Puffers Vs Sharks Slot Review

The Puffers vs Sharks Slot game

If you’ve played the games mentioned above, you should know the drill to follow in this Pragmatic Play slot.

Once you open the game, you head to the ocean’s bottom, where carcasses, sunken ships, and a thriving animal ecosystem welcome you. But first, you must choose between the Puffers or Sharks modes. Depending on the mode you choose, you’ll get distinct environments, symbols, and different volatilities.

The visuals in Puffers vs Sharks remain highly defined regardless of the mode chosen. Furthermore, the bubbly water effects and lighthearted melody enhance the experience.

The reels also maintain a 5 by 5 configuration resting above the control panel and flanked by the buy option and volatility selector.

Symbols and Payouts

It’s now the time for the pen to meet the paper (fingers to meet the keyboard, LOL) and describe the slot’s symbols and their payouts.

The slot has 12 pairs of symbols. But, as mentioned, they change depending on the mode chosen. However, their prizes based on the selected stake remain unchanged. Also, all the symbols pay from left to right on adjacent columns, beginning from the leftmost reel.

As is usually the case with Pragmatic slots, the low-paying symbols include the 10 to Ace card ranks. When 3 or more O-A-K form a win, they pay 0.1x, 0.5x, or 1x the bet.

Then, the highs in Puffers vs Sharks consist of various sea creatures, as follows:

• Crab/Seahorse and Jellyfish/Swordfish - 0.5x, 2.5x, and 5x stake.
• Piranha/Snail and Octopus/Turtle - 1x, 5x, and 10x the bet.
• Shark/Pufferfish - 2x, 10x, and 20x the bet.

The Puffer and Shark images imprinted with “WILD” can appear on all reels and serve the usual function of substituting for all regular symbols. They can also form individual combinations worth the same amount as their standard counterparts.

Finally, the scatter bonus is a Treasure Chest, which only appears on the odd-numbered base game reels and can trigger the free spins.

Puffers vs Sharks Slot Bonus Features

This game's features are cloned from similar slots mentioned above. They include expanding wilds with multipliers, free spins, and buy options.

Expanding Wilds with Multipliers

The expanding wilds land on all reels and can pay like the regular wilds. Whenever any of them land in the base game or free spins, and there’s a chance for a win after expansion, they’ll expand and cover the whole column. They also get random 2x to 100x multipliers.

The multiplier boosts all the winning combos it is part of, and if multiple wilds participate in the same paying sequence, their multipliers will be added.

Free Spins

Hit 3 bonus symbols simultaneously in Puffers vs Sharks to trigger the bonus game and get 10 free spins. During this round, any expanding wild symbol that lands will extend, get a random multiplier, and remain sticky until the end of the bonus. Unfortunately, the free spins cannot be retriggered and use special reels.

Buy Free Spins

You can instantly trigger the free spins from the base game by buying them as shown below:

• When in Puffers mode, pay 75x bet for the standard free spins. Alternatively, use 300x bet for special free spins, in which the expanding wild with a random multiplier appears on the first free spin of the bonus.
• When in Sharks mode, spend 150x total bet for the standard bonus game. But for 300x bet, you get a special free spin round with similar rules as in the Puffers mode.

How to Win at Puffers vs Sharks Slot

As mentioned, this video slot has two profiles, Sharks and Puffers, which you must choose before entering the game. Depending on the picked mode, the game’s display and symbols change to match the respective profile.

However, both profiles have 5 reels, 5 rows, and 15 paylines, meaning all symbols pay from left to right on adjacent reels and preselected paylines. The max win is limited to 15,000x stake!

The winning rules are pretty straightforward. But how does one play?

Puffers vs Sharks offers a wide betting range of at least €0.10 to €100, which should be ideal for all budgetary needs.    

Pick a bet amount you’re comfortable wagering without stretching your budget, and then press the Spin button to play the reels once. Otherwise, you can employ the Autoplay function and gamble multiple spins successively without using the Spin command.

If you wish to play quickly, enable either the Turbo or Quickspin options. Finally, the “i” reveals the information page, while the tools icon exposes the system settings.

Puffers vs Sharks Slot RTP & Volatility

This slot’s theoretical RTP is 96.05% and 96.07% when using Puffers and Sharks mode, respectively. The payback rate also changes depending on the buy option chosen, as displayed on the information page. The volatility is high (Puffers) or very high (Sharks).

The Final Thoughts

Playing this Pragmatic Play slot felt like starting a fierce underwater supremacy battle. You’re either on the Sharks’ or Puffers’ side. Both have their benefits and are almost similar, except for the display, symbols, and some stats.

However, anyone with a keen eye will notice that this game is a Rise of Samurai IV clone. While I didn’t mind, I’m not sure every other online slot enthusiast will have the same sentiments.

Visually, Puffers vs Sharks is outstanding, regardless of your chosen side. And the same goes for the sounds, too! As if that’s not all, the features, especially the expanding wilds with multipliers, hold significant excitement, which should appeal to many. Besides, they could boost your winning chances to a massive 15,000x your stake!

However, not everything that glitters is gold. In short, don’t be too quick to dive into the deep waters and ignore the high/very high volatilities that await.