xWays Hoarder xSplit

xWays Hoarder xSplit: Slot Overview

Continuing the push for all things 'x' prefaced comes xWays Hoarder xSplit from the creative minds at Nolimit City. The studio continues to push the boat out to explore unusual themes while evolving its suite of features. xWays Hoarder xSplit sends players to the future, the not too distant future, where something's gone very wrong. Clues include things like radiation warnings, burnt out cityscapes, and rodents. More importantly, we meet Karen, Hovernburg, and Moonshine - three eccentrics trying to make their way through the nuclear winter. It's the player's task to hoard more than these guys can, for survival purposes, in a game serving up free spins, xWays symbols and a new xSplit mechanic.

The action occurs on a 5x3 sized grid, starting each base game spin with 243 ways to win, increasing as high as 95,760 once the splitting and xWaying begins in earnest. In the distance, a hazy sun's doing its best to appear and warm up lines of fallout shelters flanking the reels. In a really nice touch, the backing music sounds as if it's playing through a transistor radio during the main game. It's quite moving, a little like that gramophone scene in Saving Private Ryan, except it blasts an old rockabilly number instead of Edith Piaf. Anyway, it helps to create a highly unique environment in which to sample xSplit Wild and fellow features.

To get in on some hoarding, bets from 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin may be set – on any device. As is the usual Nolimit City custom, xWays Hoarder xSplit is an extremely volatile slot with gameplay that can go nuts when the features kick in. It comes in two RTP settings, the most generous being 96.14%, the less giving one 94.10%. Players can expect a hit roughly every 5 spins, or 21.54% of the time, which is pretty average, whilst potential is noticeably less than the last few games from Nolimit's production line at 11,030 times your stake.

You'll be glad to know civilisation isn't entirely dead; the people stuck in this nightmare future scenario haven't completely kissed away all personal decorum. As part of their hoarding, toilet paper is high on the list of must-have items, as sought after as moonshine, gasoline, first aid kits and Geiger counters. These five objects make up the lower side of the paytable, while high pay symbols include five unusual characters, to say the least. Here is found Hovenburg, the Moonshine King, Karen, Dr Dwayne, and Gordon Geiger. Values-wise, you're looking at a payout of 1.5 to 5 times the stake for a line of five premium symbols. Not amazing, but once the features start splitting them up, values quickly improve.

xWays Hoarder xSplit: Slot Features

xWays is a regular Nolimit feature by now, having shown up in various guises and games. It is joined by the new xSplit Wilds, free spin games, plus a bonus buy menu - where available. xWays symbols land on the middle three reels to reveal 2-4 instances of the same random pay symbol. If more than one xWays symbol hits, then all of them reveal the same symbol.

xSplit Wilds only land in the base game on the last three reels; 1 may land on reel 3, 2 on reel 4, and 3 on reel 5. When they appear, all symbols to the left of an xSplit Wild are split in two, thereby doubling that symbol. If it hits an xWays symbol, the xWays value is doubled every time it is split. xSplit Wilds convert to regular wilds when they land, and they can also be split by other xSplit Wilds.

Fallout Scatter symbols land on reels 2, 3, 4, or 5, and 3 or 4 of them in view trigger 7 or 10 Bunker Raid Spins. If a scatter symbol is hit by an xSplit Wild, it does not split; instead, it converts to a Super Scatter. If free spins are triggered with Super Scatters present, they and the positions below them become sticky xWays Symbols.

During free spins, any xWays symbols turn sticky for the rest of the round after landing and also award +1 spin. These new xWays symbol drop down to the lowest xWays symbol on the reels, merging with any sticky ones.

A collection system runs in free spins too. For every 3 collected xWays symbols, a new hoarder level is reached. Making a new level removes the lowest remaining character and object symbol from the reels.

Reaching level 4 shifts the bonus game to Wasteland Free Spins, where only 4 symbols appear on the grid - the two premiums Dwayne and Geiger, plus the low pay medkit and the Geiger counter. In Wasteland Free Spins, the 9 xWays symbols in the middle of the grid merge to form a mega symbol, each one having a symbol count of x2-x4 for every remaining spin – multiplying each other in the process. This is a little hard to describe but a riot in action as you can see in the video.

To fast track the feature, xWays Hoarder xSplit comes with 4 bonus buy options. Paying 95x or 180x the bet gets your 3 or 4 Fallout Scatter symbols on the next spin. 777x the bet drops 3 Super Scatters, while 218x the bet is a lucky dip option, awarding one of the three previous options at random.

xWays Hoarder xSplit: Slot Verdict

If there is one studio that really has no fudges left to give, it's Nolimit City – as evidenced by a game that crowns big winners 'King of Sh:t'. The team has pushed off in weird and wonderful directions with scant regard for tradition. Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Mythology? Words like this mean nothing at Nolimit City. The studio said goodbye to generic clichés a long time ago to let their imaginations soar in games just like xWays Hoarder xSplit. For one, the theme is completely nuts, in a good way, Nolimit taking the dystopic future concept in an utterly bizarre direction altogether. Strangely, it's a relatable dystopia, though, and one not hard to imagine occurring. Just one slip on the launch button could send us all scrabbling among the ruins for bog rolls like Karen and the gang.

The gameplay is equally absorbing, and the xSplit feature adds a new way of stuffing more symbols onto a reel. There are shades of San Quentin xWays here, yet the symbol removal system and sticky xWays creates a wholly individual experience. Interestingly, you do kind of get the impression xWays Hoarder xSplit might be a practice run for something even bigger, though. One clue is potential. Triggering the King of Waste feature means players have hit the max win figure of 11,030x the bet – a substantial amount yet down on what Nolimit has been doing recently.

Once again, Nolimit City reminds us how far ahead of the curve they are compared to a vast chunk of their competitors. xWays Hoarder xSplit might not come across as a flagship game as such, but its inventiveness in terms of theme and features make it a bastion of originality.

Don't Miss

Can't have enough of Karen? Be sure to have a look at Nolimit City's 2022 release Karen Maneater in which she makes yet another appearance.