Gamification has been a key attribute at online casinos over the past decade. Taken from social gaming and video games, it created a new way for casinos to engage players and increase their activity. They did this by forcing them complete missions in exchange for reaching higher player levels for bigger bonuses and rewards. But long before that, Bonus Trail slots caught land based gambler’s eyes. This slot theme offers big payouts, but you need to progress along a bonus trail to reach the highest payouts. Thus, creating a lot of suspense and entertainment for players.
One of the most iconic IGT land based slot games to feature a bonus trail is Betti the Yetti, which can still be found at some local casinos in the US. Bonus trail slots have an element of gamification. In order for you to reach higher win multipliers and pay outs, you need to upgrade your bonus game, step by step. The anticipation of landing symbols which advance you along the trail can be very entertaining for players. And this is one of the main reasons why Big Bass Bonanza slots are so popular among UK casino players. So, what are the different types of bonus trail slots and how do they work?
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Mechanics of Bonus Trail Slots
Bonus trails come in different forms. But the most iconic fishing slot with a bonus trail is Big Bass Bonanza. This iconic slot from Pragmatic Play started a fishing frenzy among game providers, leading to many fishing slots with bonus trails. In Big Bass Bonanza, you start off the bonus round with an empty bonus trail. Every time you collect 4 fishermen, you unlock more spins and a higher win multiplier. In this classic slot, you can progress all the way to a 10x multiplier.
But the idea is that you have to collect a certain amount of coins or symbols to reach milestones and unlock new features. By unlocking new features, you prolong the bonus round and have higher chances of landing bigger wins. So, besides added volatility, the achievement of reaching the end of the bonus trails offers a lot of bragging rights for players. Therefore, making bonus trail slots very appealing to players.
Even though, Big Bass Bonanza was the first fishing slot to add a bonus trail, it wasn’t the first slot provider to add them to their slot games. But as the first fishing slot game to do so, it created a flurry of new slots that copied the same bonus trail. Today you can find bonus trail slots from Inspired Gaming, Gameburger Studios and more, that have copied the same bonus trail from Pragmatic slots. So, you will find the same milestones of 2x, 3x and 10x multipliers with 10 extra spins.
Bonus Trail Rewards
If you’ve ever played pub slots before, then you will be familiar with bonus trails from games such as Andy Capp. Think of it as a board game embedded within your slot game, that appears in the main bonus round. Besides unlocking extra spins and win multipliers, some games offer other bonus modifiers. These can be singly unlocked along the bonus trail. Or you can collect them in a Pick A Fish type of mini bonus game. In Tidal Riches, you have two different bonus trails: one for base game and one for the bonus round. Rewards that you can collect may include any of the following:
- Extra Spins: As shown above you can unlock more spins to keep the bonus game going.
- Multipliers: When collecting high win multipliers, you can land some of the biggest wins, getting you closer to a slot’s max win potential.
- Instant Cash Wins: Some bonus trails are a ladder with ascending instant win multipliers. When the bonus ends you receive a payout of the highest multiplier you reached.
- Jackpots: In some slots, you have a chance at winning jackpot prizes.
- Expanding Reels and Wilds: In Piranha Pays, completing bonus trail leads to level upgrades which expand reels and wild symbols.
- Fish Symbol Upgrades: These get rid of low paying fish symbols.
- More Fishermen: Adds more fishermen symbols to the reels for higher chances of them landing.
Top 10 Bonus Trail Fishing Slots
Here you can find a full list of the top 10 bonus trail slots to play. You can read more about each slot in our detailed game reviews. They will also show where each game is available to play at.
