The Border

The Border Review

The Border Reviewed by Casinogamesonnet.com

Nolimit City doesn’t confine themselves to the typical pirate, fruit, and Atec slot themes. Instead, it’s willing to go where most online slots developers won’t. The Border is a perfect example of this because it’s about illegal crossings on the Mexico-US border. If you’re interested in another edgy Nolimit game, then you should check out our The Border slot review.

Gameplay

This game features a 6x6 grid by default. However, the grid can grow thanks to Nolimit City’s trusty xSplit and xWays mechanics. The Border offers cluster payouts when at least 5 matching symbols are touching.

The atmosphere features a grim-looking border wall in the background. With barbed wire and spotlights, the wall looks similar to the one in Nolimit’s San Quentin slot. When triggering the bonus round, you’ll head inside of a border security surveillance room.

Payouts and Max Win Potential

Low-paying symbols include a scorpion, snake, and vulture. High pays consist of five characters, with the top one paying 2,214x the stake for 100+ cluster symbols. You can win as much as 44,288x your stake when considering bonuses.

The Border features two different wild symbols, including xBomb and xNudge. Each has a different function (covered later), but they both substitute for regular pays to form wins.

RTP, Volatility and Betting Options

You can bet between €0.20 and €100 per spin. This game has a Boosted xRip option, which, for a 50% stake increase, guarantees a scatter on reel 1. XRip’s downside is that it doesn’t offer payouts on anything worth less than the bet.

The Border RTP ranges from 92.15% to 96.17%, depending upon the online casino. You should check the info screen wherever you play to ensure that you’re getting 96.17% payback. The volatility is 10/10, which makes sense given the huge maximum payout and many features (discussed below).

Game Features

Like most Nolimit City games, this one comes with loads of features. Cascading wins, xSplit, xWays, xBomb Wilds, xNudge Wilds, and free spins will all pump up your payouts.

Cascading Wins

Symbols from winning clusters disappear, allowing new icons to fall into their places. These cascades provide additional opportunities to win and only end when no more payouts are possible.

xSplit

Appearing on reels 2-6, an xSplit symbol splits symbols to the left of them in half. The xSplit then transforms into a wild symbol. If another xSplit symbol lands in the same row, it will add an xMultiplier worth up to 64x on split icons.

xWays

An xWays symbol packs 2-4 of the same symbol into one position. Assuming multiple xWays symbols appear, they’ll all transform into 2-4 of the same symbol. Just like xSplit, xWays boosts your number of ways to win.

xBomb Wild

An xBomb Wild will blow up all adjacent symbols—barring scatters or xNudge Cluster Wilds. This explosion causes the overall win multiplier to increase by 1x. Provided the xBomb Wild gets split, it boosts the multiplier by its split number of symbols.

xNudge Cluster Wild

These wild symbols will nudge up or down after helping create a win. Every nudge will increase the Cluster Wild’s win multiplier by 1x. When an xSplit symbol splits an xNudge Cluster Wild, the latter will contribute its multiplier to the overall win multiplier.

xCluster

Available in free spins, xClusters trigger when 2+ different symbols form cluster wins during a round. XCluster increases the win multiplier by 1x for every unique cluster win, starting after the second unique cluster payout.

Mule Free Spins

You trigger 10 Mule Spins with exactly 6 scatter symbols anywhere on the reels. During this bonus, xWays symbols cause any winning cluster they help form to become additional xWays icons. The result is more and more symbols splitting into 2-4 instances.

Coyote Free Spins

You’ll unlock 12 Coyote Spins by landing 7 scatter symbols on the reels. You can also obtain this bonus by landing another scatter during Mule Spins. Either way, you’ll benefit from the same xWays symbol upgrade as before. Additionally, xBomb symbols apply their multiplier to all non-exploded xMultiplier symbols. Coyote Spins also don’t reset the win multiple in between free spins.

Bonus Buy

You can buy either Mule Spins or Coyote Spins through the following options:

• Mule Free Spins – 98x the stake (RTP rises to 96.32%).
• Coyote Free Spins – 914x the stake (RTP drops to 96.03%).
• Lucky Dip – 506x the stake; provides a 50-50 chance at either Coyote or Mule Spins (96.05%).

How Does This Game Compare to Other Nolimit Slots?

The Border quickly evokes images of San Quentin, Folsom Prison, and Karen Maneater. All of these games have grim atmospheres, just like The Border.

Two out of the three also feature huge maximum payouts. San Quentin and Folsom deliver up to 150,000x and 75,000x the stake, respectively. Karen Maneater is the odd one out, “only” providing wins worth up to 11,575x. The Border is more along the lines Folsom and San Quentin regarding its lofty maximum payout (44,288x).

Final Verdict on The Border Slot

Nolimit City is on a real winning streak lately, including yet another winner in The Border. This slot has the grittiness, edgy theme, and features to keep you entertained for a while.

Nolimit has applied a similar formula to The Border, as it did with other slots mentioned here. At the same time, it has made this game different enough to where it’s not a carbon copy. In fact, you could play San Quentin, Folsom Prison, Karen Maneater, and The Border back-to-back without getting bored.

In summary, The Border is a great online slot with a unique (albeit dark) theme, exciting features, and big payouts. You may have trouble with the high volatility from time to time. Nevertheless, it’s worth hopping the border to play this game.

Release Date

The Border was released on September 13 2022.