Robin Hood: Shifting Riches Slot

12th-century England. Robin Longstride and his band of thieves, outlaws, banished villagers, and marauders are confronting corruption, leading an uprising averse to the crown, in an attempt to cleanse the land of the evil that has spread after King Richard Lionheart’s death.

Dedicated to the group of 4 – the archer Robin, along with Maid Marion, Friar Tuck, and Little John escapees in the Forest of Sherwood preparing a tussle against the tyranny of the Sheriff of Nottingham is this NetEnt slot, released initially in 2011 (and in 2014 with an updated revamped layout).

NetEnt’s Robin Hood machine is built with 20 pay lines across a 5×3 playing field, with an RTP of 96.75%, Low-Medium Volatility, and a theoretical maximum win of 5000x the total bet.

(For 5OAK of the top symbol – Robin, you get 50x the total bet, so for a full screen of the noble outlaw man in 20 pay lines, that is 1000x the total bet, and if that happens with a multiplier 5x, the max win grows to 5000x the total bet.)

However, we think NetEnt has capped the max potential relative to the variance of the slot, i.e. somewhere between 200x and 500x is more realistic to expect the upper limit.

This is one of the games where you are not literally going to need/make a lot of money bags, but try it here on our page first for free, then you can decide to play in the ‘real forest’ – some of the many NetEnt casinos’ ‘woods.’

Personal testers’ opinion about Robin Hood: Shifting Riches slot

• Let’s start from this that many don’t like this slot. It is a matter of taste. Perhaps they don’t like the theme – it is absolutely not a novelty. Or it is the volatility (not for those who like very risky sessions per se). Or it could be the potential. Whatever the reason and how many the haters, the game is old, yet present in so many lobbies, played super often, and still high in the rank of played and in demand.
• Some see the slot as a mixture, a cocktail of earlier used game mechanics and elements, and because of this, they don’t like it. Well, we all know it is difficult to create something extraordinary or unseen. To those, who only see the slot as just a concoction with many old flavours and reckon that is a bad thing, we would like to see their facial expression once they stumble upon a re-skin, clone, or even mirror game. Then they will see what a real cheap and deceiving game looks like.
• Back to the current game Robin Hood: Shifting Riches slot machine.

In the main game

The slot frequently constructs winning formations, which leads automatically to a Re-spin or a few with an applicable multiplier (to x5). This differs from the Jack and the Beanstalk slot (the game mentioned most of the time about shifting mechanism), where Re-spins depend on the position of the Wild symbol.

Here the Re-spins hang on the winning combinations (their presence or absence).

Not only the slot has super generous RTP, but the hit frequency is also very lofty: in the base game, 35.6%. But these are only numbers. In reality, the payouts here are not great, and as it happens, the slot cannot sustain the balance.

Due to the predominant combinations with low-value symbols, your bankroll is gradually shrinking. Even the multipliers are not enough to help in this regard. During the tests, a little success was in very long sessions via middle-size stakes (5 CAD to 10 CAD). Our maximum win here was just 35x the total bet – absolute disappointment.

In the Free Spins

Statistically, the bonus round is initiated once every 243rd spin (0.41%). This figure shows long and frustrating waiting. So, be patient while collecting those bags, and mind your starting capital, as you need to endure the protracted period without Free Spins. Once you finally receive them, you shall see an even loftier hit frequency than in the main game: 45.6%.

However, the developer claims that from the total amount of the prize pool, 96.75%, only 19.8% is reserved for payouts in the bonus, and 76.9% is returned in the main spins. So, don’t put big hopes on monstrous rewards during the bonus spins either.

The multipliers here remain the same – up to x5, the shifting reels do the same job, just one difference from the main spins – a second Wild symbol. Our maximum win in the Free Spins round was 110x the total bet, but on average, they could only deliver for us between 20x and 60x the total bet.

As the Free Spins are prompt not in a classic way by 3+ Scatters, but by compiling bags in the first game session or if you repeatedly change the stake size, you will have to wait for the bonus even longer.

Later, however, when the chests are packed with bags, the Free Spins will be activated at a short interval. Plus, the game keeps your not used ‘money bags’ score until your next session, and even within a year (NetEnt pledges). All summed up – lengthy waiting for the triggering of a bonus that is not resulting in a huge win.

Hidden parameters of Robin Hood slot (data from testing)

• The frequency of triggering the free spins bonus feature is statistically every 243rd spin (0,41%).
• Volatility is 5,8 out of 20 (from low to average)
• Cycle length is short to average.
• The rating of the slot machine for the wagering is 4 out of 10.
• RTP of 96.75% allows getting a positive mathematical expectation of winning at the casino.

Bonus Features

Shifting Reels Feature

The function kicks off after each win. Then, the reels begin to slide right one by one, and a new spinning reel replaces the leftmost reel. The rewarding multiplier (from x1 to x5) grows with each subsequent shifting. The sliding ends when there is no new win. Then the multiplier’s indicator goes back to x1.

Money Bag Feature

During the base spins, to each reel corresponds 1 treasure chest (open under the reel). Robin plunders the bag that falls in any reel and drops it into the appropriate chest. Plus, the empty (of the bag) cell on the reel turns into a Wild symbol, giving an extra chance in an ongoing shifting.

Free Spins Feature

Each chest containing 4 money bags automatically fires up 10 Free Spins. It is possible to embark on the bonus round with more than 1 chest, i.e. with 20 Free Spins. Friar Tuck will randomly pick one high-value symbol to be the Extra Wild.

This naturally makes the bonus spins more profitable. During the Free Spins, the reels contain no money bags anymore, but black Free Spins symbols, whereby 2 and 3 such icons award 5 and 10 additional spins, respectively.

Settings

• Provider – NetEnt
• Payment lines – 20 (fixed)
• Default range of bets – 0.20 to 100 CAD
• Volatility – from Low to Average
• Hit rate – 35.60%
• Playing field – 5х3
• The maximum winning is – 1000x the total bet
• Bonuses – Wilds, Scatters, Win Re-spins with Multipliers, Coin Win, Free Spins with Additional Wilds
• Free Spins – Yes
• RTP – 96.75%

How to win at Robin Hood: Shifting Riches slot machine? (Conclusion)

• The focal prep to have success at gambling is to test the slot first in free DEMO mode before investing real cash.
• We do not recommend Robin Hood: Shifting Riches slot machine for wagering the bonus money, despite the high RTP and relatively short cycle, as it gradually gulps the starting balance no matter the mini stakes you play with.
• The slot about the legendary archer is suitable for playing with real money but with 2 stipulations:

1. Before entering a long session with real money, you should determine the slot mood. For defying that, you need to detect how often the Shifting feature leads to a multiplier x5. More than 20 spins without going to the highest multiplier is a sign that the machine is cold. Another way of demonstrating the cold mood is if the slot doesn’t deliver a single money bag within the initial 25-30 spins. In both these cases is better to exit the game before you are too invested.
2. Playing middle-length sessions exclusively. You should not anticipate massive winnings here. A small chance of increasing the volatility is given by raising the bets to a medium range (only if it is ‘hot’).