Beastly Burglars: Slot Overview

Software provider AvatarUX, yeah, the PopWins guys, have once again joined forces with the mysterious Mr Wu in order to release the breaking-the-law-themed online slot Beastly Burglars. One might argue that all burglars are beastly, but in Beastly Burglars, the crims are actually played by animals rather than people. Not a PopWins game, Beastly Burglars charges players with the task of unlocking positions on a gaming grid, increasing ways to win, and activating reel multipliers, helped by a respins mechanic. This is made possible in the base game and in a free spins round set alongside treasures of the past.

The location for Beastly Burglars is the Museum of Ancient Artefacts, which the game's maker has brought to life by giving the background a semi-realistic appearance. Maybe not as romantically presented as Push Gaming's Mystery Museum, but nothing here is hard on the eyes. Realistic elements are juxtaposed with the game grid, where cartoon animals land about the place. Various species have come together to pull off this job of heisting priceless artefacts. The problem with that is selling the gear on, presumably. Maybe not if the stolen items were lesser known, yet still desirable historical trinkets. Imagine trying to fence the Mona Lisa or the Rosetta Stone. Sooner or later, someone would blab to the authorities, wouldn't they?

Base game spins start with the 5-reel matrix dropping active symbols in a 1-3-5-3-1 pattern where there are 45 ways to win. Reels may be unlocked up to a 5x5 configuration where there are 3,125 ways to win. To join these jolly criminals as they attempt to rob a museum, players select stakes of 10 c to $/€100 and have access to an ante bet as well as feature buys. For an extra 50% added to the wager, the ante bet makes it 3x more likely to trigger free spins. A medium volatile math model guides the proceedings, returning 96.05% to players, with two lower RTP models available.

Nine to Ace card ranks accompany players on this job, as do 8 animals as criminal premium symbols. Ways consisting of 5 matching royals are worth 0.8 the bet no matter the type, and ways of 5 matching character symbols pay 2 to 5 times the stake. Explosive boxes are wild, substituting for all symbols on the reels except scatters or multipliers.

Beastly Burglars: Slot Features

Unlocking positions on the grid and activating reel multipliers is the key objective of these burglars. This happens in the base game and in free spins, where a special multiplier symbol joins the heist.

Changing Grid and Vaults & Reel Multipliers

Each win triggers a respin, and for each respin, one random Vault adjacent to an already unlocked position is unlocked. Vaults are the blocking positions on the grid. Every reel has a reel multiplier on top of it in a locked state. For the middle reel, the multiplier is unlocked by the first win on a spin, as well as a random Vault. The other reel multipliers are unlocked when all of the Vaults on the same reel are cleared. In the base game, reel multipliers are fixed at x2. In free spins, reel multipliers always start at x2.

Free Spins

Each time a scatter symbol appears, it is collected by the Bonus Collector between respins. If 3 scatters are collected, 8 free spins are awarded. Otherwise, the Bonus Collector resets.

When triggered, free spins start with the final base game board, including the reel multipliers that were available before moving to the bonus game. If the entire grid is unlocked in free spins by removing all Vaults, +2 free spins are awarded, and all following spins start with the grid fully unlocked. During free spins, a special Multiplier symbol may land. If there is a win on the same reel as the Multiplier symbol, its value is added to the Reel Multiplier above it. The value of a single Multiplier symbol can be up to x50.

Gamble Wheel

Before playing the bonus round, players can increase the number of free spins on a Gamble Wheel. Losing the gamble takes players straight back to the base game. 8 free spins are initially awarded. Winning the first gamble awards 10 free spins, and winning the next gamble awards 12 free spins. Or, landing on a golden segment of the wheel awards 12 on the first gamble or 15 free spins on the second gamble. Hitting the golden segment starts the feature straight away.

Xpress

At the Xpress section, players can activate these features. Random numbers of Vaults are removed at the start of free spins: Gamble Wheel - 60x to win up to 15 free spins, Bonus - 8 free spins for 60x the bet, Bonus Plus - 12 free spins for 240x the bet, or Bonus Max - 15 free spins for 500x the bet.

Beastly Burglars: Slot Verdict

Hey, if you're going to knock off a major museum and fill your swag bag with cultural items of inestimable value, who wouldn't want a bunch of animal crooks at their side while doing so? Swapping critters for humans knocks the edge off the crime angle and replaces it with a humorous anthropomorphic one. Beastly Burglars is not a humorously adorable game, though it is a good one. Putting aside the animals for a moment, this is a serious slot, as AvatarUX and Mr Wu have again linked up to get down to the task of crafting a quality gambling tool to entertain and challenge players.

And maybe reward them - to the tune of up to 10,000x the bet. So a tidy sum awaits the luckiest of heisty gamblers, and not a bad set of features to attempt the job with either. Win frequency was not available, but a question mark arose as to whether having a single symbol on the leftmost reel affects this stat. Dead spins certainly weren't a rarity. AvatarUX has dropped in a few compensators for this, though. Getting respins on every single win helps stir the pot along, aided by Vault unlocking, leading to more space on the reels and, of course, coveted reel multipliers. Slight Multifly! memories were produced while testing running the game, yet Beastly Burglars does more than enough to ensure that it's its own beast, or menagerie of beasts.

AvatarUX and Mr Wu continue to forge a fruitful partnership, having turned out a bunch of highly enjoyable slots so far. Beastly Burglars might not have FloridaMan's dreamy thematic flair or DonKey & the GOATS' visual complexity, but it's a solid heist slot with a strong bag of tricks to employ.