Gifts of Fortune

Gifts of Fortune: Slot Overview

While for most people the new year has already started some weeks ago, the Chinese new year is right around the corner. The year of 2023 will be under the sign of the rabbit. And of course, as with many online slot providers, Big Time Gaming took it into their own hands to celebrate the Chinese new year with Gifts of Fortune.

Gifts of Fortune is played on 6 reels with an extra row on top and uses the Megaways technology, which means that every reel carries a random amount of symbols from 2 to 7, allowing for up to 117,649 winning ways at max. Gifts of Fortune makes use of Tumbling Wins, which means that a spin only ends if no more winning combinations are possible. Bet sizes range from 0.20€ to 20€ (or equivalent). Bet sizes may vary depending on where you play.

The winning symbols are typical for Big Time Gaming. There are 10 of them in total, 6 of them on the lower end and 4 on the higher end. Let’s begin with the lower tier symbols. These are the usual symbols from 9 to A that actually have very similar payouts. 9’s, 10’s and J’s will net you 0.4-times your bet size for a full way. Q’s, K’s and A’s however will grant you 0.5-times your bet size for a full way.

On the higher end the payout differences are more significant. At first we have the Green frog, clocking in at 1-time your bet size for a full way. Next up we have the Blue fish, coming in at 2-times your bet size. Then the Red turtle, that will net you 3-times your bet size. And of course, as our top symbol, we have the Purple dragon, clocking in at 50-times your bet size for a full way, making it by far the best symbol.

Gifts of Fortune: Special Symbols and Stats

Gifts of Fortune features 2 or rather 3 Special symbols.

First up we have the red envelope. This symbol acts as a Wild symbol and substitutes for any other winning symbol except Scatter symbols. The red envelope can only occur on the extra row at the top. It actually has another use that we will cover later on in the Feature Overview section of our online slot review.

The second Special symbol is the Scatter symbol, which is portrayed by a „Sycee“, a chinese golden ingot with an orange background. Scatter symbols can appear anywhere on reel 1 to 6. Landing at least 3 of them in the same spin will grant you the Free Spins Feature. Look out for the Megascatter symbol though, which looks the same like the regular Scatter but has a purple background. Triggering with one of these will put you into the Enhanced Free Spins.

Alright, let’s look at the stats. Unfortunately, there aren’t really any. Big Time Gaming is very withdrawn when it comes to stats about their games. The only thing we can tell you is that the RTP of the game is 96.29% and the max win potential is about 13,960-times your bet size. Of course, Big Time Gaming slots are usually not capped, but we guess that this was the best outcome after several simulations.

Gifts of Fortune: Red Envelopes

Many of you may have already wondered why so many asian-themed slot games use a red envelope as their symbol. The red envelope or red packets are usually a gift for children or elderly given to at Chinese new year. They are also given to Dragon or Lion Dance performers as a thanks for their performance. They usually contain money, most of the time even numbers such as 8 or 6, since they sound like „wealth“ or „smooth“ in chinese language. Beware of the number 4 though, because this number sounds like „death“ in their language and is considered an unlucky number. It is actually common to ask married couples or rather family members for red packages. Turning down such a request would result in bad luck for the year.

Gifts of Fortune: Feature Overview

• Coin Collect

As we mentioned earlier, the red envelopes not only function as a Wild symbol, but they also work as a Coin Collect symbol. You see, during Tumbling Wins, the winning symbols are destroyed and new ones are dropped onto the screen. But behind every winning symbol is a chance that you will find a coin, yielding up to 100-times your bet size. In order to collect these coins you need to have at least one red envelope in the Extra Row on the top. Any additional red envelope will also collect all available coins.

• Random Multiplier

At the top of the screen you will see a golden pot with a multiplier in it. This doesn’t have too much of an effect in the base game, however, there is a chance that a random multiplier will show up. This multiplier is applied to every coin collected.

• Free Spins Feature

Landing 3 or more Scatters in the same spin will award you with 10 Free Spins and 2 additional for each Scatter beyond the third. While in the Free Spins Feature, the game pretty much behaves the same like the base game, but with each red envelope you land in the Extra Row, the multiplier in the golden pot will rise by +1 and will stay for the remainder of the Free Spins. Remember, multipliers are not applied to Tumble Wins, only to Coins. Retriggers are possible, land 3 or more Scatters in the same spin to get 4 Free Spins on top and 2 additional for each Scatter beyond the third.

• Enhanced Free Spins

The Enhanced Free Spins are triggered by having at least one Scatter with purple background. Same trigger rules apply here, you’ll get 10 Free Spins and 2 additional for each Scatter beyond the third. Enhanced Free Spins actually work just like the normal Free Spins but in this feature you are guaranteed to have at least 1 red envelope in the Extra Row in every spin. This one is also retriggerable, land 3 or more Scatters in the same spin to get 4 Free Spins on top and 2 additional for each Scatter beyond the third.

• Bonus Buy Feature

As with most of the newer Big Time Gaming online slots, Gifts of Fortune also comes with a Bonus Buy option. You can buy the normal Free Spins Feature for 70-times your bet size and the Enhanced Free Spins Feature for 200-times your bet size, which is a fair price. Keep in mind though that you will always buy a 3 Scatter trigger, there is no chance of triggering with additional Scatters. What’s unusual here is that there is no RTP difference between base game and Bonus Buy options.

Gifts of Fortune: Conclusion

Gifts of Fortune is a fun online slot, that’s for sure. Well, at least in the Bonus features. The base game, as with many Big Time Gaming online slots, is pretty boring. There isn’t much potential there, except if you’re really lucky and get good coins with a random multiplier. But other than that the base game doesn’t have much to offer.

Big Time Gaming did a great job in designing the game though. They perfectly nailed the asian theme, not only with their winning symbols but also with the whole ambience around it. Great background design, nice music, of course they kept it a bit modern and put a bit of their own touch to it. The game mechanics themselves though are nothing really extraordinary, as the principle of the features was already seen in games like Golden Catch, also an online slot by provider Big Time Gaming.

In the end we are happy though with what Big Time Gaming made with Gifts of Fortune. It was fun trying out all of the features for you. Hopefully we left no question unanswered and we hope you will have lots of fun with it.