The reels of Mermaid Riches climb like a staircase. The first holds one symbol, the second two, and so on up to five on the last, with a red-haired mermaid sitting on the empty space in the corner. PG Soft released it in August 2021 with a fairy tale attached: a beachcomber frees a golden fish from a net, and it turns out to be the Mermaid Princess, who promises to grant him any wish. The board gives 120 ways, cascades run on an x1, x2, x3, x5 ladder, and in the free spins the staircase turns around and the ladder doubles to x10.
United States
Mermaid Riches available at Cafe Casino
Same game, real money
Cafe Casino runs the same Mermaid Riches with the same math and adds a welcome bonus for players from the United States:
300% up to $2,000 + 150 FS 18+ · T&Cs apply · the demo stays freeOne, two, three, four, five
The product of the five reel heights is 120, and since no symbol changes size, that count stays the same on every spin. Because reel one holds a single symbol, every win in the base game has to start with that one position, and the special wild described below can land there.
The ladder sits in four shells above the board: x1 for the first round of a spin, x2 after one win, x3 after two and x5 for every round from the fourth on.
Two kinds of wild
The golden shell marked W is the Special Sticky Wild. At the start of every spin it moves to a random position on the board and stays there for all cascades of that spin. It also pays as a symbol, 100 points for five of a kind.
Ordinary wilds are pearls in an open shell with a number from 1 to 3 on them. They land on reels two to five, and the number is how many wins each one can join before it disappears; every win takes one off.
In the screenshot the golden shell sits on reel one, a pearl wild with a 1 on reel two, and starfish run through both for a round paid at x2. I left the bet on 12.00 for the whole session (size 0.30, level 2), which made a paytable point worth 0.60.
The free spins turn the board around
Three scatters give 8 free spins and every extra scatter adds 2. In the feature the reels are mirrored, five symbols on reel one down to one on reel five, and the mermaid swims to the other side. The ladder becomes x2, x4, x6 and x10.
Mine started on spin 74, after a trigger spin that had already paid 55.80. For six free spins nothing connected. The seventh, with the golden shell in the middle of the board, climbed the whole ladder from x2 to x10 in four winning rounds: 2.40, 9.60, 14.40 and finally a round of treasure chests worth 18.00 before the multiplier and 180.00 at x10.
That spin was the whole feature, 206.40, about 17 stakes. The last free spin paid nothing. With the ladder doubled, reaching the fourth step in free spins is worth twice as much as in the base game, Queen of Bounty also raises its ladder for the free spins, but lets you choose how far.
Pearl shell at the top, card ranks at the bottom
The payouts are per way for three, four and five of a kind. A spin costs 20 points, so the last column sets five on one way against the stake:
| Symbol | 3 / 4 / 5 | Five on one way vs stake |
|---|---|---|
| Golden shell (Special Sticky Wild) | 8 / 20 / 100 | 5x |
| Treasure chest | 5 / 15 / 70 | 3.5x |
| Potion bottle | 4 / 10 / 50 | 2.5x |
| Anchor | 3 / 8 / 35 | 1.75x |
| Manta ray | 2 / 4 / 20 | 1x |
| Jellyfish | 2 / 4 / 10 | 0.5x |
| Starfish, A, K, Q, J | 1 / 2 / 5 | 0.25x |
Session and figures
Mermaid Riches paid on 46 of my 100 spins, but most wins were a single round of starfish or card ranks worth a coin or two. The balance ended at 99,307.60: 507.60 back from 1,200.00, less than half the money staked. On paper the game returns 96.71% and stops at 20,000x the bet. The game is free to try here alongside the rest of our PG Soft slots.
| Feature | Specification |
|---|---|
| Provider | PG Soft |
| Released | August 2021 |
| Reels | 5, with 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 rows; mirrored in free spins |
| Ways | 120 fixed, base bet 20 |
| Wilds | Special Sticky Wild moves each spin; pearl wilds with 1 to 3 uses |
| Multiplier | x1, x2, x3, x5 per cascade; x2, x4, x6, x10 in free spins |
| Free spins | 8 for 3 scatters, +2 per extra |
| RTP | 96.71% |
| Max win | 20,000x |
Mermaid Riches FAQ
Why does Mermaid Riches have 120 ways?
What does the Special Sticky Wild do?
What changes in the free spins?
What do the numbers on the pearl wilds mean?
A narrow start, a doubled finish
The single position on reel one makes the base game stingy: wins are frequent but tiny, and long cascades are rare. The free spins fix that by moving the five-row reel to the front and doubling every step of the ladder, and one good cascade in my round produced more than all the other wins of the feature combined. Without that feature, this is one of the quieter PG Soft games.