Gonzo’s Quest Slot Overview
Join a Spanish conquistador on a trek for the lost city of El Dorado in the Gonzo’s Quest slot. Released back in 2011, this 5 reel, 20 payline video slot has gone on to become one of the most popular games of all time. The medium to high volatility Gonzo’s Quest uses Avalanche Reels where successive wins bring multipliers into play. There are also free spins where multipliers can get as high as 15x. The max win here is a massive 37,500 x bet per free spin. Find out more about this jungle adventure in our in-depth Gonzo’s Quest review.
Gonzo’s Quest Details, RTP, Payout and Volatility
The Gonzo’s Quest slot is simply played on 5 reels, 3 rows and 20 fixed paylines. Winning combinations are formed by landing 3, 4 or 5 matching symbols and/or wilds from left to right across a payline, starting from the leftmost reel. After a winning combination lands an Avalanche follows. I’ll look at this in more detail in the bonus features section below.
Stakes in this treasure hunt range from £/€/$ 0.20 to 50.00 per spin. Adjust your bet size by clicking/pressing the Level and/or Coin Value buttons. In some territories, but not the UK, players have the option to activate Autoplay mode and run up to 1,000 auto spins. There are also options to set win and loss stop limits.
The Gonzo’s Quest RTP is 95.97% which is fractionally below the 96% slots average. 65.3% of that RTP is for the base game and 30.4% for the free spins. In terms of hit frequency rates, it comes with a 41.1% win rate (1 in 2.415 spins) in the base game and 54.4% win rate (1 in 1.838 spins) in the free spins.
Variance-wise, the volatility is in the medium to high range. With bigger wins coming in the free spins, the Gonzo’s Quest slot can deliver 37,500 x bet max wins per free spin and 12,500 x bet max wins per base game spin.
Gonzo’s Quest Theme, Audio and Symbols
With a Mayan/adventure theme, the Gonzo’s Quest slot was released in late 2011 and was NetEnt’s first platinum release. It’s based on Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro (Gonzo to you and me) who goes in search of El Dorado, or the lost city of gold. In the process, he overthrew the Inca empire of Peru.
The design in Gonzo’s Quest is impressive. Behind the reels is a jungle clearing and a golden pyramid. The reels are flanked by carved stone totems with an animated Gonzo perched alongside the reels cheering on the action. The detailed Mayan-style imagery here is very nicely put together. The soundtrack has hints of pan pipe and Spanish guitars which fit the theme well. There’s a reassuring thud when the symbols drop into position. It all comes together to excellent effect.
The reels are made up of stone blocks, each of which features a carved (or maybe fossilised) animal head or tribal face mask. You’ll see a bird, snake, and alligator as well as purple, gold, green and blue masks. The highest paying symbol is the blue mask which awards a 125 x bet payout for 5 in combination.
Joining the standard symbols is the Wild symbol which is represented by a question mark. This substitutes for everything apart from the scatter when it makes up part of a winning combination. That scatter is the golden circle. Below is a list of symbols with payouts and functions:
- Bird: 3, 4 or 5 = 0.15, 0.5 or 2.5 x bet
- Snake: 3, 4 or 5 = 0.2, 0.75 or 3.75 x bet
- Alligator: 3, 4 or 5 = 0.25, 1 or 5 x bet
- Purple Mask: 3, 4 or 5 = 0.5, 1.25 or 10 x bet
- Gold Mask: 3, 4 or 5 = 0.75, 2.5 or 25 x bet
- Green Mask: 3, 4 or 5 = 1, 5 or 50 x bet
- Blue Mask: 3, 4 or 5 = 2.5, 12.5 or 125 x bet
- Wild: Substitutes for symbols above to form wins
- Scatter: 3 triggers free spins
Gonzo’s Quest Mobile
You can play Gonzo’s Quest on all manner of devices and handsets including PCs, Macs, tablets and smartphones. The classy design and straightforward gameplay make the Gonzo’s Quest mobile slot a very straightforward one to play. Using technology known as Touch, the game has been remastered using HTML5.
Gonzo’s Quest Bonus Features
Gonzo’s Quest isn’t a slot that has been overloaded with extras. There’s still enough going on to keep things interesting though. The main feature offerings are Avalanche Reels and free spins. Both of these come with multipliers.
Avalanche Multipliers
Gonzo’s Quest was the first online slot game to use Avalanches. After a winning combination lands, the successful symbols are blasted off the game grid, new symbols drop in and replace winning symbols with a new payout consideration is made.
The Avalanches keep on coming as long as a new winning combination forms. It’s known as Cascading Reels in many games and can be found in most Megaways slots. Furthermore, each successive winning combination also brings a dynamic multiplier into the mix. Below you’ll find the multiplier values as well as the hit frequency rates:
- 1st Avalanche = 1x multiplier (12.5% chance of winning)
- 2nd Avalanche: 2x multiplier (3.1% chance of winning)
- 3rd Avalanche: 3x multiplier (0.5% chance of winning)
- 4Th or more Avalanche: 5x multiplier (0.03% chance of winning)
If you don’t land a winning combination on an Avalanche, the multiplier resets to 1x.
Free Falls
Land 3 Scatters from left to right on reels 1, 2 and 3 and you’ll activate the Free Falls feature. Your reward is 10 Free Falls (effectively free spins). These play out using Avalanche Reels, just like in the base game. The big difference is the value of the multipliers which can reach 15x. You’ll also benefit from a much higher chance of winning on each Avalanche:
- 1st Avalanche = 3x multiplier (25.2% chance of winning)
- 2nd Avalanche: 6x multiplier (11.5% chance of winning)
- 3rd Avalanche: 9x multiplier (4.7% chance of winning)
- 4Th or more Avalanche: 15x multiplier (1.7% chance of winning)
If you land 3 scatters on the same free spin, another round of 10 free spins is added to your total.
Gonzo’s Quest Slot Verdict
The Gonzo’s Quest slot is still one of the most popular online slots of all time. Despite being released in 2011, the simple formula of high-class design, Avalanche Reels, increasing multipliers and free spins has stood the test of time. It’s little wonder that so many online casinos have included Gonzo’s Quest as part of their free spins bonus packages.
The increasing multipliers are the key to success here, especially during the Free Falls feature. Get on a winning roll to bring the big 9 and 15x multipliers into play and the coins can quickly build.
With 37,500 x bet max wins available on each free spin, you can win 12,500 x bet on every base game spin which is decent. That said, the hit frequency on the 4th Avalanche is 1.7% in the free spins and 0.03% in the base game.
Overall, Gonzo’s Quest is a slot institution which is still very much loved by players. His charm alongside the big win potential makes it a game that continues to outdo newer releases. Gonzo’s jungle adventures proved so popular with online slot players that it spawned a sequel and 2 spinoff slots.
The sequel is Gonzo’s Gold. Also created by NetEnt, it’s a 5x5, Cluster Pays game that comes with free spins complete with special expanding symbols. It doesn’t have the Avalanches or multipliers that made the original such a hit. The max win is lower at 6,500 x bet but has a higher 96.11% RTP rate.
The other slot to feature the Spanish adventurer is Gonzo’s Quest Megaways which was produced by sister provider Red Tiger Gaming. With 6 reels and up to 117,649 ways to win, it comes with Avalanches and multipliers. New additions here include Unbreakable Wilds that aren’t blasted away during an Avalanche and the Earthquake feature where lower-value symbols are replaced by high-value ones. In the free spins, the Royal Wheel spins to award up to 25 free falls/spins. Like the original, multipliers here can reach up to 15x. The max win in this medium to high volatility slot is 21,000 x bet.
Finally, Red Tiger Gaming also offers you Gonzita’s Quest which is based on Gonzo’s daughter. With 5 reels and 20 paylines, there are Chain Reactions (Avalanches) and free spins. In the latter, Stone Slabs containing bet multiplier prizes land to reset the free spins counter. If you fill a reel with them, they become Golden or Diamond Slabs worth up to 750 x bet. This can lead to 2,580 x bet max wins.
Gonzo’s Quest Pros and Cons
Pros
- 1st Avalanche Reels slot game
- 37,500 x bet max wins
- One of the most popular online slots
Cons
- Hard to get consecutive Avalanches/multipliers
Gonzo's Quest is yet another one that I like. It's as equally liked as my other favourite Fruit Case. I love playing on $0.40 only because the multipliers on consecutive wins bring out the best in these free falls.
Yes folks this video slot acts as the rolling reels type of slot where each win on a payline gets destroyed to make more room for new symbols to fall in. For every win you get, the multiplier increases as the old symbols that made the win get blown up. To tell you all the truth I do like the 10 free falls (Gonzo's Quest free spins) on here but it's just that it can be really complex to trigger especially when NetEnt made the scatters as left to right only instead of the classic "anywhere goes" scatters. Say for example I find two golden block symbols on reels 2 and 3 with a win starting from the beginning of Reel 1. I would find the winning symbols destroyed leaving me wondering if there is a golden block to fill that "gap" on the 1st reel. Usually I don't find it even when I really expect it to.
Another situation that makes these free falls hard to trigger is when I begin a spin I find already that there is a golden block on the 1st reel and on the 3rd reel then a wild (it also substitutes scatters) in the centre to make them trigger yet all of a sudden the wild is combined with a winning combination. The wild that creates the trigger (only for the wild symbol, not the scatters) gets annihilated leaving me with nothing but a bold face lie to trigger the free falls. The wild question marks have to be untouched along with it's scatters for free falls to trigger. That's something to hate when I play games like Gonzos Quest!
The last thing to point out is they can be disgraceful by leaving me with 2 scatters on any position within the 3 reels. With further hate aside the free falls can bring good benefits into my $0.40 bets. My average feature total is around $15 - $26. If I don't find 3 scatters for a very long time I would find them later in a 4 scatter combination. Unfortunately these scatters only trigger the free falls but never actually leave a payout for me to collect. This is a great slot to play up and destroying blocks while trying to make newer wins can be very addictive. Just don't expect to have 10 free falls come every time because they can be like a frightened turtle hiding inside it's carapace.
The popular Gonzo's Quest gets an 8 out of 10!