Caishens Gold

Vie for superiority with the Chinese god of wealth and prosperity in Caishen’s Gold, one of Pragmatic Play’s newest titles. The Chinese-themed design offers 243 ways to win, unlimited free spins, and a jackpot bonus feature where the top payout is 1000 times the bet size. This title sticks with Pragmatic Play’s winning formula, offering strong bonus features, smooth, coin-based betting, and an excellent RTP.

Theme

This game revolves around traditional Chinese themes, with all elements of design invoking an ancient East Asian feel. The Fu Manchu-sporting Caishen is the game’s central figure: in addition to inspiring its title and theme, his smiling face acts both as wild and top-paying gaming symbol, and is also the key to unlocking on of this slot’s two bonus features. Other higher-paying symbols include two adorable seated babies, a pink lotus in blossom, a blue fan, and an ornate stringed musical instrument (ruan). Lower value symbols are provided by the playing cards valued ace through nine. Background music, filled with gongs, ruan, and duxianqin, enhances the traditional Chinese ambience.

Betting Options and Functions

The team at Pragmatic Play seems to have found their preferred system of organizing bets, as this title shares the same betting structure as some of their other recently released games. Betting is coin-based with a fixed bet multiplier of 38x, and can be adjusted in two ways: coins per line (called ‘bet’ in this game), adjustable from one–ten, and coin value, which can be set between 0.01–0.50. This setup yields an overall per-spin bet range of 0.38–190.00 times the betting currency.

Rather than using traditional paylines, Caishen’s Gold makes use of 243 possible ways to win, all of which are awarded on adjacent reels from left to right. Autoplay is available up to 1000 spins, and a pop-up menu explains symbols, pay structure, and bonuses. The theoretical return to player is a truly outstanding 97.08%.

Features

Pragmatic Play has built two separate bonus features to help players achieve the riches of Caishen. The first is a traditional round of free spins, which are triggered by the appearance of three or more scatter symbols appearing on one of the 243 ways to win. Ten free spins are awarded, during which a modern twist is applied: all lower-value symbols are banished from the reels, leaving players with only the highest-paying options. Scatter symbols remain on the reels, and can award additional free spins without limit.

The second bonus feature is triggered at random by the appearance of jolly Caishen: golden coins rain down upon the reels, moving play to a separate world. Here, 12 golden coins appear, each with a hidden jackpot affiliation – these are payouts of 30, 50, 100, and 1000 times the initial bet. Players choose which to turn over. When three such jackpots are matched, that jackpot is awarded, with potentially massive wins arriving.

Our Take

The smiling, mustachioed Caishen has proven an excellent centerpiece for this slot. Though Pragmatic Play has not really distinguished this title from other Chinese or East Asian-themed slots available from other designers, this is a game with solid bonuses, an excellent RTP, and smooth gameplay throughout. Players who trigger the biggest of jackpots may find themselves as joyful as Caishen himself.