ABOUT
Xpander by Hacksaw Gaming is slot from their Pocketz series, featuring a highly volatile math model and a 10,000x max win potential. Utilize the game’s jumping Hopper symbol which you can grow and expand up to a 4x4 size with a 128x multiplier to land big wins.
Betting Options and Bonus Features
Using a Tumbling system, all winning clusters are removed from the grid, allowing new symbols to fall from above and fill the gaps. This process goes on as long as you keep scoring wins, and the Wild symbol comes to your aid by substituting for all regular pay symbols.
The game’s main feature is a remarkable x2 multiplier overlay icon that enhances your payline wins. It’s called the Hopper symbol and starts initially as a 1x1-sized symbol. However, during your gameplay, you’ll come across several other special symbols that can elevate both the size and worth of your Hopper symbol.
The Double Up! symbol, for example, doubles the current Hopper multiplier whenever it lands, and it can go as high as x128. You can land multiple Double Up symbols simultaneously.
The Grow Symbol manifests in the form of a green arrow, and you need three Grow Symbols in a single Tumble sequence to trigger its function. Once you do, the size of your Hopper Icon increases from 1x1 to 2x2. You can increase it up to 4x4, but this would necessitate nine Grow Symbols in a single Tumble sequence. Once a tumble sequence is over the Hopper resets to the default 1x1 size and x2 value.
To initiate the Bonus Round, you must have at least three FS Scatter symbols anywhere in the same Tumble sequence. During the bonus round, the Hopper’s size and multiplier value do not reset. Furthermore, Double Up symbols and Grow symbols also do not reset between spins. You'll begin with 5 free spins, and unlock new 1UP symbols that reward you with an additional spin for each that lands.
If you're not in the mood to wait for the feature to trigger, you can always purchase the bonus round from the in-game menu. However, this will cost you 129x your total stake, and you'll be guaranteed three FS Scatters on the next spin.
Roshtein’s Take
Xpander takes a lot of inspiration from Hop N Pop. The difference here is that the Hopping symbol can increase in size, which is quite nice but hardly a big upgrade. The game also has less bonus buy options. Would be much nicer if there was a choice to start with an already expanded Hopper, kind of like it is in Hop N Pop.
