Big Fin Bay

Join the bearded captain on his next fishing expedition through the Big Fin Bay on the slot from Thunderkick. Get your bait ready and cast your rod across six dynamic reels to hit mystery wilds, expanding wilds and a free spins round with an expanding game window creating up to 117,649 ways and leading to wins of up to 15,040 times your bet.

Slot Details

Big Fin Bay is a video slot with six dynamic reels and 5,040 ways to win in the base game. While the number of ways is fixed, the distribution of symbols per reel varies for every spin, which taken together result in the 5,040 bet ways (more to that shortly). During the bonus feature, the maximum peeks at 117,649 ways with then seven symbols on each reel. Wins are awarded for three to six matching symbols landing on adjacent reels from left to right only. You can go on a big fishing tour on desktop, tablet or mobile from 0.10 to 100 credits per spin. The game has high volatility (square root of variance is 9.38) with an RTP of 96.14%.

A scenic marine bay is opening up when you load the game with a view to the open sea. Buildings are nestled against the steep cliffs of the bay while a light tower helps sailors manoeuvring the at times treacherous waters. Various fish and the bearded captain dominate on the dynamic reels while three or more anchors anywhere in view will set off the fishing frenzy.

The pay symbols start at the low end with card royals from 9 through to A, awarding between 0.8x to 1.5x your bet for a single six of a kind. They a followed by four wooden plaques ornamented with blue, green, purple and red fish as well as the captain. Hit six across the reels to win 2x to 7x your stake. A golden swordfish marked with the word itself is the wild, substituting for all regular symbols while anchor acts as the scatter.

Big Fin Bay Slot Features

Shiver me timbers! Thunderkick is dipping into full dynamic reel mechanics for the first time. To this day, they never went past the 4,096-ways format and are now going all in on Big Fin Bay with up to 117,649 ways, which strongly reminds us of the Megaways concept. And in many ways, their mechanics work similarly in parts of the gameplay. Reason enough to take a closer look.

In the base game, the number of ways is fixed at 5,040, however, the number of symbols per reel is semi-variable. The distribution is always one reel each with 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 symbols, amounting to the 5,040 ways when multiplied by each other. However, the game engine will randomly choose at the start of every spin the order of the reels. One spin you could have the 2 symbols on reel three and on the next spin it could be on reel five. In essence, some similarity to Megaways although we do not have cascading symbols, just simple spinning reels. It all turns slightly more unpredictable in the free spins.

Much of the gameplay rests on the shoulders of the swordfish wilds. While they can land as single symbols to substitute for other symbols, they take on more roles at times. During the base game and free spins, any wild that becomes part of a winning combination will turn into an Expanding Wild to cover the entire reel and thus multiply your win.

In turn, the Mystery Wilds feature can trigger randomly at the start of on any spin in the base game. Up to three reels can transform into expanded wilds for the current spin. The win evaluation is done once the modifier has been applied and the remaining reels come to a stop. Scatters cannot land while the feature is active.

Hitting three or more Bonus scatters anywhere on the reels will trigger the Free Spins feature. Every scatter will award a random number of up to six free spins for a maximum of 36 spins with six scatters. During the feature, one or more swordfish wilds landing will always expand and trigger a respin once any initial wins are paid. While the reels turn, the wild will increase the number of symbols on its reel by one, up until it reaches the maximum of 7 symbols.

For better clarity, the current number of symbols per reel is displayed at the bottom of the game window. Any expansion will not reset until the end of the feature, however, wilds are not sticky. Every time a reel reaches the maximum height, it will retrigger +3 free spins. Once all reels are fully expanded, you will be playing any remaining free spins with 117,649 bet ways.

Final Verdict

Well, if Big Fin Bay is Thunderkick’s foray into dynamic reels à la Megaways, it is rather cautious, maybe to avoid the wrath of Big Time Gaming. Yet, it is still an interesting mechanic as it keeps the game unpredictable to a certain extent while getting to a high number of bet ways in the free spins will have some real fire power for mega wins. Taking home up to 15,040x your bet from this fishing trip would most certainly be a good catch.

Big Fin Bay – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. What are the maximum bet ways on Big Fin Bay?

In the base game, the number is capped at 5,040 ways, however, the distribution of how many symbols per reel is randomly chosen for every spin. In the base game, the amount can grow substantially through landing Wild symbols, up to a maximum of 117,649 ways which is similar to a standard Megaways game.

2. Does the Big Fin Bay slot have a single RTP setting?

While Thunderkick has offered some slots with two RTP settings, they went for a single RTP value of 96.14% on Big Fin Bay. This means, that you will have the same setting at all casinos that will add the game to their lobbies.

3. Can I win Free Spins on Big Fin Bay?

Yes. You will need to land at least three bonus scatters on any of the six reels. Each scatter will unveil a random number of free spins, up to a maximum of 6/scatter. The maximum per feature trigger is 36 free spins if you land six scatters and each is revealing 6 spins. During the bonus feature, you can retrigger up to 15 free spins.

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