Bamboo Ways

At this point, it has become clear that someone within the ranks over at Push Gaming either has an insatiable passion for sustainable crafting materials…orrrr simply, they’re a panda bear, with the studio once again turning to those large strands of woody grass and bolstering up their “Bamboo” series with another exciting release from the Orient.

First came “Big Bamboo“, one of the team’s most notable titles from the days of 2022, a game that combined symbol transformations with prize reveals into one great big pot of progressive goodness, before “Big Bam-Book” turned the pages, somewhat, taking on features of familiarity within a book-style game model.

A trilogy is now upon us, as “Bamboo Ways” sprouts onto our casino platforms, and for those who particularly enjoyed the third in line within the “Razor” saga, there are certainly some comparisons that can be made to that bite-filled melee that was “Razor Ways“.

Bamboo Ways Base Game Play

Beginning with 6 reels and 3 rows, the game grid arrives in 2 halves, the 3 locked rows activated when forming winning combinations, making for a maximum of 46,656 paylines.

The theming, itself, transports players away from the lush, green canopies of the jungle, this time whisking us away to the traditions of Asia where a large, wooden hut takes its pride of place amongst the clouds.

A change of scenery doesn’t necessarily make for a vast change of in-game features, when compared to its water-dwelling cousin, however with more emphasis given to subtle mechanics such as Wild conversions and Expansions, it’s clear that Push have switched up the focus somewhat.

With Golden Bamboo reveals and Mystery Symbols also, once again, making the final cut, alongside that much-loved progressive Free Spins bonus round, action comes in highly volatile, partnered with a 96.3% RTP and max win potential reaching a healthy 25,000x bet.

Let’s swoop away to the land of the rising sun, as we check out all of the core features and rules in more detail…

Bamboo Ways Offers Players Between 729 to 46,656 Ways to Win

Bamboo Ways Base Game and Features

Win spins are achieved by combining 3 or more matching symbols (or 2 or more of the game’s top-paying symbol) from left to right over adjacent reels, across any of the 729 initial win ways.

11 regular paying symbols make up the selection, consisting of low-paying card suits worth up to 0.5x bet for 6 matching symbols, mid-paying brush, jar and scroll paying up to 1x bet for a line of 6 matching symbols, and high-paying bird, monkey, pig and panda, worth between 2.5x to 8x bet for 6 matching symbols across.

Wild symbols are also included in all modes of play, and substitute for any regular paying symbol.

Upon forming a winning combination, all symbols involved are removed from the reels, allowing fresh symbols to cascade down to fill the empty spaces.

Expanding Rows

Beginning each base game round with 3 active rows, the game grid possesses an additional 3 locked rows in the matrix above.

Each time a winning cascade occurs, or an Instant Prize win takes place, the game grid expands upwards by 1 row, with up to 3 extra rows unlocking to give a maximum 46,656 ways to win.

At the end of each game round, the rows reset back to the initial 3, before the next spin takes place.

Each Winning Cascade Unlocks 1 Extra Row up to a Maximum of 3

Expanding Wild Symbol

Landing or revealing an Expanding Wild symbol during any game mode causes its entire, respective reel to become Wild.

A Wild may only expand to cover unlocked, active rows.

Additionally, an Expanding Wild symbol may also land displaying a random Multiplier value of either x2, x3 or x5.

Multiple Expanding Wild symbols can land on different reels during the same spin.

Converter Into Wild Symbol

Landing or revealing a Converter Into Wild symbol within the reels sees it activate, spinning through the full range of pay symbols that are currently present within the active game grid.

When a symbol has been selected, all instances of that symbol on the reels, as well as the Converter Into Wild symbol itself, transform into Wild symbols.

When more than 2 Mystery symbols land in the grid, up to 2 Converter Into Wild symbols may be revealed.

Land Mystery Symbols to Reveal a Range of In-Game Enhancement Features

Mystery Symbols and Expander Symbols

Mystery symbols may land within the grid during all modes of play, and reveal either pay symbols, Wild symbols, Expanding Wild symbols, Converter Into Wild symbols, Golden bamboo symbols or Expander symbols.

Should new Mystery symbols fall into the active game grid, after the completion of the initial reveals, unless Golden Bamboo symbols were revealed, all new reveals will differ from the initial sequence.

Should an Expander symbol be revealed, it will expand the Mystery symbols in a random direction, to fill either the row or active part of the reel, before revealing the same symbol as the rest of the Mystery symbols.

Golden Bamboo Symbol

When Golden Bamboo symbols are revealed within the reels, the Golden Bamboo feature is triggered, with each Golden Bamboo symbol spinning through a number of potential prizes…

• Instant Prize – values of between 1x to 1,000x, paying out against the current bet level.
• Multiplier – multiplies all Instant Prizes and Collector values by between x2 to x10, before respinning to award a new prize.
• Collector – collects all visible Instant Prizes and other Collector symbol values.  Instant Prizes are then removed from the reels, allowing the symbols to spin through prizes again.
• Converter – spins through the range of pay symbols, currently within the unlocked rows.  When a symbol is selected, all instances of that symbol are converted into Golden Bamboo symbols.
• Scatter symbols – adds one scatter towards triggering the Free Spins bonus round.
• Row Unlocker – active only during the bonus game, one extra row is unlocked before the symbol spins through prizes again.

Reveal Golden Bamboo Symbols to Trigger the Golden Bamboo Feature for Instant Prize Rewards

Bamboo Ways Free Spins

Landing 3 or more scatters during the same game round triggers the Free Spins bonus round.

The more scatters that are involved in the trigger, the greater the enhanced start of the bonus…

• 3 scatters – awards 6 spins with a x1 starting multiplier, within a 3×6 game grid.
• 4 scatters – awards 8 spins with a x2 starting multiplier, within a 4×6 game grid and 1 low-paying symbol removed.
• 5 scatters – awards 10 spins with a x3 starting multiplier, within a 5×6 game grid and 2 low-paying symbols removed.
• 6 scatters – awards 10 spins with a x5 starting multiplier, within a 6×6 game grid and 3 low-paying symbols removed.

During the Free Spins round, landed or revealed scatter symbols are collected at the end of each spin, adding to the progressive meter outside of the game grid.

Each progressive level requires 4 scatters to achieve and upgrades the game grid size, removes 1 low-paying symbol and awards additional spins.

Beginning at level 1 (3 scatter trigger), a x1 multiplier is active within a 3×6 game grid, with all low-paying symbols.

Reaching Level 2 awards 4 additional spins, a x2 multiplier and a 4×6 game grid, as well as removing 1 low-paying symbol.

Level 3 awards 3 additional spins, a x3 multiplier and a 5×6 game grid, whilst also removing 2 low-paying symbols.

Level 4 grants 3 additional spins, ups the multiplier to x5 and increases the grid to 6×6, whilst removing 3 low-paying symbols.

Achieving level 5 awards 2 additional spins, a x10 multiplier and removes all low-paying symbols from play.

During Free Spins, Golden Bamboo symbols may also reveal the Additional Free Spins symbol, awarding between 1 to 3 extra spins.

Trigger the Free Spins Bonus Round and Progress Through Levels for Multiplier and Ways Enhancements, With Symbol Removals

Push Bet and Feature Buys

2 Push Bet options have been included during play, which players may opt to utilise to enhance the chances of landing scatter symbols to trigger the Bonus game.

Scatter Symbols can be engaged at the cost of 1.5x bet (96.36% RTP), with Scatter Symbols x2 costing 3x bet per spin (96.37% RTP)

Additionally, a range of Feature Buy options are also included…

• Mystery Symbols – at the cost of 18x bet, at least 8 positions are filled with Mystery symbols – (96.2% RTP)
• Grand Golden Bamboo Feature – at the cost of 120x bet, a guaranteed 18 positions are filled with Golden Bamboo symbols – (96.33% RTP)
• 3 Scatter Bonus – at the cost of 80x bet – (96.34% RTP)
• Random Scatter Bonus – at the cost of 400x bet – (96.3% RTP)

Bamboo Ways Free Spins Play

First Impression

Well, you know the old saying…you can take the shark out of the water, but you shouldn’t force-feed it bamboo…or something along those lines, at least…

Actually, however, although at first glance it does seem as though Push Gaming has simply swapped species and locations whilst forming the second in line for their “Ways” series, that would be doing our notorious panda a whole heap of injustice, with Bamboo Ways possessing enough individuality and additions to, arguably, become the more stronger, land-dwelling cousin.

Theming to one side, the selling point of Razor Ways was the game’s dynamic paylines model, allowing for enhanced win opportunities through grid expansions and making way for more potential features and rewards to land.

Bamboo Ways follows in close suit, sticking tightly to much of the same formula, and with Expanding Wilds, Wild conversions, Mystery symbols and the Golden Bamboo feature, all does seem very in line with past tradition.

One notable addition comes in the form of the Expander symbol, able to enhance Mystery symbol potential, but enter Free Spins and Push have exerted another of their trademarked features into proceedings, in the way of low-paying symbol removals with each Level that is progressed through.

It may not seem an almighty adaptation, however when partnered alongside increased multipliers, Expanding Wilds and Converter Into Wild symbols, it’s really not difficult to see where that extra punch of volatility comes from.

In fact, some might argue that the potential of in-game features has increased so much, that Push have had to limit the maximum value of Instant Prizes from Razor Ways from 5,000x down to 1,000x bet.

Everything else remains very much in tact, from the typical Push Gaming theming and visuals, to the thrills and spills of action-packed game rounds, found in the studio’s range of higher-powered titles and, after a mixed bag of wider-inclusive offerings players have been treated to this year, Bamboo Ways should come along with much-anticipated popularity.

The screenshots taken of games reviewed on this site are taken from Demo Play, as reviews are often written before games are released for real play.