Five mariachis on a line pay 8x in Chilli Heat. One money bag can pay 100x, and the bags land on all 5 reels. Six of them on one screen start the Money Respin, 3 respins that reset with every new bag, and a full screen of 15 pays the Grande jackpot at 1,000x. The 25 lines run underneath all of that and pay out 0.2x for most hits. The Chilli Heat demo runs the respin format in its plainest form, on a 5×3 grid, at a 96.50% RTP.
A 24x bag on reel 1, a 3x on reel 4 and plain symbols between them pay the line wins on that spin and nothing else. Money bags land on all 5 reels, and each one carries a multiple of the total bet or the Mini or Major jackpot in place of a number. Six or more bags on one screen start the Money Respin after the lines pay. The other symbols fade out, and the reels reload with bags and blanks only. You get 3 respins. Every respin that lands at least one new bag puts the counter back to 3. The round ends when the counter hits 0 or when all 15 positions hold a bag. The game adds every bag value and pays the total. A full 15 also pays the Grande, which Pragmatic Play sets at 1,000x as the top prize. At the $2 demo stake, the banner shows $2,000, with the Major at $200 and the Mini at $60. The 16 numbers a bag can show are in the table below.
| Values | Notes |
|---|---|
| 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x, 7x, 8x | Multiples of the total bet, paid only through the Money Respin |
| 10x, 14x, 16x, 18x, 20x, 24x, 30x | Same rule, and the value never changes once the bag lands |
| 100x | The top number, worth more than 12 top line wins |
| Mini or Major | Pay 30x or 100x in place of a number, added to the respin total |
This is the respin format from Wolf Gold, a year older, with the same 25 lines, the same 3-respin reset and the same full-grid top jackpot. Chilli Heat swaps the moons for bags and the plains for a Mexican street, and it drops the giant symbols Wolf Gold uses in free spins. Mustang Gold, a year later, changed it again by paying money symbols only when a collect symbol hits reel 5. Chilli Heat is the plain version; 6 bags start the round, and the round pays.
Three flaming sun scatters on reels 2, 3 and 4 pay 1x and start 8 free spins. Only the wild, the money bag, the mariachi, the chihuahua, the hot sauce, the tequila and the scatter stay on the reels, so the four royals are gone for the whole round. Every line win in the round is a premium win, and bags land more often with fewer symbols in the way. Three more suns add 8 spins, with no limit on retriggers. The Money Respin can start inside the round.
A wild never fills in for a scatter or a money bag in Chilli Heat. The logo wild covers everything else, and it lands stacked, three high on one reel. A stacked wild on reel 3 with matching chihuahuas on reels 1 and 2 pays 1.2x. The best line pay is 8x for 5 mariachis. Line wins cover a spin or two of stake; the bags are for anything bigger.
A bag value never pays on the spin it lands. The rules pay bag values only through the Money Respin, and the respin needs 6 bags on the trigger spin, so 5 bags on a screen pay nothing on their own, no matter what numbers they show. A screen of 5 bags with a 30x on one of them is the sharpest disappointment the game offers, and it happens. Once you’re in, the counting changes. The counter starts at 3 and goes back to 3 every time a respin adds a bag, so a run of near-misses in the respin costs you 1 count each while a single bag resets the counter. Say 6 bags land showing 2x, 3x, 5x, 8x, 10x and a Mini. The lines pay first, then the reels reload with those 6 held and the counter at 3. Two blanks bring it down to 1, a 4x bag on the next respin sends it back to 3, and the round carries on until three blank respins come in a row or the last of the 15 positions fills. A full board of 15 ends the round on the spot and adds the Grande to the bag total.
The bags carry their value from the moment they land, and the value never changes during the respin. Bags that land during the respin keep the value they show, so the total on screen is always the total you will get, plus the Grande if the last blank fills. The Mini and Major bags pay the jackpot amount in place of a number. Both can land in the normal game and in free spins, and both stay for the respin like any other bag.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Min bet | $0.25 on 25 fixed lines, stepped with the plus and minus buttons |
| Max bet | $250, with no bonus buy and no ante bet, so the bet level is the only setting that changes the maths |
| RTP | 96.50% in the demo, 95.54% in the lowest version, a spread of 0.96 points between the top and bottom settings |
The rules label the volatility Low, and this review rates it Medium, because the respin and the free spins hold most of the return and the line game hands back very little.
| Multiples of the total bet | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mariachi | 0.4x | 2x | 8x |
| Chihuahua | 0.2x | 1.2x | 6x |
| Hot sauce | 0.2x | 1x | 5x |
| Tequila | 0.2x | 1x | 4x |
| A, K, Q, J | 0.2x | 0.4x | 2x |
| Sun scatter (3) | 1x + 8 free spins |
Every 3-of-a-kind below the mariachi pays the same 0.2x, and the demo’s cash figures at its $2 default put the 8x top line at $16. The three jackpots sit above the reels and never change with the bag values.
| Jackpot | Multiple of bet | How it pays |
|---|---|---|
| Grande | 1,000x | All 15 positions filled in the Money Respin |
| Major | 100x | A Major bag, paid with the respin total |
| Mini | 30x | A Mini bag, paid with the respin total |
A single 100x bag is worth more than 12 top-line wins, and a Major bag is worth 12 and a half.
Chilli Heat is the plain version of Pragmatic Play's respin format, released in January 2018, with a 1,000x Grande for a full screen of bags and a line table that barely matters. The respin count is tense and the seven-symbol free spins are clever, but the trigger is a long wait and there is nothing else to find. It's a classic and well known title. Perhaps its showing its age a bit but it still scores reasonably with us. A tidy 3 out of 5.
Most Pragmatic Play line slots put the top prize on a line or a multiplier. Chilli Heat puts it on a full screen of bags and calls it the Grande. At 1,000x, that top prize is small next to the 5,000x and 10,000x figures on the studio’s later releases, and the paytable underneath it is smaller still. Five mariachis pay 8x. In the 2018 range, that is the thinnest line table Pragmatic shipped on a 25-line game.
A 100x bag is worth 12 top line wins, and a Major bag is worth 12 and a half. The lines exist to give you something to look at between bag screens, and they pay 0.2x often enough to keep the balance ticking rather than falling. Free spins make the balance clearer, because the royals leave the reels and only 7 symbols remain. Every line hit in the round is a premium hit, and the bags land thicker. It is the strongest part of the game, and it is also the rarest, since 3 suns have to land on 3 named reels.
The respin itself is a strong design choice. The 3-count reset is the Wolf Gold rule, and it builds the same tension. Two blanks in a row leave you 1 count from the end, then a bag drops, and you’re back at 3. The frustration is the trigger, not the round. Five bags happen. Five bags with a 24x showing happen. The game puts the value on the screen and then clears it, and you get used to reading a bag screen with one eye on the count.
A chihuahua in a red bandana leads the symbol set, with a mariachi with a blue guitar, a tequila glass with a lime wedge, hot sauce and a chilli behind him, all bright and cheap in the good sense. Cactuses and a pink adobe wall frame the reels. The royals are painted wood in green, blue, purple and red. A trumpet loop runs under it. At first glance, it reads as a party and stays readable at speed, which the respin needs.
This is the hold-and-win format that land-based cabinets made famous, at a 96.50% RTP that beats most of those cabinets by 2 or 3 points. What it lacks is any second layer. There is no collect symbol, no multiplier, no buy, no rising jackpot. Chilli Heat is 6 bags, 3 respins, and a full screen, and in 2018 that was enough. It still plays cleanly in free play, and the 96.50% demo RTP is the game’s top setting.
