Shimmering Woods

Shimmering Woods Review

Shimmering Woods Reviewed by Casinogamesonnet.com

Developed by Play’n GO, Shimmering Woods is a five-reel slot that can feature anywhere from 243 to 7,776 ways. It revolves around shiny gems found deep in a forest.

This game looks enticing on the surface thanks to its big win potential (25,000x your stake) and interesting features. You can find out if this combination ultimately makes Shimmering Woods worth playing in the following review.

Gameplay and Atmosphere

This slot features five reels and 243 ways by default. As covered later, you can increase the amount of ways to 7,776 through Splitting Symbols.

Winning combinations form when matching symbols appear in the first reel. All payouts must begin in the first reel and travel left to right.

The forest background features trees, mushrooms, rocks, and crystals growing on the rocks. The main game takes place during the day, while the bonus happens at night.

Overall, Shimmering Woods presents a fairly unique atmosphere thanks to the woods/crystals combination. However, you may not find the theme alone to be overly entertaining.

Shimmering Woods Max Win, Payouts and Symbols

Low-paying symbols include royals (A-10) that are carved into wood. High pays consist of four gems, including a diamond, emerald, ruby, and sapphire.

The diamond pays the most at 3x your stake for five symbols. You can win a maximum of 25,000x your stake when accounting for features.

A special gem serves as the wild symbol. This wild substitutes for other icons to form wins and also delivers payouts worth up to 3x for five.

Shimmering Woods RTP, Volatility and Betting Options

The betting range runs from €0.20 to €100. The Shimmering Woods RTP is 96.2%, which is above average.

Play’n GO rates the volatility at 7/10. We’re surprised at this medium-to-high rating when considering the huge top payout that’s available. We fully expected a 9/10 or 10/10 rating.

Shimmering Woods Features

This slot combines a mixture of common bonuses and more-unique features, such as Splitting Symbols. The mixture works well to ramp up the excitement and win potential.

Cascading Reels

Available in many games, cascading reels remove winning symbols from the grid and replace them with new icons.

This process give you more opportunities to win in a given round. Cascading reels continue until no more payouts are possible.

Win Multiplier

The cascading reels come with an added bonus in the form of a win multiplier. The multiplier starts at 1x and increases by 1x following each cascading win. It resets at the beginning of a new round.

Splitting Symbols

A single glowing box sits above the grid during the main game. This box houses what’s known as the Splitting Symbol.

A different symbol is chosen to be the Splitting Symbol in each round. Any time that the Splitting Symbol lands, it divides into 2 and boosts the number of ways.

Up to six icons are possible in each reel (three Splitting Symbols). You can unlock up to 7,776 ways thanks to the splitting mechanism (6x6x6x6x6).

Free Spins & Shimmer

You trigger free spins by landing a purple crystal (scatter) in reels 1, 3, and 5 simultaneously. Prior to this bonus starting, the Shimmer feature splits triggering scatters and determines how many free games are awarded.

Here are the available options:

• 3 scatters = 10 free spins + extra 1 Splitting Symbol
• 4 scatters = 13 free spins + extra 2 Splitting Symbols
• 5 scatters = 16 free spins + extra 3 Splitting Symbols
• 6 scatters = 19 free spins + extra 4 Splitting Symbols

The box above the grid increases to show all available icons, with the Splitting Symbols glowing. You can actually turn all of the symbols into the splitting variety by retriggering the bonus.

Here’s a look at what you’ll get through retriggers:

• 3 scatters = 3 free spins + extra 1 Splitting Symbol
• 4 scatters = 6 free spins + extra 2 Splitting Symbols
• 5 scatters = 9 free spins + extra 3 Splitting Symbols
• 6 scatters = 12 free spins + extra 4 Splitting Symbols

Similar Slots to Shimmering Woods

Splitting Symbols are a relatively new mechanic that’s showing up in the gaming world. Nevertheless, certain other slots use the same general mechanism.

Nolimit City’s San Quentin, for example, uses Razor Splits to put double symbols in a given reel. This game offers an even larger max payout than Shimmering Woods too at 150,000x the stake.

Play’n GO itself has used the splitting mechanic more than once. Frozen Gems, for example, can split symbols into two or three for a maximum of 8,748 ways.

Final Thoughts

Shimmering Woods is one of Play’n GO’s highest-paying slots to date. Most Play’n GO games feature around 5,000x maximum payouts, but Shimmering Woods takes things to a new level.

Using a combination of cascading reels, win multipliers, free spins, and Splitting Symbols, it can deliver up to 25,000x your bet.

This game has plenty to offer beyond just jackpot potential. The Splitting Symbols keep things interesting, especially during the bonus when multiple splitting icons are possible.

Surprisingly, the volatility isn’t too brutal either. This is one of the friendlier high-paying slots that we’ve played.

The only notable downside is that the theme isn’t overly dynamic. It is, after all, simply about gems in woods.

If you’re mostly focused on the features and big wins, though, then you’ll definitely find Shimmering Woods worth trying.

Release Date

Shimmering Woods was released on March 25 2021.