filled with quirky titular characters. The design of the Pirots is something you would expect to find in a mobile game like Angry Birds, with each of them having its own personality. The theme song is as piratey as you’d expect, and your enjoyment of it will depend on your tolerance for swashbuckling themes.

You have to take your hat off to ELK Studios, the company is always willing to mix things up. The game has a unique set-up. It uses a 5x5 grid, but it doesn’t use traditional paylines. Instead, on each drop, four bird symbols land with payment gems and other symbols. If a bird lands next to matching-colored gems, it will collect them, paying players out for the number it has collected. A collection meter is above the reels, and the value of the gems increases whenever you move up a level. This resets after each spin.

The gameplay might be unique, but getting the reels spinning is the same as usual. The stake is adjusted using the stack of coins icon, with a minimum bet of $0.20 and a maximum of $100 on offer, covering a healthy betting range.

ELK Studios has used HTML5 technology to develop Pirots. The mobile version of the slot plays just as well as the desktop version, with the colorful title characters and the world they inhabit popping right off mobile and tablet screens.

The Pirots slot game keeps things interesting with its bonus features. On each spin, it is possible for bonus features to land. Bonus features are triggered when players move up a level. There are six main bonus symbols in the game:

• Wild: This standard Wild symbol substitutes for other symbols to make winning combos.
• Transform: This transforms a cluster of symbols into the same color, helping the collecting Pirot.
• Upgrade: This upgrades the gems of the collecting Pirot to the next level.
• Coins: These offer a prize value.
• Bomb: The Bomb symbols explode when there are no wins left on the reels, new symbols then fall onto the grid. The grid expands to an 8x8 position, giving the opportunity for bigger wins.

The game also has a Free Drops Round. This is triggered when players land three bonus symbols. There is also the option to buy your way into the bonuses with the ELK Studios X-iter feature. However, this is only available in certain locations.

Pirots is a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to its math model. The slot is considered medium/high on the volatility scale, with players able to land a maximum win of 10,000x their stake. The issue comes with the RTP, which sits at an uninspiring 94%.

The Pirots slot game deserves a lot of credit for offering some original gameplay and a fun, quirky design. While the base game and the bonus features offer a fun slot experience, the low RTP is definitely going to frustrate some players and detract from the game a little bit. On the whole, though, ELK Studios has done a good job and has put a fresh spin on both the pirate genre and the Cluster Pays gameplay mechanic. Go for a spin at our recommended online casinos!