HOW TO PLAY STARBURST GALAXY
Starburst Galaxy opens up with a unique payot system that works a bit like Cluster Pays, but not quite.
The gist is that you have to hit 3 or more matching symbols in a vertical or horizontal line, anywhere on the table. The fact that winning lines don’t have to start at the leftmost reel makes things a lot different than with most standard online slots. However, unlike Cluster Pays, winning symbols still have to be arranged in a line. You can’t combine symbols both vertically and horizontally – it’s one or the other.
All of this takes place on a spacious 5×5 board, so the hit rate is quite high and you can expect to see quite a lot of wins. However, this is a fairly volatile game, so most wins will be relatively small.
Another important aspect of the base game is the Avalanche mechanic. This is basically a Tumbling Symbols feature. Any winning symbols are removed from the game, making room for new symbols to appear from above the reels. You can string together multiple wins this way during a single round.
Additionally, a Wild Symbol appears at the centre of any winning combination without Wilds, increasing your chances for additional subsequent wins.
Feature Generator
Arguably one of the most impactful elements of Starburst Galaxy, the Feature Generator is a five-pip bar you can see on the left. Basically, every time you land 5 winning combinations during a single round, one of 5 possible features instantly activates.
- Destroy – Removes all instances of one or more types of regular symbols from the grid
- Random Wilds – Randomly scatters 5 Wild symbols across the reels
- Expanding Wilds – Turns all Wilds already on the reels into vertical stacks of 3 Wilds
- Line Transform – Fills an entire reel or row with one type of randomly selected regular symbol
- Upgrade – Turns all instances of one or more types of symbols into higher-paying symbols
These features only activate once there are no additional wins on the grid. If the Feature Generator was activated multiple times, they’ll start triggering one after the other.
Galaxy Star and Galaxy Meter
If you activate 5 features of the Feature Generator during a single round, the bombastic Galaxy Star activates.
First of all, this expands the play area into a massive 7×7 board. Then, a big 3×3 Wild is randomly placed somewhere on the board. This typically results in multiple winning combinations.
After these combinations are calculated, another 4-8 Wilds are randomly scattered across the grid. Any additional wins are calculated once again, after which the 5+ Feature Generator features start activating.
The Galaxy Meter is another feature that appears once you get the first 3×3 Wild. The meter is filled through winning combinations. Once 50 symbols are removed from the grid through wins, another Galaxy Star is granted to the player. It’s placed on the board once all other wins are calculated.
Mega Star and Multiplier Collect Meter
Hitting 3 Scatter symbols anywhere on the reels activates the Mega Star feature. Once you have no more tumbles left, a big 2×2 Wild is placed on the board. Any resulting wins are then calculated, and another 2-5 regular wilds are dispersed across the board.
The Scatters that activate the Mega Star may appear with multipliers ranging from 2x to 25x. These multipliers are added and collected onto a Multiplier meter, which applies a win multiplier to all wins until the end of the round.
Elevate (Feature Buy)
The Starburst Galaxy online slot offers several betting options that expand the player’s control of how the game works. In other words, there are multiple forms of Feature Buy, which this game calls Elevate.
Your options include:
- Bonus Boost – Increases the chances of Scatter symbols landing but costs 3x the stake per spin
- Mega Star – Instantly triggers the Mega Star feature on the next spin for 10x the bet
- Boosted Mega Star – ACtivates the Mega Star feature with at least 2 guaranteed multipliers on the activating Scatters. Costs 50x the bet
- Galaxy Star – Guarantees that you will reach the Galaxy Star feature in the next round for 100x the bet
- Galaxy Star Bonanza – Guarantees a Galaxy Star feature with 5 Feature Generator features and a standing win multiplier between 2x and 75x
