Misery Mining

Misery Mining is our slot of the month for March. Released by NoLimit City, this volatile game is a sequel to the popular 2021 slot, Fire in the Hole. As is usually the case with our games of the month, Misery Mining is replete with features including an expandable game area, two free spin modes and an innovative collapse mechanic.

Theme/Visuals

Once again, the grumpy, grizzled miner takes centre stage in his relentless quest to find the ultimate beer recipe – we can think of worse missions. Visually, the game bears a passing resemblance to its predecessor with the action taking place in a fairly basic rendering of a mine.

In the background, a romping soundtrack accompanies play that sounds like an incidental ditty plucked from the Lord of the Rings. The game looks OK but wouldn’t win any awards for design creativity. But aesthetics aren’t the main selling point here.

How to Play Misery Mining

The game starts in an illuminated 3 x 3 grid with the wider 7 x 7 game area blocked by barriers. The goal is to land three or more matching symbols from left to right on adjacent reels. Premium symbols are made up of a pipe, compass, bottle of booze, a rat and the miner who’s the most valuable.

Collapsing Mine Mechanic

To activate the collapsing mine mechanic, you’ll need to land xBomb wilds. As well as removing adjacent symbols they increase a win multiplier. And when they come to rest next to a barrier, they explode the barrier moving it one step, thus increasing the number of ways to win. Land an xBomb in a central position and it will move all barriers by one step.

During the collapse, all winning symbols are removed with new ones dropping down into their vacated positions. The process continues until wins are no longer possible. Scatters collected during a collapse are converted into non-wild xBombs. While they don’t transform paying symbols they can still remove symbols, boost the win multiplier and expand the game area.

Misery Bonus Round

This Misery Bonus Round is activated when you collect a combination of scatters and or super scatters as part of the same collapse.

• Three scatters awards eight free spins in Mouse Mode or three free spins in Rat Mode – these are played out on a 3 x 3 grid to begin with.
• Three scatters and one super scatter awards ten free spins in Mouse Mode, or three free spins in Rat mode on a 4 x 4 grid.
• Three scatters and two super scatters awards twelve free spins in Mouse Mode or three spins in Rate Mode on a 5 x 5 grid.

Confusingly, you then choose from Mouse Mode or Rat Mode.

Mouse Mode

In Mouse Mode, which is really volatile, a super scatter can be triggered when less than two super scatters are active, awarding an extra 2 free sins.

Rat Mode

In Rat Mode, which is really, really volatile, you start with three spins. Activating coin wagons or super scatters (see below) resets your spins to three.

Enhancer Symbols

For the bonus round, a horizontal row appears the top of the game area. This contains enhancer symbols which are activated when scatters or super scatters land on the reels below. Super scatters include multipliers and move around the game area with each spin. Reels one and seven are locked side collector positions. There’s also a bottom row that’s dimmed out when the round commences. Here’s how the enhancer symbols work.

Coin Wagon – the value of a coin wagon is added to scatters/super scatters as well as side collectors which we’ll look at in a minute. These also reset the number of free spins to three in Rat Mode.

Multiplier Wagon – this boosts the multiplier of a Super Scatter for the remainder of the round which in turn gets added to the value of all coin wagons.

Bomb – bomb symbols drop down to the activating scatter opening eight surrounding positions. If it’s active in the centre position, it will explode all positions save for the side and bottom collectors.

Bag – this collects all values held by scatters and side collectors from the row on which it lands. The total win is then updated and added to the scatter that activated it in the first place.

Chest – the chest collects all side collector and scatter values within three reels then updates the win amount.

Dwarf – the dwarf sticks to the lowest triggering scatter, collecting all values within three reels for the duration of the round.

Rat – this symbol can be unlocked from reels one to seven – he then scuttles down over the collectors for that reel, adding a value to each collector before unlocking it.

Side Collectors – side collectors are activated by rat and bomb enhancers which can then interact with dwarf, bag and chest enhancers. When active, their value is added to your total win.

Bottom Collectors – these are activated by bomb and rat enhances on the first and seventh reels. They collect all values from the scatters or side collectors for each free spin. These are then added to the total win amount.

Conclusion

This has to be one of the most feature-laded games we’ve come across yet. And happily, it’s far easier to play than write about. The expandable game area is central, offering a highly unique and engaging interpretation of the Megaways mechanic. As mentioned, you’ll need xBombs to trigger this feature – and they appear fairly frequently, thus making for a very immersive base game. In addition, you’ve got the two bonus rounds. Although both are highly volatile, the sheer number of modifiers can help steady the nerves. What a corker of a game!

RTP: 94.05%, Minimum Stake: 0.02