PopNoir

Avatarux built PopNoir as a black-and-white film-noir slot: monochrome Art Deco skyscrapers, a jazz backing track and a cast of shadowy characters, with colour reserved for the symbols on the grid. It runs on the studio's PopWins engine, so the reels grow as wins land rather than staying at a fixed size.

Every spin starts on five reels three symbols high, which gives 243 ways. When a combination pays, its symbols vanish from the board and two new ones drop into each gap, so the reel gets taller for as long as wins keep coming. In the base game reels stop growing at six rows, a layout worth 7,776 ways. Matches need three or more consecutive reels, counted from the left or the right edge, and five-of-a-kind pays in one direction only. The paytable has no wild. Royals from 10 to A are the low pays, a bottle and a gun form the middle tier, two character portraits are the highs and a bird statue is the top symbol.

Getting all five reels to six rows in the base game awards 2 free spins together with a random multiplier. Three or more scatters start the Free Spins round, and before it begins a Rewards Reel draws four values at random: the number of spins (5 to 11), the starting reel height (3 to 6 rows), the starting multiplier (x1 to x6) and the multiplier growth per win (+1 to +5). More triggering scatters improve what can be drawn. Once play begins, the multiplier climbs by the growth value after each win and has no cap.

Free spins let the reels reach eight rows, which is the 32,768-ways configuration, and filling every reel to that height adds 2 more spins. Between spins the grid drops back only to the height of its shortest reel instead of resetting fully. Scatters are also collected during the round: every set of 3 upgrades the bird statue to a gilded version that carries an uncapped multiplier, the counter then restarts, and further sets raise the gilded value through steps from x5 up to x50.

The Xpress Bonus Buy sells four entry tiers at 80x, 160x, 400x and 800x the bet, labelled from plain free spins up through plus, premium and max. The pricier the tier, the better the top outcomes on the Rewards Reel.

On the numbers, PopNoir is a high-volatility slot with an RTP of 96%, a hit frequency of 29.56% and a maximum win of 20,000x. Stakes run from 0.20 to 100. Because the grid reshapes itself so often, the number of ways in play changes from spin to spin and sessions swing between quiet stretches and runs where reels stack up fast.