Introduction to Treasures of Kilauea 3 WildSurge
Treasures of Kilauea 3 WildSurge is a casino slot from Pear Fiction Studios and another follow-up to the studio's tropical series set among the picturesque Hawaiian landscapes. As before, erupting volcanoes play a pivotal role in the setting, spewing scorching lava that flows with a myriad of helpful features. This third instalment is closer to Treasures of Kilauea 2 rather than the original gameplay-wise, since you'll be dealing with progressive unlocking of new upgrades in the base game and collecting tokens in matching pots to trigger the LockNWin UpZones bonus. There, you play with refilling respins and a range of modifiers to boost your cash-collecting sequence. It's a setup nearly identical to games like Smore Mallows WildSurge and Alpha Gods Zeus 2 WildSurge, with a slightly reshuffled feature order and a plain version of the LockNWin round without any enhancements in place of the Free Spins bonus.
Theme, Gameplay & Payouts
Treasures of Kilauea 3 WildSurge is a video slot from Pear Fiction Studios with 5 reels, 4 rows, and 20 paylines. You can choose your stake from a range of options, starting from a Min.bet of 0.2 up to a Max.bet of 50. The game offers a default RTP of 96.00%, which is on the lower end of the current industry standards, typically ranging from 96.0% to 96.5%. Two alternative variants are available to operators, offering the return rates of 94.01% and 92.01%. The math model combines high volatility, which prioritises the size of the wins above their frequency, with a max win capped at 25,000x the bet. The base hit frequency for the highest RTP variant sits at a rate of 25%.
Like the original Treasures of Kilauea and its sequel, the third instalment welcomes you with a vibrant view of the Hawaiian islands, where an animated volcano resides among beautiful exotic landscapes. This time, the big lava-filled mountain is accompanied by what seems to be its offspring - a small, cute volcano with shiny big eyes. The game features the studio's usual vivid design, full of saturated colours and smooth textures across the board. For anyone who's played and enjoyed a Pearfiction slot before, the setting will surely look familiar and comfortable from the get-go. Thanks to the responsive nature of the design, the game can be launched on any modern device, whether you prefer to play on a desktop, a smartphone, or a tablet.
The paytable carries two sets of distinct symbols responsible for delivering standard wins whenever at least 3 matching instances land on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost one, while covering any of the paylines. Low-paying ones take the form of royal card ranks: J, Q, K, and A, awarding 1x the bet for creating a 5-of-a-kind hit. High-paying symbols are represented by five totems in various shapes and colours, offering payouts of between 2x and 10x the bet when 5 matching instances form a complete payline.
Alongside regular symbols, reels are also populated with special ones, like Wilds in the form of a gold rectangular tile, colourful Jackpot Orbs, and Bonus symbols appearing as purple, red, green, blue, and gold coins.
Special Features & Slot Mechanics
What is the max win in the slot Treasures of Kilauea 3 WildSurge?
You can win up to 25,000x the bet.
What features are available in the slot Treasures of Kilauea 3 WildSurge?
The features are Wild Surge, Jackpots, UpZones LockNWin, Lohihi LockNWin, and Feature Buy.
Wild Surge
The Wild Surge meter is always visible above the reels. The icons on it represent various modifiers that may be selected whenever you trigger the Wild Surge feature by landing the corresponding special symbol. Each trigger unlocks a new position on the meter, and only active positions can be selected when the game randomly picks a modifier.
Gold W and double W = create a highlighted zone which transforms all affected positions into Wilds.
Red Crossed Circle = removes all value symbols.
Green Vertical Arrow = turns 1-3 Reels into Wilds with a possible multiplier of up to x3.
Blue Revolving Arrows = locks all Wilds and winning symbols, then respins the reels.
Pink X = upgrades Wilds with multipliers of x2 - x51
Bomb = selects 1-2 Wilds and converts positions adjacent to them into Wilds with a possible multiplier of up to x4.
Green Horizontal Arrow = turns entire 1-2 rows Wild with a possible multiplier of up to x3.
Four-Direction Arrow = turns 1-2 row and column combinations into Wilds with a possible multiplier of up to x4.
Infinity Sign = turns all grid positions into Wilds with possible multipliers of x2-x51.
Jackpots
Four jackpots are available in the game. Landing a coloured coin increases the matching jackpot's meter and gives a chance of awarding the corresponding prize. In Lohihi and LockNWin bonuses, each jackpot coin landing in view awards the associated prize at the end of the feature.
Mini = 10x the bet.
Minor = 50x.
Major = 500x.
Mega = 25,000x.
UpZones LockNWin
Each Bonus symbol landing in view is collected in the pot of the matching colour above the grid. Every time it happens, there's a chance that the respective bonus round will randomly trigger, awarding a combination of spins and UpZones.
Super Bonus (Blue) = 3 spins and 3 UpZones.
Supreme Bonus (Green) = 4 spins and 4 UpZones.
Ultra Bonus (Red) = 5 spins and 5 UpZones.
Ultimate Bonus (Purple) = 6 spins and 6 UpZones.
The Ultimate Bonus can also be triggered by collecting a red star under each of the five reels. After winning the bonus, you also have the option to either collect it or gamble it for a better variant. Once you start, the awarded UpZones will be randomly distributed on the grid. On every spin, you can land Orbs with cash prizes between 0.5x and 100x the bet or blanks. Every Orb sticks to its position and remains on the grid until the end of the feature. Scoring new Orbs in the active area also contributes to decreasing the counter on the locked rows, leading to their activation.
If an Orb lands in the UpZone, the top bar will spin and award one of the following modifiers.
Magnet = collects all Orbs.
Green Plus = increases the value of all Orbs on the grid by 1x-25x the bet.
Pink X = multiplies a random Orb on the grid by x2-x50.
Blue Revolving Arrow = adds 2 or 3 additional spins.
Multicoloured Star = creates a Lohihitastic Zone with a booster value ranging from x4 to x25. If there's already such a zone present, it can be expanded, and consecutive triggers of this modifier can increase its multiplier.
Lohihi LockNWin
Landing a golden Bonus symbol can randomly trigger the Lohihi LockNWin round. It's a simplified version of the LockNWin bonus, without any special zones, modifiers, or locked rows. You play with 3 refilling respins and collect cash and jackpot prizes. Each new symbol resets the spins and sticks to the board until the end.
Feature Buy
The game offers several options for triggering the bonus games for a fixed buy-in that scales with your active bet.
50x = triggers a random LockNWin bonus mode.
100x = triggers the Ultimate LockNWin bonus mode.
Final Thoughts on Treasures of Kilauea 3 WildSurge
In Treasures of Kilauea 3 WildSurge, the studio delivers another mix of familiar features, which appeared multiple times in various previous releases from its catalogue. All kinds of cash-collecting respin bonuses have been a backbone of the Games Global strategy for years, and almost every studio on that platform follows the same path, applying minimal changes to each subsequent release. In the case of Pearfiction, the WildSurge mechanics, based on unlocking modifiers in the base game, mixed with the LockNWin bonus, have been exceptionally prominent in the roadmap. As usual, the game's audiovisual side embraces the vibrant, cartoony design you can witness in almost every other production from this creator. For fans of the style, it's undoubtedly another eye-catching setup, but at the same time, it can become somewhat boring seeing every single theme wrapped in identical graphics.
The gameplay doesn't differ much from the titles we've already mentioned in the intro. Most of the main game's appeal revolves around the Wild Surge meter and modifiers that can be unlocked on it. However, contrary to other titles utilising this element, now it's not the regular spins that lead to activating new options, but the feature trigger itself. Whether that's a better (read: faster) method is probably down to individual experience. Otherwise, the LockNWin bonus offers identical upgrades, but can now be played on a larger grid if you manage to unlock three additional rows by accumulating enough cash symbols in the active area. Lastly, Free Spins with a higher chance of Wild Surge triggers are out and replaced by the Lohihi LockNWin round, which offers a plain Hold&Win-style respin session. This one is a strange choice, given there was already a much more attractive variant of this bonus available all along.
Treasures of Kilauea 3 WildSurge offers a slightly altered format used in numerous previous productions, but whether it can be called an improvement is down to personal preference.
