Casino & Poker

How to play – Xpander

Whether you’re taking your first steps into the exciting world of slots or you’re a seasoned player looking to refine your strategy, NetBet Casino Online’s How to Play guides are your go-to resource. With a vast selection of online slots featuring diverse themes, thrilling features, and dynamic mechanics, knowing how they work can elevate your experience and maximize your winning potential. In this guide, we dive into another game, breaking down the rules, key features, and expert tips to help you play with confidence.

All About Xpander

Xpander is an exciting online slot from Hacksaw Gaming that fuses retro design with futuristic elements to create a vibrant, arcade-inspired gaming experience. Set in a pixelated neon world filled with towering purple cityscapes and pulsing lights, this game offers more than just eye-catching visuals. It features a 7×7 grid and a cluster pays mechanic, where symbols drop into place and wins are awarded for groups of matching icons. With dynamic animations and a soundtrack that builds anticipation during gameplay, Xpander keeps players fully engaged as they chase big multipliers and bonus triggers. Hacksaw Gaming has taken a familiar fruit slot concept and modernized it with digital flair, giving players something that feels both nostalgic and refreshingly new.

How to Play

Getting started with Xpander is simple. The game uses a cluster pays system rather than traditional paylines. To score a win, players need to land five or more identical symbols that touch each other either vertically or horizontally. Once a winning cluster is formed, the cascade feature is triggered, removing the winning symbols and allowing new ones to fall into place. This can result in consecutive wins from a single spin as new symbols continue to drop into the empty spaces.

Xpander offers intuitive controls. Players can spin the reels using the central spin button and access the game settings through a menu where they can toggle sound, enable quick spins, and read through the paytable and game instructions. The grid is packed with colorful symbols, including classic fruits like cherries, lemons, and grapes, as well as bells, red sevens, and diamonds. These symbols have different values, and larger clusters yield higher payouts.

A key feature to watch for is the Hopper Multiplier symbol, which jumps around the reels on each spin. If it becomes part of a winning cluster, it multiplies that win by its current value. While in the base game the multiplier resets if no more wins are formed, it retains its progress during bonus rounds, creating more opportunities for bigger wins. Players can also encounter Grow and Double Up symbols that increase the size or value of the multiplier, adding extra depth to each spin.

How to Win

Winning in Xpander is all about forming clusters and leveraging the game’s special features to maximize your payout. As wins cascade, each new wave of symbols has the potential to create fresh winning combinations. Keeping an eye on the multiplier hopper is crucial-it’s the key to boosting your payout significantly, especially when combined with cluster wins.

Grow symbols are another path to big wins. These special icons expand the multiplier from a 1×1 tile to a massive 4×4 square, giving it more surface area to connect with symbol clusters. Collecting Grow symbols over time not only boosts the multiplier’s size but also adds free respins to your total, increasing your chances of landing larger clusters.

Free spins are triggered by landing three or more scatter symbols. During this bonus round, all multiplier progress is saved between spins, rather than resetting after each one. This dramatically increases the potential for massive wins, especially if you continue to land Grow or Double Up symbols during the bonus. Additionally, special 1Up symbols can grant extra spins, extending the round and enhancing your opportunities to hit the game’s top prize.

Mastering the rhythm of cascading wins, timing the bonus triggers, and capitalizing on the multiplier mechanics are essential strategies for making the most out of Xpander’s high-volatility gameplay.

Note that our max stake for all UK slots is now £5, this is in accordance with UK Gaming regulations.

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