Fire in the Hole 2 Slot Review

A mine that opens as you win

Wins pay as ways from left to right, so the number of ways grows with every row that opens. The Collapsing Mine is the engine: winning symbols are paid and removed, the rest fall, and one more row becomes active, up to six. An xBomb explosion or a Wild Mining event triggers the same collapse even without a regular win.

Some positions start covered by dirt. Dirt can hide a wild, a split or a bonus symbol, and anything buried stays inactive until the dirt is cleared or struck by a split. The published hit frequency is 25.09%, roughly one paying spin in four.

Lucky Wagon Spins

Three, four or five bonus symbols start the Lucky Wagon round with two, three or four rows open. According to the game page it begins with three spins, and every coin that lands resets the count. Coins are worth a multiple of the bet.

On each spin a row of mine carts at the top can deliver enhancers: extra coin values, multipliers, dynamite, beer and the dwarf, who collects all values on the grid. Dynamite also opens collect chests at the bottom. The new seventh reel can reveal an Upgrade Crystal, which makes an enhancer persistent so its effect repeats on every remaining spin. That is the route to the largest outcomes.

xBet and the buy menu

The xBet option costs 250% of the base bet, so 2.5 times the stake per spin. In exchange, at least one bonus symbol lands on the last inactive row and all dirt is cleared, so buried features fire at once. The sheet quoted in the rules puts the free spins rate at about 1 in 211 spins normally and 1 in 49 with xBet.

Bonus buys start the Lucky Wagon with three, four or five scatters at 70x, 200x or 600x the bet. Lucky Draw costs 175x, and a five-scatter round with a persistent dwarf from the start costs 3,600x. At $1 a spin that last option is $3,600 for a single round.

RTP versions and rarity

Our catalogue lists one RTP, 96.07%, a house edge of 3.93% or about $39.30 per $1,000 wagered. The rules, however, name three settings: 96.07%, 94.08% and 92.07%. If an operator runs a lower one, the expected cost rises accordingly, so check the info screen. At the catalogue figure, 100 spins cost $0.79 at $0.20, $3.93 at $1 and $19.65 at $5 on average.

The sheet splits the return into 61.23% from the base game and 34.84% from the bonus, so the base game carries more of the payback than many feature-led slots. Our catalogue rates the volatility Very high; the game page says Extreme. The El Beerado cap is 65,000x the bet, $13,000 at $0.20, and the sheet puts it at about 1 in 17 million spins.

Against the original and its neighbours

The first Fire In The Hole lists 96.06%, a High rating and a 60,000x cap, so the sequel raises the ceiling and the volatility label. Fire in the Hole 3 sits at 96.05% with 70,000x, and Dead Canary shares the 65,000x cap at 96.02%.