Introduction to Penguin Payday

Penguin Payday is a casino slot from Stakelogic, taking you to the barren yet majestic lands of the icy Antarctica to meet an adorable penguin, who turns massive blocks of ice into helpful features. Being alone in such a vast wintry land, he had to come up with something to stay occupied, and swimming around while catching fish didn't seem to be enough. Our little flightless fellow has taken to forming massive chunks of icebergs into Expanding Wilds, which he happily moves across the reels to help you score big. Also, the falling star-shaped snowflakes may occasionally grace those giant symbols with additional multipliers up to x500 to really warm up the atmosphere.

Figure out how the little penguin can help you reach wins up to 5,000x the bet by arranging the ice in the correct positions while playing the demo mode available at the beginning of this page.

Base Game view of a 5x4 grid on a backdrop of an icy cavern.
Base Game

Theme, Gameplay & Payouts

Penguin Payday is a video slot from Stakelogic with 5 reels, 4 rows, and 40 paylines. You can choose your stake from a range of options, starting from a Min.bet of 0.2, making the game suitable for a wide range of budgets, up to a Max.bet of 100 to accommodate high-rollers. The math profile runs on a default RTP of 96.01%, which is in line with the industry standards. You can expect more emphasis on the value of wins rather than their frequency due to high volatility, while the max win available on any single round is 5,000x the bet.

The game's main scene is set in an icy cavern, shimmering with all shades of blue illuminated by the sunshine breaking through from the outside. Thick layers of snow and pointy icicles decorate the interior of this natural shelter that our little black-and-white hero made into its home, while the constant whirlwind of snowflakes roams frantically between the gleaming walls. In the middle, the playing grid rests in a thick ice frame, equipped with a collection of winter-themed symbols. With its universal responsive design, the game is available on a wide range of modern devices, from desktops to smartphones and tablets.

Winning combinations require regular symbols to land in sets of 3 to 5 matching instances running through adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost one on any of the active paylines. The paytable hierarchy contains two groups of paying icons, with the low-paying ones made of playing card emblems, 10, J, Q, K, and A, awarding from 0.4x to 1x the bet for a 5-of-a-kind combination. High-paying symbols take the form of a bucket of snow, a can of sardines, a winter hat, and a hatching penguin, and they bring payouts of between 2x and 25x the bet when matching 5 on a payline. Wilds are represented by a penguin holding a wooden sign, Multipliers come in the form of shimmering snowflakes, while Scatters appear as a penguin in a red hat.

Special Features & Slot Mechanics

What is the max win in the slot Penguin Payday?

You can win up to 5,000x the bet.

What features are available in the slot Penguin Payday?

The features are Expanding Wild, Multiplier Symbols, Free Spins, and Feature Buy & Ante Bet.

Free Spins bonus in progress, showing a win created by 3 single Wilds on reels 2 and 4, and an Expanding Wild on reel 3.
Free Spins

Expanding Wild

Above the reels, the penguin moves randomly along the grid's top ridge on every spin. Whenever it aligns on the same column with a Wild on the main area, it transforms that symbol into an Expanding Wild that covers the entire reel. The penguin can also throw additional Wilds onto the grid, even underneath its own position, also resulting in the expansion.

Multiplier Symbols

Multiplier Symbols may land anywhere on the grid, carrying values ranging from x2 to x500. If there are Wilds present on the board, they will acquire a sum of all Multiplier Symbols visible on the same spin. Any payouts from winlines containing Wilds with multipliers will be boosted accordingly, and if two or more Wilds contribute to the same sequence, their multipliers will be added together.

Expanding Wild triggered in the base game on reel 2.
Expanding Wild

Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 Scatters anywhere on the grid within the same spin activates 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. The bonus round will benefit from a persistent multiplier added to Wilds on the first free spin if it has been increased during the base game. The increase occurs every time two Scatters land without triggering free spins, in increments of +0.5, up to a maximum of x10.

At the beginning of the bonus game, one Expanding Wild is generated on a random reel. On every spin, it will move to a random position and persist until the end of the bonus. The Expanding Wild collects any multipliers from the Multiplier Symbols landing and keeps them persistent throughout the entire round.

Feature Buy & Ante Bet

To increase your chances of triggering free spins, you may activate the Super Stake option that adds an additional 50% charge on top of your active bet. Alternatively, you can trigger the bonus round instantly for a price of 100x the bet.

Final Thoughts on Penguin Payday

Penguin Payday is a chilly visit to the southern hemisphere, where these flightless, black-and-white birds primarily reside. Just as Antarctica is predominantly one giant glacier, absent from any vegetation, the game's environment features omnipresent ice and snow, accurately matching the reality. However, we wouldn't mind something more to colour this scene, since this dominating wintry design may quickly become somewhat overwhelming and even daunting in its plainness. The little penguin is trying his best to elicit some excitement, but, after all, he's all alone, and there's only so much he can achieve. Altogether, the design is rather unremarkable, but not a complete eyesore, either.

The slots' mechanical side sticks to time-tested features that have been used in one form or another in hundreds of slots so far. Wilds and Expanding Wilds are the main highlight, capable of receiving additional multipliers from other special symbols. Random Wild additions are frequent, but they rarely produce a significant hit, given the relatively reserved paytable. Multipliers may naturally be helpful considering their high theoretical values, although they act as blockers at the same time, so you may end up with a significant boost added to a Wild on a farther reel, only to miss out on a win because of the Multiplier Symbol blocking a payline. Free Spins mitigate that feeling a little, keeping the multipliers persistent so you can benefit from them during successive spins. Still, on the whole, it's a plain and uninspiring setup that doesn't introduce any clever ideas to the gameplay.

Penguin Payday is a straightforward slot, making little effort to grab your attention, whether it's with a plain icebound theme or simple mechanics based on Wilds and multipliers.