Blueprint admittedly took us by surprise with this one, as The Stash sticks out from their usual style like a sore thumb. If you like British gangster and heist movies, you will probably love what’s on offer in The Stash though, and it comes with plenty of voice-over commentary. Audiovisually, this reminds us of something a certain Guy Ritchie could’ve cooked together, and you get to meet a hard-boiled gang of bank robbers that are ready to go to work.
The base game comes stacked wilds that can land with multipliers, and sometimes they will also nudge fully in place. The3-4-4-4-3 gridis placed outside of Black Dog, which we assume is the pub where the crew is planning their next job, and these jobs are executed in the form of 2 different bonus rounds. One is a free spins round, while the other is a hold and win style feature with modifier symbols, and they can combine forces in The Ultimate Heist on rare occasions.
You can turn on theStash Bet featurebetween any base game spin, and it will cost you25 % more per spinto keep it on. The benefit is that your bonus round chances are doubled. The premium symbols pay between 1.5 and 3.75 x your stake for 5 of a kind wins.
You can land1x4 sized Getaway Wildson the 3 middle reels, and they substitute for pay symbols to help complete and/or improve wins. Wilds can land with multipliers as well, and they will sometimes nudge in place to cover full reels.
There are2 unique bonus roundsin this game, and they can be triggered both separately and at the same time. If the latter happens, the two bonus rounds play out one after the other.
TheLock & Spin Heist Bonustriggers from3 Shoot & Spins symbolson reels 2, 3, and 4, and it’s a hold & win type of game. You start with3 respins, and the tally resets for each sticky cash or special symbol you land. The cash symbols come with values between 1x and 25x, and the triggering symbols are already sticky with cash prizes attached as the feature starts.
Reels 1 and 5 are locked, but can be unlocked if you land the light blue character symbol modifier. In addition, you can land the followingmodifier symbols:
You need ascatter symbol on reels 1 and 5at the same time to trigger TheHit Free Spins Bonus Round, and this gives you8 free spins. Wilds always nudge to cover the full reel for as long as the feature lasts, and each nudging step increases thewin multiplier by +1. The win multiplier never resets for as long as the bonus round lasts.
If you landscatters on reels 1 and 5, as well as Shoot & Spins symbols on reels 2, 3, and 4, you trigger theUltimate Heist Bonus Round. The free spins feature then plays out first, and the multiplier you have achieved in the bonus round is then carried over to the Lock & Spin Heist Bonus Game.
Finally, non-UK players, and anyone living in an eligible jurisdiction, can take advantage of theBonus Buy menu. You can then pay60x your stakefor theShoot & Spin round,100x your stakefor TheHit Free Spins round, or1,000x your stakefor TheUltimate Heist(which gives you both features as described above).
We purchase the Shoot & Spin bonus round right as the 8:28-minute highlights video starts, and you get to see all 3 features in this rather lengthy video. The Ultimate Heist feature triggers at 4:30, and the two features take turns playing out for the remainder of the video after that. You can check it all out for yourself by hitting the play button below.
Fans of Guy Ritchie movies, such as Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, and RocknRolla, will probably love the action commentary and style of The Stash, which seems heavily inspired by his work. The game also seems somewhat inspired by NoLimit City’s Deadwood, and it definitely comes across as a highly unusual release compared to Blueprint’s back catalog. In fact, it’s almost like a totally different studio has done this, or perhaps it signals a new direction for this well-established developer.
Whatever it is, we don’t mind it at all, as The Stash serves up fast-paced, action-packed gameplay with plenty of features. On closer inspection, the features are not super original perhaps, but they can certainly get the job done when it comes to landing you solid payouts. Up to10,000x your stakeis possible on a very good day, and both features trigger on a fairly regular basis (1 in 180 and 200 spins on average). The Ultimate feature is more rare, of course, and we hope to see more of this new style from Blueprint in the future as well.
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