Tahiti Gold Slot Review

25/03/2021 | Categories: ELK Studios Slots | Published by: Joe | Last updated: 05/01/2024

We do not believe that we have ever discussed ELK Studios on BTCGOSU. Given that they have been around since 2013, it is time to allow some space on our site for the Swedish developer that takes a mobile-first approach. Its Wild Toro spinner won the prestigious Game of the Year award at the EGR Operators Awards in 2017. They have over fifty games in their portfolio, and currently, Tahiti Gold is their most played one. It is a sequel to their highly-successful release Ecuador Gold, which came out in February of 2019. Tahiti hit online casinos four months after and quickly shot up into a top 25 spot in the slot rankings. After a few falls and comebacks, this release is again riding high, making this the perfect time for our first ELK Studios review.

Theme & Design

ELK has five titles in their Gold series. The others are the mentioned Ecuador edition, Voodoo, Black River, and Katmandu Gold. The events in this slot transpire on the largest island of the Windward group in French Polynesia. Tahiti is a Society Island in the South Pacific Ocean famous as a paradise on earth, boasting white sand beaches, rich rainforests, blue lagoons, and panoramic skies. It got settled by the Polynesian people in 500 BC, and the French colonized it in the 16^th century. Today, it operates as an autonomous region of the French Republic. The main character of ELK’s Gold franchise is the explorer Kane. He continues his adventures here, right where he left off in Ecuador Gold.

If you have played any entry in the Gold series, you should instantly recognize the familiar layout. It has the symbol grid in the middle flanked by two Polynesian totem poles and a landscape in the background. All the Gold games use this configuration. The visuals here are vibrant and painterly. Some elements look a bit disproportionate, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it gives this slot a unique feel. When you enter the Free Spins Bonus Round, the camera zooms out, day turns to dusk, and the volcano in the back begins to roar. We have to say, in this mode, the visuals of the game become a lot more impressive, as you get a greater sense of scope as the game window expands. Animations also play in this mode, and the tribal music amps up, enhancing the mood and setting an exciting tone to the gameplay.

You can find the semi-transparent spin button on the lower right side of your screen, while the bet-adjuster is in the bottom left corner. The auto-spin function is in the top right, and the setting option is in the top left. A bar at the bottom of your screen displays your balance and bet info.

Specs & Gameplay

Tahiti Gold is a six-reel, four-row slot that can expand up to a 6×8 grid. It utilizes the ways-to-win format, which can go up to 262,144 bet-ways. Its RTP is an industry average of 96.1%, and its variance is high, with a hit frequency of 22.5%. The bet sizes here range from $0.20 to $100, and the max win is an x5,000 your stake. The game awards a prize when you land three to six matching tokens on adjacent reels left to right. It incorporates the avalanche mechanic. This means symbols that are a part of a winning combo explode, and new ones fall to take their place. Whenever this happens, the grid expands by an extra row, increasing the ways to win. For example, five rows get you 15.625 ways to win, while eight provide the max of 262,144.

All pay symbols in Tahiti Gold can appear in sizes ranging from 1×1 to 4×4. The low-paying ones are wooden blocks with different colored markings, paying out a prize worth x0.2 for six-of-a-kind. The medium-paying symbols are a reptile, a turtle, a frog, and a fish. Hitting six identical animals will get you a reward in the range of x0.5 to x0.7 your bet. The most valuable tokens of the game are the three tribal masks, which provide prizes of x1.4 to x1.8 for six-of-a-kind, plus Kane. Landing six explorers on the grid will get you a win that is x3.5 your stake.

A rock with an engraved sun symbol in it is this game’s Wild, and the volcano with the word Bonus on it is the Scatter.

Bonus Features

Tahiti Gold has three bonus features. The first two are modifiers that you can activate in both the base game and the Free Spins Round. When you hit two Eye of Tiki symbols on the grid, they will connect via a laser beam and explode all symbols between them, making way for new ones. The game window will also expand by one row when this happens. That is the Eye of Tiki feature.

The Forge symbol can appear on reels three, four, five, and six. When it does, any position underneath it that gets cleared will get filled by a Wild, up to a column of seven stacked Wilds. Note that the Forge symbol itself does not count as a Wild.

Hitting three to six Scatters on a single spin will award you ten, fifteen, twenty, or twenty-five free spins, respectively. You can re-trigger this mode indefinitely, and all the mentioned features are active in it.