What is the longest Bonus Game Hellapeños can give?
At most 16 free spins. Three Scatters on reels 3 to 5 start the round with 7. A Devil landing on one of those reels adds 3 and activates that reel, which then holds a fresh Devil on every remaining spin, so each reel can add its 3 only once, and 7 plus three times 3 is the limit. None of our six rounds, three natural and three bought, activated all three reels. Four stopped at 13 spins and two at 10, and twice the extra spins arrived on what would have been the final spin.
100 lines, each stepping only to a touching cell
Reels 1 and 2, three cells tall, sit half a row lower than the tops of reels 3 to 5, which hold four. Thunderkick's game page gives only the reel count and 100 connecting paylines, so the 3-3-4-4-4 shape here comes from the launch press release and from every frame we captured.
Lines pay left to right with no gaps, longest win only, and "connecting" means each step lands on a cell that touches the last. We counted the routes across 3, 3, 4, 4 and 4 rows and got exactly 100, Thunderkick's figure. At €1.00, five Chorizos pay €5.00 and five yellow bottles €3.00, while card ranks range from €0.20 to €1.00.
Chilli pairs at x2 and a Devil that expands only on a win
A pair of red chillies marked x2 is the Multiplier Wild. It substitutes for any symbol other than the Scatter and the Devil, and each one on a line doubles it, up to x8 for three. Multiplied lines paid €242.60 of the €329.80 our base game returned.
On reels 1 and 2 symbols always come in stacks of two to five, and when both reels match, Random Wilds put one to three chillies on reels 3 to 5. Spin 493 got three of them and paid two lines of five Qs at x8, €6.40 each.
The horned Expanding Devil lands on reels 3 to 5, one per reel at most, and does nothing unless it is part of a win. Then it covers its reel and can replace every symbol apart from the Scatter. Stretching through a chilli makes it an x2 for the whole reel, and the rules give the total a line can carry as x2 to x64. Our base game saw 19 expansions, 5 of them with the x2.
Seven spins to start, three more for each reel a Devil claims
Gauge-shaped BONUS Scatters start the round, three of them on reels 3 to 5 in one spin. Exactly two showed on 62 of our paid spins, and three arrived on spins 350, 505 and 545.
Play starts with 7 free spins at the triggering bet. A Devil that reaches reel 3, 4 or 5 adds 3 and keeps the reel active until the round ends, so every later spin brings a new Devil there; those later Devils add no spins. Scatters never landed in our logged free spins, and the rules give them no role there.
Timing counts for less than the number of reels. Our filmed purchase got its Devil on the seventh spin with the counter at zero, control buy 1 claimed reel 5 on its tenth and last, and both rounds played three more.
A claimed reel also raises what later spins can pay, since a winning line through its Devil turns the whole reel wild. In spin 505's round the Devil that claimed reel 3 expanded at once, two lines of five Chorizos crossed chillies on reels 4 and 5 at x4, and that one spin paid €40.00 of €42.20.
| Round | Reel activated, on free spin | Free spins | Free spins paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spin 350 | 4 on spin 1, 5 on spin 9 | 13 | €1.00 |
| Spin 505 | 3 on spin 6 | 10 | €42.20 |
| Spin 545 | 3 on spin 2, 5 on spin 7 | 13 | €76.60 |
| Control buy 1 | 4 on spin 2, 5 on spin 10 | 13 | €48.00 |
| Control buy 2 | 5 on spin 2, 3 on spin 5 | 13 | €25.20 |
| Filmed buy | 4 on spin 7 | 10 | €70.80 |
Reel 5 was claimed four times, reels 3 and 4 three times each.
Two rounds of 13 spins in our 750, worth 1.4x and 76.6x
Staking €1.00 a spin, we put in €750.00 and won back €449.60, or 59.9% of the stakes; Thunderkick lists 96.18%. The base game supplied €329.80 of it and the free spins €119.80.
- 750paid spins at €1.00 in the demo
- 59.9%of the stakes paid back
- 76.6xbest round, free spins included
- 3free spins rounds triggered
Spin 545 gave the best round. With reels 3 and 5 claimed by free spin 7, free spin 8 paid €48.60 from lines of five As through chillies on reels 4 and 5, and the round reached 76.6x. The round from spin 350 lasted just as long and came to 1.4x, so length decided little.
Paying spins made up 17.3% of the session, with a median win of 1x, and 10 reached 10x. On spin 722 the balance touched bottom at €4,680.00. Spin 741 then brought the best base result, 24x, from two lines of five yellow bottles through chillies on reels 3 and 4.
A 70x shortcut to the seven spins
One card fills the buy menu, a Bonus Game priced at 70x the bet: €70.00 at our stake, rated at 96.31% against 96.18% for ordinary spins.
The two rates belong to the 96% build that Thunderkick's game page describes and that this demo runs. The information sheet adds two lower builds, 94.17% and 87.12%, which an operator is free to install, and in some markets the purchase is not offered at all.
| Option | Price | At €1.00 | RTP of the buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bonus Game | 70x | €70.00 | 96.31% |
A purchase guarantees the trigger and nothing more. All three of ours landed three Scatters and 7 spins; the control buys claimed two reels each for €48.00 and €25.20, and the one on camera a single reel. Together they returned €144.00 for €210.00.
Free spin 8 and the one after it made most of the filmed round. The first paid €12.80 when the Devil on reel 4 expanded under lines of 10s.
Four Chorizos pay €2.50, two chillies made each such line €10.00, and that spin came to €50.00. The tenth paid nothing.
Doubling wilds and growing bonus rounds elsewhere on this site
The x2 wild is an older Thunderkick idea. In Midas Golden Touch each wild in a line multiplies it by two, up to x32 for five, over 15 paylines. Here chillies stop at x8 on a line, and anything bigger needs Devil reels.
For a bonus that grows three spins at a time, 12 Bolts of Thunder is the nearest case: each Hammer win in its free spins adds 3, and one of our purchases there ran to 24 spins. Hellapeños ties each addition to a reel, so 16 is the cap. Its 5,000x ceiling is lower too, against 30,000x there and 11,111x in Dragon's Wrath, another game Thunderkick rates very high. Thunderkick's launch announcement names no series for Hellapeños.
Most of the money here arrives through multiplied lines, and base spins pay little until chillies line up. The game suits players happy with short rounds and a modest ceiling, and the 70x buy reaches those rounds without the wait.
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The four answers below draw on the help screens, Thunderkick's documents and the server's record of our spins.
Can Scatters add free spins once the Bonus Game has started?
Not that we saw. The rules give extra spins to Devils alone, 3 for each of reels 3 to 5, and no Scatter landed in any of our 36 natural or 26 bought free spins. Each time the counter rose, a Devil had just reached a reel that was not yet activated.
Does an activated reel pay anything by itself?
No. Its Devil acts only when a winning line passes through it, and then covers the reel as a wild. Spin 350's round had a Devil on reel 4 for all 13 spins, yet the free spins of that round paid €1.00 in all.
Do the chilli wilds ever land on reels 1 or 2?
Not in our logs. Across 750 paid spins and 62 free spins every chilli sat on reels 3 to 5. The help screens limit the Devil and the Scatter to those reels but say nothing similar about the chilli, so this is what we saw, not a stated rule.
Is the RTP 96.18% or 96.19%?
Thunderkick prints both. Its game page and the information sheet give 96.18%, while the help screens in the game and the demo server's settings say 96.19%. Our fact file shows the game page figure and names the other source beside it.