Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year Stats
Free Spins & Bonus
- Free Spins
- Firecracker on all 5 reels = 13 Free Game · 13 per trigger or retrigger; maximum 100 Free Game · Retrigger: firecracker on all 5 reels in the Free Game = 13 more; same multiplier
- Bonus Buy
- Buy Feature 50x
- Multipliers
- 3X–72X (Free Game, more than 5 firecrackers) · Set by the number of firecrackers on the trigger; a retrigger keeps the multiplier from the first trigger
Symbols & Pays
- Wild
- Substitutes for any symbol except the firecracker
- Ways Pays
- Top symbol 16.67x · Lowest 0.17x
Chinese New Year Demo by Fa Chai
Chinese New Year can lock as much as 72X onto its free game, depending on how many firecrackers land, before a single free spin turns. A firecracker has to land on all 5 reels to open the round. When more than 5 appear, the multiplier comes out somewhere from 3X to 72X, and every retrigger keeps it. Around that one rule, this 243-ways slot offers a lion dance, a red window, and eight paying symbols.
Above the reels, a lion dance head grins out of a round red window ringed with a gold fret pattern. It has white fluffy trim, red cheeks, big blue eyes, and a wide red mouth full of white teeth. Red paper lanterns hang to its left and right, green glazed roof tiles with flower roundels run across the top, and a heap of gold ingots spills in at the bottom right. A gold-on-green 243 WAYS banner hangs under its chin.
Slot Bonus Features
Firecracker on Every Reel
A reel-by-reel condition opens the free game. The firecracker, a red cylinder with gold bands and a gold 春 label on a blue tile, has to appear on all 5 reels in the same spin, and that awards 13 FREE GAME. Two or three firecrackers bunched on the left-hand reels don’t start anything; reel 5 counts as much as reel 1. The paytable gives the firecracker no row, so it plays no part in ways wins.
Multiplier Set at the Trigger
How many firecrackers land on the triggering spin decides the multiplier for the round. With more than 5 on the reels, it comes out between 3X and 72X. Once the round starts, that figure belongs to it.
| Event | Result |
|---|---|
| Firecracker on all 5 reels | 13 FREE GAME |
| More than 5 firecrackers on the trigger | Multiplier from 3X to 72X |
| Firecracker on all 5 reels during the FREE GAME | 13 more games, same multiplier |
| Most FREE GAME in one round | 100 |
Thirteen More Games
Inside the FREE GAME, the trigger repeats itself. A firecracker on all 5 reels again adds 13 more games, and the multiplier stays at whatever the opening trigger set. That can happen more than once, up to 100 FREE GAME in total. Whatever multiplier the number of firecrackers set, from 3X to 72X, the round still has it after its third extension.
Lion Dance Wild
The lion from the window returns as the Wild, shrunk into a gold fret ring with chunky gold WILD letters across the bottom. It covers for every paying symbol, but the firecracker is off its list, so it helps build ways but can’t fill the gap on a reel that is missing its firecracker. Like the firecracker, it gets no row in the paytable.
Buying the Free Game
Paying 50x opens the round outright from the base game, with no firecrackers needed. The Buy Feature is the one purchase on offer, a single FREE GAME at that price, and its panel sets its own limit on the bet you can buy at. The price is quoted against the current total bet, so it moves with the stake.
How to Play
Adjacent-Reel Ways
The same five reels answer two different questions in Chinese New Year. For a win, a symbol has to appear on reel 1 and then on every neighbouring reel after it, reading left to right, and three reels is the shortest run the paytable pays. For the free game, the only question is whether a firecracker shows on all 5 reels at once.
Row position plays no part in a way. A carp at the top of reel 1 links with a carp at the bottom of reel 2, and two matching symbols on one reel count as two separate ways through it. The lion Wild fills in for any paying symbol along a run, though never for the firecracker. There are no cascades, so a spin pays the ways it lands with and the next spin starts from a fresh screen.
That keeps each result easy to read in free play. A pineapple on reels 1, 2, and 3 with nothing on reel 4 is a three-of-a-kind win, and a Wild on reel 2 between pineapples on reels 1 and 3 completes the same run. A pineapple that skips reel 2 isn’t a win at all, however many follow it.
Slot RTP
96.25% RTP, per Fa Chai. Chinese New Year Moreways handles the festival differently, building its multiplier through the cascades of an ordinary spin, whereas this game reserves its multiplier for the bonus round and fixes it on the spin that puts a firecracker on all 5 reels. Between features, Chinese New Year is a straight ways slot.
Paytable
At three of a kind, the four gold symbols outpay every letter. The pineapple stands well clear at the top. The gold ingot pays exactly 1x for three, and every symbol below it in the table pays less than the stake at that length. The game pays each figure in the table on one winning way, counted against the total bet.
| Symbol | 5 | 4 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pineapple | 16.67x | 5x | 1.67x |
| Golden carp | 6.67x | 2.67x | 1.33x |
| Gold ingot | 5.83x | 2x | 1x |
| Red envelopes | 4.17x | 1.33x | 0.83x |
| A | 3.33x | 0.67x | 0.33x |
| K | 3x | 0.5x | 0.27x |
| Q | 2.67x | 0.4x | 0.2x |
| J | 2.33x | 0.33x | 0.17x |
The lion Wild and the firecracker have no rows; the Wild earns through the symbols it stands in for, and the firecracker through the trigger.
Ultimate Slots Verdict
Chinese New Year's regular reels are plain, 243 ways with no cascades and a 16.67x pineapple at the top. The free game rescues it. Once a firecracker lands on every reel, more than 5 set a multiplier from 3X to 72X, and each retrigger keeps that number for up to 100 games. A narrow case, but a real one.
✓ What We Like
- More than 5 firecrackers set a free game multiplier from 3X to 72X.
- Retriggers keep the opening multiplier.
- A firecracker on all 5 reels during the free game adds 13 more, up to 100.
- The lion Wild substitutes for any symbol but the firecracker.
✗ What Could Be Better
- A firecracker must land on all five reels at once.
- No cascades or extras between free games.
Detailed Review
Chinese New Year Slot Review
One firecracker per reel, across all five, is the entry fee for the bonus round, and the rest of the design hangs off that moment. The count on that spin picks the multiplier, more than 5 firecrackers giving anything from 3X to 72X, and no retrigger can move it afterwards. A round that opens high stays high for up to 100 games, and one that opens at 3X stays at 3X. That single locked number is what makes this slot worth playing.
As a Chinese slot centred on one lion dance, it commits to the character. The same white-trimmed head watches from its red window and returns as the Wild in a gold ring, while the gold pineapple, leaping carp, boat-shaped ingot, and 福 envelopes fill the high end in matching gold. The letters come in red, orange, green, and blue, each with a gold outline. The firecracker is the one symbol on a blue tile, which makes a reel holding one easy to pick out.
Between free games, the reels offer ways wins and a substituting Wild, and nothing more. The paytable tops out with a 16.67x pineapple, and the trigger asks for a firecracker on every reel at the same time. Four reels showing one and a blank fifth pays nothing towards it, and that near-miss is the feeling the game leans on hardest. A 50x buy skips the wait. Out since May 2020, it has a top win of up to 12,000x, by Fa Chai’s own count.
None of this takes long to understand. The trigger is one condition, the multiplier is one number, and both apply for the whole round. For a slot with this little else going on, that turns out to be enough.
