Introduction to Pickaxe Payday
Pickaxe Payday is a casino slot from Four Leaf Gaming. This one drops you straight into a dusty old mine with flickering lanterns and dynamite scattered in various places. The theme combines the harsh conditions of the gold rush with colorful, cartoonish miners. These large-built men will trigger the Action Collect feature whenever they show up, collecting all cash prizes on the reels in a jiffy. Each of the three miners also represents a Free Spins feature with some special perks. Let’s grab a pickaxe and go visit this hardworking gang.
If you want to test out the mining business before entering your online casino, you can spin the free demo at the top of this page.
Theme, Gameplay & Payouts
Pickaxe Payday is a video slot from Four Leaf Gaming. It’s laid out on a 5-reel grid with 3 rows and 20 paylines, which can expand to 4 rows and 25 paylines during the Free Spins. You can place between the Min.bet 0.1, and the Max.bet 100. The game’s RTP is 96%, and the hit frequency of 28% means that over every fourth spin is a winner, on average. You can expect a pretty stable game with medium volatility and a max win of 10,000x the bet.
The look of the game brings you deep underground, with wooden beams holding up the cavern walls. Three train tracks go from the bottom to the top of the screen. On each track is a cart, representing the three Free Spin features. A couple of lanterns hang on the wooden frame around the reels, and you score wins by landing 3 or more matching symbols on one of the paylines going left to right, starting on the first reel to the left. You can access the game on digital devices such as mobiles, tablets, and desktops.
The lower-paying symbols in Pickaxe Payday are 10, J, Q, K, and A, paying between 1.2x and 1.6x the bet for a 5-symbol win. The higher-paying symbols are light, helmet, axe, and diamond, awarding between 2.4x and 8x for a 5-of-a-kind. The Wild Symbol is a stick of dynamite, substituting for all regular symbols and acting as the top-paying icon at 16x for a full payline.
Special Features & Slot Mechanics
What is the max win in the slot Pickaxe Payday?
You can win up to 10,000x the bet.
What features are available in the slot Pickaxe Payday?
The features are Wild Symbol, Action Collect Feature, Free Spins, and Feature Buy (Fortune Features).
Wild Symbol
The Wild Symbol substitutes for all high and low symbols in making winning combinations on paylines.
Action Collect Feature
On any spin, one or more values can land on the reels. In the base game, miners appear only on the center reel, and landing one will trigger the Action Collect feature, where the present miner collects all values in view and applies a bonus depending on its color.
The Red Miner boosts or adds extra cash values to up to 12 reel positions. The Blue Miner awards a respin with a 5×4 area and two active Action Collect reels. The Green Miner applies a random multiplier of 2x to 10x to all collected values.
Free Spins
Whenever a gem lands, it’s collected to one of the three minecarts. The collection can trigger one of the three Free Spins features, or a combination of them.
Red Miner – 8 Minecart Extra Cash Free Spins
The Red Miner bonus grants 8 Minecart Extra Cash Free Spins. Only Red Miners appear in the Action Collect reel during this mode. Landing one triggers the Minecart bonus again, improving or adding up to 12 gold or gem values before collecting them. Retriggering the feature awards 4 extra spins and combines additional miner features for the remaining spins.
Blue Miner – 8 Double Action Collect Free Spins
The Blue Miner bonus awards 8 Double Action Collect Free Spins. The reels expand to a 5×4 layout, and only Blue Miners appear in the Action Collect reel. Landing a Blue Miner collects all gold nugget and gem symbol values. If you retrigger the feature, you’ll earn 4 spins and other active Free Spins features will merge with this one for all remaining spins.
Green Miner – 8 Persistent Multiplier Action Collect Free Spins
The Green Miner bonus starts with 8 Persistent Multiplier Action Collect Free Spins. Only Green Miners appear in the Action Collect reel, and landing one increases the active multiplier and adds 1 extra spin. It also collects all gold or gem values. A retrigger gives 4 extra spins and mixes in additional miner bonuses for the rest of the feature.
Feature Buy (Fortune Features)
Pressing the Fortune Features button gives you the opportunity to purchase features. The Bonus Hunt Ante Bet doubles your chance of triggering Action Collect Free Spins by increasing your bet by 50%. The Strike Gold Ante Bet makes miners four times more likely to activate and raises the bet by 150%.
The Mystery Bonus instantly awards one of the three miner features for 40x the bet, and Mine Mine Mine Bonus gives you Action Collect Free Spins with all miner types active for 100x the bet.
Final Thoughts on Pickaxe Payday
Pickaxe Payday is one of those slots that looks simple at first glance, but after a few spins, you realize it's hiding more treasures than an undiscovered mine. We love it when one of the miners suddenly appears in the middle of the reels and collects all cash values in sight. Sometimes, the collection is very generous, while the miner at other times just seems to appear for a lunch break. Triggering the Free Spins opens another level of excitement with sweet perks, such as expanding rows and persistent multipliers.
The miner trio adds personality to the gameplay, and after a while, you start rooting for your favorite one. Our favorite is the Green Miner, who’s building up a lot of tension when the multiplier increases.
The game’s medium volatility makes the spins less unpredictable than in many other games, and the max win of 10,000x the bet is great considering the conditions. However, if you want more volatile mining games, don’t miss Pragmatic Play’s Mining Rush or NetEnt’s Wild Mining XXXtreme, which can pay up to 25,000x the bet.
Pickaxe Payday from Four Leaf Gaming is an energetic mining adventure with a surprising amount of charm.
