Pirate Bonanza

Pirate Bonanza launched in July 2024 as a collaborative project between Backseat Gaming and Hacksaw Gaming.

It’s a rather unique game for a “pay any” tumbler, as its base game features cannons that can blow up marked cells with explosive multipliers. Stats-wise, Pirate Bonanza is a high-volatility slot with an impressive RTP of 96.31%.

The Pirate Captain sits at the right side of the playing field, waiting for you to hit cannons or scatters so that he can load the artillery and unleash a volley of bomb multipliers, free spins, or both.

The diversity of Bonus Buy options, Hacksaw Gaming’s signature, is one of my favorite features in Pirate Bonanza. From boosting the hit frequency of scatters and cannons to outright buying a ticket into the bonus round, four purchasable bonuses can give you a headstart in Pirate Bonanza.

Although the game doesn’t have dedicated jackpots, you can win up to 10,000x of your bet, or up to a whopping SC 1 million per round.

You can play Pirate Bonanza at SweepsKings for free, or real cash prizes at Stake.us or Runestake. If you’d like to learn more, my review covers all of its core features in deeper detail. Before we jump into the specs, let’s glance at Pirate Bonanza’s biggest draws and flaws.

About Pirate Bonanza: Game Overview

The “Pirates” theme is a crowded space. Thematically (and visually) Pirate Bonanza hits the same vein as Pragmatic Play’s Pirate Gold, Pirate Golden Age, and Pirate’s Hub, as well as Platipus’s Pirate’s Legacy. What’s different in this slot is that we don’t see the crew, ghost fleets, sunken vessels, pirate coves filled with plunder, or anything similar. The Pirate Captain is a one-man army, loading his ship’s cannons, blasting the locks on treasure chests, navigating murky waters, and drinking rum in what little spare time he gets.

Although the lore of Pirate Bonanza might not be as rich, its gameplay elements are well-polished. The playing field stretches across 6 reels and 5 rows and is among the best Backseat Gaming payers with an RTP of 96.31%; since the game utilizes the “pay any” structure, it doesn’t need (nor has) any paylines.

You win whenever at least 8 matching symbols appear anywhere on the table. The reels will “cascade” whenever you win and mark the positions of winning symbols with a golden hue; if you draw a cannon on the re-spin, the Captain will send bombs with multipliers to skyrocket the round’s prize.

An upbeat sea shanty will be playing in the background when you launch Pirate Bonanza. I love it as it’s brimming with epic, positive vibes. However, I’m a bit disappointed by the gentle “hissing” sounds bombs make when drawn. I expected big explosions to announce the upcoming “Big Win”, and this was somewhat immersion-breaking.

Pirate Bonanza Slot Information

As you can see above, symbols in Pirate Bonanza pay anywhere as long as at least 8 of the same kind appear on the playing field. With this specific spin, I first got 14 symbols and then triggered a cascade with 9 new symbols, thus receiving another re-spin.

You can set your bet level as low as SC 0.10 or as high as SC 100 when playing Pirate Bonanza at sweepstakes casinos; change your wager level by tapping the big “+/-” sign.

The UI is a bit simplistic, so this button can be easy to miss. It’s located next to the Captain, and it is invisible while the reels are spinning. When you’re ready to start, just tap the circular arrow to kick off your first spin.

200 Spins Test of Pirate Bonanza

I began testing Pirate Bonanza by wagering SC 1 for the first 20 spins. Frequent cascades and a few canons helped me keep my balance in the black.

Since I was making very little progress, I decided to increase my wager to SC 5. A series of unfortunate spins had me spend almost SC 100, but a lucky cannon shot helped my balance bounce back up.

By the time I was 70 spins deep, I noticed that I was steadily losing sweeps. So I decided to try the first Featurespins bonus, hoping I’d enter the bonus round. My wager level was still SC 5, but due to the Buy Bonus, the stake’s total cost was SC 15 per spin.

As advertised, Bonus symbols began appearing far more frequently. I typically saw at least 2 on every spin. It took around SC 300, but I finally managed to enter the “Fire At Will” bonus game with 5 scatters.

Unfortunately, Lady Luck wasn’t on my side, and I managed to win back only SC 125 while spending more than twice as much to get there. Disheartened that the bonus round paid so little, I bought the “Load The Cannons” bonus for SC 500 to test the “basic” bonus round.

This is where the “Golden Multiplier Bomb” paid my entire stake almost by itself, giving me SC 460 in a single spin.

The remaining spins weren’t too impactful, and I ultimately won SC 469.50. Again, I won less than I paid, but this time I got very close to bagging a profit.

Starting on my 100th spin, I raised the stake to SC 10 and recommenced the test. On the following 50 spins, I got 2 cannons and a few minor wins. Ultimately, I lost around SC 680 since the session started, so I raised the stake to SC 30, hoping that the final 50 spins would turn the tables.

After 30 spins, I noticed that empty hands hurt far more than they used to while even the smallest wins I’d typically overlook now had an impact. On spin 180, I managed to trigger 4 consecutive cascades, painting almost the entire screen golden, and a cannon appeared. My luck finally changed, and I won a whopping SC 2,196 with low-quality bombs.

I barely won anything with the last 20 spins, but I was excited that I not only returned my wagers but also won SC 705 in raw profit.