The Jade Path Hold & Win Demo: Free Play and Review

Plain lines under the Jackpot Signs

J, Q, K and A pay from 0.2x the bet up to 1x. Four masks and faces pay more, the red mask most, 25x for five. Wilds land only in Warrior Riches, so every base-game line is made of plain symbols.

The signs turn the jackpots into money for the current bet. They are fixed multiples, and the Grand alone equals the 2,500x cap, so a round that holds it cannot pay more, whatever sits beside it. The studio's promotional picture shows a different board, and the figures here are the game's own.

Three Orbs, three lives, one Jaguar at a time

Any three Coin or Jackpot Orbs in one base spin start the Jade Hold & Win, where only Orbs, Jaguar Multipliers and blanks can land. Each new Orb sticks and refills the 3 lives, a Jaguar refills them too, and the round ends when they run out. Coins are worth 0.2x to 50x. A Jaguar, 2x to 20x, multiplies the Coins already on the grid, never the Jackpot Orbs. A full grid pays out, clears and starts again with 3 lives.

Our log had three of these, worth €346.00 in Orbs. On spin 155 a x3 Jaguar landed on the sixth respin over ten Coins, and the two Coins that came later kept their face value, for €158.00 in all. Spin 158 had a x2 Jaguar and two Minis, and each Mini stayed at €10.00.

Who presses START at the Bonus Choice

Three Bonus symbols landing together on a base spin bring up the Bonus Choice menu, and the 100x card leads to the same menu. No Bonus symbol can land inside any feature, so nothing retriggers.

Whoever presses START decides, and in our log that was the script. It takes the options in turn, so spin 473 became Warrior Riches and spin 480, seven spins later, the Jade Bounty Hold & Win.

The Jade Bounty Hold & Win keeps the rules above but starts with at least five special symbols, Orbs and at most one Jaguar, and no Coin under 1x. Ours began with five Coins worth 15x, ran 17 respins and stopped with 11 Orbs, a Mini among them, for €116.00.

For the clip our script paid €200.00 and pressed the right-hand START. Five Coins worth €42.00 opened the grid, five more landed over the respins, and neither a Jaguar nor a Jackpot Orb came.

Sticky Warrior Wilds, and a Jaguar for one spin

In Warrior Riches the Jaguar works as a Wild Multiplier. On a winning spin its value is added to every sticky Wild, and by the following spin it has left the reels.

Our round from spin 473 had five Wilds by free spin 7, which paid €26.00 without a Jaguar. On free spin 8 a x3 Jaguar landed and counted as a Wild itself. Two five-of-a-kind red-mask lines each ran through it and one sticky Wild, 3 plus 3 made x6, and the spin brought €644.40. The round closed at €792.00, 396x, and nothing else in the log paid as much.

€362.20 down at spin 472, €537.00 up eight spins later

Better than one paid spin in three returned something here, 37.4% of 500 at €2.00. The median win came to 0.4x, and no losing streak ran past 11.

The 9 lines brought €252.20, the biggest €20.00 on spin 281, and the three Hold & Wins €346.00. The best base spin, 80.7x, came on spin 155. Spin 472 still left the balance at €4,637.80. On the next spin Warrior Riches landed, the Jade Bounty on spin 480 lifted the balance to €5,537.00, and by the end of the log 150.5% had come back, leaving €5,505.40.

2x a spin for a 3x bonus chance, 100x for the menu

BonusHunt FeatureSpins costs 2x per spin, €4.00 at our stake, and makes each spin 3 times more likely to trigger a bonus, as does the switch beside the grid. Jade Bonus Choice costs 100x and stops at the menu. The Hold & Win from three Orbs is not for sale.

The bought menu has two returns in GAME INFO, 96.28% with Warrior Riches and 96.21% with the Hold & Win, the reverse of the natural order. BonusHunt returns 96.20% or 96.39% depending on the pick. These figures belong to the demo build. The studio also publishes 94.24%, 92.28% and 86.28% versions, and a casino may install any of them, while players in some countries never see the two cards.

That bought Hold & Win returned €90.00, 45x the bet, on the card's 96.21% branch.

Where our other reviews come closest

Le Viking runs its Raid Spins on three refilling lives as well, and there any Coin, Diamond or Clover refills them.

Le King also caps its top jackpot at the game's max win, 20,000x there. Hacksaw's two other Hold & Win titles, Le Bandit Hold & Win and 3 Cursed Chests: Hold & Win, are not reviewed here, and none of our sources calls the three a series.

A menu in front of every bonus is what Donut Division does too, with a lives-based Warehouse against ten Stakeout spins.

Every bonus passes through the same menu, so the choice is most of the game. Warrior Riches outpaid the Hold & Win in our log, but two rounds settle nothing, and GAME INFO gives the Hold & Win the higher return when the bonus comes on its own.