Gem Rush

Gem Rush Slot Review

Gem Rush is a new video slot from Slotmill that was released on December 10, 2022. In this video slot you go to a mine with hopes to find great fortunes. When the game first begins, the location of the mine is somewhat peculiar. The action happens above ground at what may be thought of as the mine's entrance and things start to make more sense. You just cannot wait for your time to hammer the rock and bag those fortunes because of the game's distinctive appearance and the rocky settings, which do an excellent job of bringing out the idea. When you are getting ready to spin the reels, a vibrant Gem Crusher and other characters that contribute to the overall concept will randomly appear on the grid. Read our review to decide whether it is worth your time and money playing it.

Gem Rush by Slotmill Video Review

Gem Rush General Characteristics

• 16,807 paylines
• 5 reels and 7 rows
• High Volatility
• Return To Player  96.1%, 96.35%
• Hit Frequency 37.3%
• Bet Amount 0.2 - 50 EUR
• Maximum Win Multiplier x10,000
• Maximum Win Value 500,000 EUR
• 12 Main Symbols
• Additional Symbols: Wild Symbol, Scatter Symbol

Gem Rush Bonus Features

Avalanche Feature

The symbols on the reels just fall into position on the screen as opposed to rotating on the reels itself. When a successful combination is created, the symbols that make up that combination burst and disappear, clearing the way for a second Avalanche of symbols, which has the potential to result in more valuable rewards. The Avalanches will keep performing so long as there are still matches taking place.

Dynamic Ways

Each round of the main game begins with up to 15 blocker symbols placed underneath the payout symbols. The amount of ways to win will increase as a result of activating the Dynamite feature using the Gem Crusher. This will result in the removal of 5 symbols that obstruct other symbols from falling into their positions.

Gem Crusher

After every win, a new block will be added to the Gem Crusher. A Power-Up may be contained inside a Block, and it will become active when the next Avalanche occurs. 

Here is the list of possible Power-Ups:

 - Multiplier Increase. Boosts the Progressive Win Multiplier by a factor ranging from 1 to 5.

 - Wild Conversion. It chooses a symbol currently shown on the screen to make all instances of that symbol become Wilds.

 - Gem Conversion. It chooses  a symbol on the display and makes all other instances of that symbol to be converted into Gem Symbols.

 - Random Wilds. Puts anything from 3 to 7 wilds on the screen in positions chosen at random.

 - Column Wilds.  Alters all symbols on a random reel into Wilds, with the exception of Bonus symbols.

 - Dynamite. The amount of chances to win is increased when the Gem Crusher's Dynamite feature is activated since it will remove 5 of the symbols that are preventing players from winning and replace them with symbols that pay.

 - Extra Spin. Awards 1 additional spin Free Spin (only avaliable in Free Spins)

Free Spins

The Free Spins bonus round is activated when the player has collected 3 or more Bonus symbols while playing the main game. If you land 3, 4, or 5 Bonus symbols, you will get 5, 7, or 10 free spins, accordingly. Whenever you are awarded Free Spins, the grid will always be completely enlarged, and you will have a total of 16,807 ways to win on each spin. During the course of free spins, neither the Progressive Win Multiplier nor the Gem Crusher progression will be reset.

Fast Track Bonus Feature

You can activate 4 different bonus feature right from the main game:

 - Free Spins with a 10x Win Multiplier (RTP: 96.80%). You can activate Free Spins with a 10x Win Multiplier at a cost of 400x the bet. 

 - Free Spins (RTP: 96.59%). You can activate a regular round of Free Spins at a cost of 100x the bet.

 - Full expansion with a x3 win multiplier (RTP: 96.46%). You activate Full expansion with a x3 multiplier at the cost of 40x the bet.

 - Full expansion (RTP: 96.35%). You can activate Full expansion at the cost of 10x the bet

Our Experience Playing Gem Rush

When we launched the game, we were met with a reelset that looked adorable and was accompanied by a soundtrack of relaxing country music. Gems are popular things that you can find in many other slots in their design, so this was nothing new to us. However, we were eager to know how this slot behaved itself in terms of payouts. To test this, we resorted to our usual method of depositing 200 Euros, setting the bet to 1 Euro, and giving it around 300 spins or so. During the first one hundred spins, the biggest payout that we got was only 5x the bet, which was quite disappointing. As a result, we lost 55 Euros. However, since this slot had a high degree of volatility we did not lose hope and hoped for the best in our next try. During our next one hundred spins, we triggered the Free Spins and it paid us a generous sum of 117x the bet. Besides that relatively big win, there was nothing much to show for. Thanks to that bonus round, we managed to bounce back and even got ahead by 24 Euros. During our final one hundred spins, the picture remained the same, with the exception that that time there was no bonus round won. Overall, after 300 spins, we lost 28 Euros but we were still somehow pleased because it was quite fun to play this game.

Gem Rush Verdict

This is a decent new video slot with cute looking graphics, smooth animation, and nice soundtrack. The volatility of this game, however, appears to be too high for our bankroll to be able to withstand it between those much sought-after bonus rounds that offer respectable sums of money. This is not so unusual for slots with such a degree of volatility, so we cannot complain about it. When you play these types of machines, you surely understand the risk that comes with them. After all is said and done, we would recommend you try this slot at least once. Good luck and have fun!