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Don’t let the name fool you, Betsoft’s new Phoenix Inferno has nothing to do with that 2021 game by 1×2 Gaming. On paper, this new one looks awesome: it’s played on a diamond-shaped grid (3-4-5-4-3), gives you 720 ways to win, runs at a solid 96% RTP, and has a 10,000x max win.
But after playing it for a while, I realized this game has a bit of an identity crisis. It basically runs two totally different payout systems at the same time, and they constantly get in each other’s way.
The Coin Collect Feature Will Drive You Crazy
Here’s what drove me nuts. The game has a standard left-to-right payout system, but it also has a coin collect feature. To actually collect the cash value of the coins on the screen, you need an unbroken chain of them starting from the very first reel on the left.
Now, usually, Wild symbols are your best friend, right? Not here. Wilds only land on the middle three reels, and while they substitute for regular symbols, they don’t count as coins. This means the very symbol that is supposed to help you actually breaks your coin chain.
During my session, I had a spin where some juicy 4x coins landed on the outer reels, but because reel two was blank, the chain broke and I won absolutely zero. When you do manage to connect them, you’re usually just picking up 1x or 1.5x your bet. The regular symbol wins in the base game aren’t much better.
The Bonus Round: Great Multipliers with Weird Rules
Next to the board, you’ll see three meters: a multiplier, a free spin count, and a cash bonus. Every time a scatter lands, these meters tick up. The free spins trigger completely at random when the Phoenix decides to act up. Once you’re in the bonus, that’s it, no more scatters land, so you can’t retrigger more spins. (If you’re impatient, you can just buy the bonus for 45x, 100x, or 200x your bet).
But here is the catch: that multiplier you spent all that time building up? It only applies to the collected coins and the smaller jackpots. It completely ignores regular symbol wins, the cash bonus, and the 10,000x Mega prize. There is nothing more frustrating than buying a 100x bonus, watching coins land on reels two and four, but missing reel one, meaning that massive multiplier just sits there doing nothing.
The Plot Twist: Where the Money Actually Is
Here’s the funny part. The game flashes and screams about the coins, but the regular symbols are what actually saved my bacon. I actually ended my session in profit, and the coins had almost nothing to do with it. I bought the cheapest 45x bonus and had regular spins pay out 18.80x, 36x, and 11x just by matching standard symbols across the diamond grid.
The Verdict
If you like this specific diamond grid style, you might also want to check out Greedy for Gold: Power Hit 10,000 by Booming Games (which has a similar vibe but a slightly higher max win).
As for Phoenix Inferno? It’s a decent game, but it feels like two different games crammed into one. It sells itself on this cool multiplying coin feature, but because of the strict left-to-right rules and the Wilds blocking your chains, it’s just too unreliable. The standard 720-ways wins are doing all the heavy lifting here, it’s just a shame the bonus multiplier doesn’t apply to them!
