Pirots Ireland

Pirots at a glance

Pirots is the first game in the ELK Studios series, released in March 2023 and built on a mechanic ELK introduced here: CollectR. There are no paylines. Four birds sit on a 5x5 grid and walk over gems of their own colour, and each gem pays as it is collected. The setting is a pirate island, with the grid strung in a ship's rigging and a treasure chest at the end of the meter.

We wrote this page from the game's paytable screens, the X-iter panel and ELK's product and data sheets, then checked reviews against them. Where a review disagreed, the game's screens won. That settles two numbers quoted differently online: the max win is 10,000x bet and the largest grid is 8x8.

ELK Pirots looks busy on screen for a reason. One paid spin can run through several drops, with gems levelling up and bombs widening the grid. The Pirots game is slower to read than a line slot, so the sections below take it one rule at a time.

Two release dates for one month. Listings give either 6 or 7 March 2023 for the launch. We found no date from ELK, so we only say March 2023. The day does not change how the game plays.

Your first Pirots round

1. Open the menu at the top left and read the five paytable screens.
2. Set your stake with the coin stack icon, from €0.20 to €100.
3. Press spin once and watch only the birds and what sits beside them.
4. Follow the first collection: each gem pays at its level, then gaps refill.
5. Watch the scroll above the grid, which moves towards its three chests.
6. Count anchors under the scroll. Three in one round start the Bonus Game.
7. Open the X-iter tab only once you know the base game, and check the price against your balance.
8. Read the RTP on the Rules screen of the version you loaded.

CollectR without paylines

A bird can only take what sits directly above, below or beside it, never diagonally. It moves onto a matching gem and carries on from there, so a line of red gems that turns a corner can all go to the red bird. Feature symbols work differently, because any bird can collect them.

Every gem pays its value at its current level the moment it is collected. Collected symbols leave the grid and new ones drop in, which is the tumbling you know from other slots. The game calls these drops, so one paid spin is a game round made of several drops.

A bomb expands the grid. Reviews report one extra row and one extra column per explosion, up to the 8x8 limit stated on the paytable screen. We found no rule text saying whether a bigger grid carries from one paid base-game round to the next, so check the Rules screen if that affects how you stake.

Above the grid sits the feature meter, a parchment scroll with a chest at its end. Each symbol collected adds to it, and when full it awards three chests of feature symbols. Reviews say the chests land at random positions and each reveals a coin win, wild, grid expander, symbol upgrade, symbol transform or bonus symbol. Those six types match ELK's product sheet.

Is the biggest grid 7x7 or 8x8?. A catalogue note you may see quotes 7x7, with no source behind it. We use 8x8, because the Feature Symbols paytable screen states it. Reviews agree on 8x8.

The Fearful Four

ELK calls the birds the Fearful Four, and the rules give them no individual names, so we go by colour. Each collects only its own gem colour but shares every feature symbol. That has a practical side: a white upgrade symbol lifts the colour of whichever bird takes it, so who reaches it first changes what the round is worth.

Red birdRed gems and all feature symbols

Pirate hat with a small parrot on its shoulder. Red gems are the top payers.

Purple birdPurple gems and all feature symbols

Eyepatch and a shaggy pink crest. Purple gems are the second-best set.

Green birdGreen gems and all feature symbols

Heavy brows and a cutlass. Green gems start low but climb the steepest.

Blue birdBlue gems and all feature symbols

Bandana and wide eyes. Blue gems pay least, so a blue chain needs upgrades.

Gems, coins and anchors in Pirots

Symbol	Name	What it does	Why it matters
	Red gem Gem	Levels 1 to 5 pay 0.25x, 0.50x, 1x, 3x and 15x bet per gem.	A late upgrade changes a round most in this colour.
	Purple gem Gem	Levels 1 to 5 pay 0.10x, 0.20x, 0.40x, 1.20x and 7.50x bet per gem.	Level 5 pays half of top red.
	Green gem Gem	Levels 1 to 5 pay 0.05x, 0.15x, 0.30x, 0.90x and 5x bet per gem.	It matters mostly once upgraded.
	Blue gem Gem	Levels 1 to 5 pay 0.05x, 0.10x, 0.20x, 0.60x and 3x bet per gem.	Long low-level chains look busy and pay very little.
	Gold W Wild	Substitutes for any gem at that gem's current win level. Reviews add that it stays on the grid for another bird.	It is worth only the level of the gem it replaces.
	Gold coin Coin	Pays its printed value times the bet when collected. Paytable art shows 5x to 1000x.	Any bird can take it, so it can lift a thin round.
	Max Win coin Coin	Printed Max Win instead of a number. Reviews say it awards the maximum win.	One collection reaches the cap, and we found no published odds.
	Skull bomb Feature	Explodes when no more wins are in view, clears nearby non-feature symbols, redrops and expands the grid.	It gives every bird more room.
	White upgrade arrow Feature	Lifts gems of the collecting bird's colour by 1 to 3 levels, to level 5 at most.	Its worth depends on which bird takes it.
	Multicoloured upgrade arrow Feature	Lifts all four gem colours by 1 to 3 levels, to level 5 at most.	In the Super Bonus every upgrade symbol works this way.
	Rum barrel Feature	Turns gems around it into the collecting bird's colour, or into a random number of feature symbols.	It can hand one bird a block of gems at once.
	Golden anchor Bonus	Three collected in one game round trigger the Bonus Game. Anchors under the meter track progress.	Two anchors at the end of a round count for nothing.

Pirots paytable

Times bet, per gem collected. Read from the Symbol Payout screen at a €1 bet.

Gem	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5
Red	0.25x	0.50x	1x	3x	15x
Purple	0.10x	0.20x	0.40x	1.20x	7.50x
Green	0.05x	0.15x	0.30x	0.90x	5x
Blue	0.05x	0.10x	0.20x	0.60x	3x

How big can a coin get?. Quoted top coins range from 500x to 10,000x bet. We use 1000x for the numbered coin, as printed on the first paytable screen, and treat the Max Win coin as a separate symbol. Its odds are unpublished.

Where the value climbs

Pirots has no running multiplier. The rules show nothing that climbs with each drop and applies to the total win. Value grows in two other ways: gems move up levels, and coins pay a fixed multiple of your bet.

Gem levels hold the real range. A red gem at level 5 pays 60 times its level 1 value, and a green gem pays 100 times. The last step is the largest: red jumps from 3x to 15x between levels 4 and 5. No gem level touches a coin, and the 10,000x cap sits over everything.

10,000x or 20,000x max win. One widely copied listing shows 20,000x. ELK's data sheet, product sheet and game page say 10,000x, and the paytable's €1,000,000 at a €100 bet matches. We use 10,000x.

Symbols that reshape a round

What fills the feature meter?. A few reviews say only scatters fill it, and one mentions a duplicator symbol. ELK's wording is that every collected symbol adds to the meter, and no paytable screen shows a duplicator. We follow ELK.

Free Drops and Super Bonus

The bonus round is the Bonus Game, and its rounds are Free Drops, this game's name for free spins. Birds must collect three golden anchors in one game round. Third-party listings give 5 Free Drops at the start, and one review says three more Bonus symbols during the feature add another 5.

What stays is the point. The paytable says grid size, symbol collection and gem win levels are persistent during Free Drops, and ELK's product sheet names grid size, gem level and feature meter. One review reads this as carrying over from the moment of trigger, so the grid and gems you had when the third anchor landed are where the bonus starts.

The Super Bonus is the paid version, bought through X-iter. Its panel lists one drop with guaranteed entry, a round at maximum grid size, and all upgrade symbols upgrading all gems. Its start screen shows 5 Free Drops. We found no other route into it.

Pirots Bonus vs Super Bonus

Does Free Drops start on 8x8?. One review says the grid expands to 8x8 in Free Drops. The paytable and ELK's sheet say grid size and gem levels persist, so the bonus starts from what you had at trigger. Only the Super Bonus begins at maximum grid.

X-iter modes and prices

X-iter is the panel of five paid modes on the left of the screen. We read the prices from the panel itself: €3, €10, €25, €100 and €500 at a €1 bet. Availability depends on the casino and jurisdiction, so check the lobby of the game you load. A Pirots casino version may show all five, some or none.

One review lists the feature-buy RTP as 94.0%, unchanged from the base game. At 94% the long-run average return on the 500x Super Bonus is 470x, a cost of 30x per buy on average. We found no published spread of results, and rare large wins pull an average up, so a typical single buy can sit below it. Any price you pay can be lost in full.

Trying the Pirots demo

Play the demo

A Pirots demo should show the same grid, birds, symbols and paytable as the real game, with a play-money balance in place of your own. That makes it the cheapest way to learn how collection and drops fit together.

What differs is the risk. No demo balance can be withdrawn, and demo results do not predict real play. A good hour on play money teaches you the rules, not your odds.

ELK's data sheet says the client adapts to desktop, tablet or mobile, and recommends 1600x900 or a 16:9 ratio on desktop. A demo Pirots version needs no app, as third-party listings show it as HTML5.

If it will not load, start with the graphics. ELK says its games use canvas and WebGL, so update the browser and turn hardware acceleration on. Then switch off content blockers for the page, clear the cache and reload. A message about your region is a restriction set by the host, and no setting on your side will fix it.

Pirots RTP and volatility

The Pirots RTP is 94.0% in ELK's data sheet and product sheet, the only value we found published. Some reviews call it low. One listing also carries an RTP ranges tag, so open the menu, choose Rules and read the value for your version. Volatility is 7 of 10 on ELK's scale.

RTP is a long-run average over a very large number of rounds, and one session can sit far below it. ELK's 26.8% hit frequency means about three in four rounds pay nothing. Some hits are tiny: three level 1 blue gems pay 0.15x your bet. Much of the return sits in rare rounds where upgrades, a large grid and coins stack up.

So a run that feels rigged is usually variance doing what this design does. ELK states its games are certified by independent test centres. That cannot promise a good session, and no slot can.

Is volatility medium-high or high?. Reviews label it anything from medium-high to high. ELK's own scale puts it at 7 of 10, and that is the figure we use. Labels are opinion, so treat them as a rough guide.

One RTP, or several versions?. ELK's sheets list 94.0% only, yet one listing carries an RTP ranges tag. We found no other value, so we quote 94.0%. Casinos can configure games, so open Rules in the version you load and read the figure there.

Pirots strengths and limits

Pirots and its neighbours

• Starts on a 5x5 grid; ELK describes Pirots 2 on a 6x6 grid.
• Gems have 5 levels; ELK says Pirots 2 symbols can upgrade up to 7 times.
• Six feature symbol types; Pirots 2 has eight, adding redrops and popcorn.
• The 3x Bonus Hunt gives more than four times the bonus chance; ELK states over three times for the 3x mode in Pirots 2.

Our take on Pirots

Pirots works because its one idea is easy to state and takes a while to master. Birds collect what they touch, gems level up and the grid grows. You can see plainly why a round paid, and a top red gem at 60 times its starting value gives upgrades real weight.

The catch is the return. At 94.0% with 7 of 10 volatility, you pay for that design, and buying features does not change it. We would learn the rules in the demo, then decide on stakes knowing that most rounds pay little or nothing.