Heartbreakers (Pragmatic Play) — Slot Review for Players from New Zealand

Bonus Game and Special Modes

Pragmatic Play this time departed from the usual formula of "regular base plus a lucrative Free Spin round." In Heartbreakers, three closely related systems work simultaneously, feeding each other directly during the base game, plus one major Respin mechanic on top. Let's break it down layer by layer.

An important point right away: Collect symbols work both in the base game and in Respin mode, but their behavior and frequency differ. In the base game, Collect symbols land infrequently (about 1 in 5-6 spins for at least one Collect to appear), and each one is active once — that is, "landed, collected from the top row, gone." In Respin mode, the appearance of a Collect not only grants a payout but also resets the attempts counter back to three, making the round potentially endless. These are two different "universes" for the same symbol's operation.

Top Row — Five Random Multipliers

Above the reels, there is a separate row of five cells — one for each reel. Before each spin, values of x1, x2, x3, x5, x10, x25, x50, or x100 randomly appear in these cells. By themselves, they don't pay on lines; they are activated by Collect symbols. It is this row that transforms Heartbreakers from "just another 5×4 slot" into a non-linear game.

Collect Symbols — Three Colors, Three Formulas

Collect symbols are the main feature of Heartbreakers. They appear in both the main game and Respin mode, and each of the three behaves differently:

• Green Collect — Gathers the value from the top row above its reel and multiplies it by its own random number from 1x, 2x, 3x, 5x, 10x, 25x, 50x, or 100x. Example: if x5 is above the reel and a Green Collect lands with its own x25, the result is 5 × 25 = 125 of the bet.
• Red Collect — Takes the same top value but multiplies it by its own number from the set x2, x3, x5, x10, x25, x50, or x100. There is no "one" minimum for Red, so it is generally noticeably more generous than Green.
• Yellow Collect — Sums all five values from the top row immediately and multiplies the total by its own random number from 2x to 100x. This is the rarest and most explosive of the three — the Yellow Collect is responsible for big payouts in the base game.

All Collect symbols pay regardless of paylines — this is a "landed - collected" scenario, not "three in a row." If Collect symbols of different colors land in a spin, each processes its own formula, and the total payout is summed.

Respin Mode — Three Attempts with Accumulation

Three Scatter symbols (a gold coin on reels 1, 3, and 5) trigger the Respin mode. The grid clears to an empty state, reels spin in Hold & Win mode and land only Collect symbols and empty cells. The player is given 3 attempts, and each time at least one Collect lands in a new cell, the counter resets back to 3.

Most interestingly, the top row in Respin mode does not reset between attempts. Values that Collect symbols have already processed remain in place, and each new landing counts the payout from the current state of the row. If a Yellow Collect manages to hit a sum of about x100 on the third attempt after a series of accumulations, that's the "mega-payout" that Heartbreakers was designed for.

The round ends when the attempts counter reaches zero without new Collect symbols. At this point, all payouts collected during the round are summed and credited at once.

An important nuance — every Collect, even the cheapest Green Collect with a base x1, extends the round. This means that, on average, the Respin mode in Heartbreakers lasts significantly longer than in standard Hold & Win slots with a fixed 3 attempts. In our experience, the average round concludes with 4-7 attempts, about 10% go beyond 10 iterations, and rare "wild" rounds exceed 20 attempts with an accumulated top row, where the total payout is already measured in thousands of the bet. The math is designed so that the average is lower than a single big hit, but the variance is significantly higher than the "average" Hold & Win.

Wild and Scatter

The Wild symbol — a pink heart — substitutes for all regular paying symbols except Scatter and Collect. On a line, the Wild itself is the highest paying symbol and gives x100 of the bet for five of a kind — this is the ceiling of the "linear" part of Heartbreakers, without Respin mode and without Collect series.

The Scatter — a gold coin — appears only on reels 1, 3, and 5. The Scatter does not pay as a symbol; it is only needed to trigger the Respin mode. Less than three Scatter symbols on the screen yield nothing — this is a conscious design to build anticipation for the trigger, rather than spreading it across minor events.

Ante Bet and Super Spin

Two "enhanced bet" modes are available in Heartbreakers:

• Ante Bet — triples the cost of each spin and, in return, increases the chance of a natural Respin mode trigger by approximately 5 times. Suitable for players who prioritize bonus frequency over the size of each individual spin.
• Super Spin — a premium spin costing 10x the bet. On such a spin, the top row is forcibly "enhanced" — values are taken only from the set x10, x25, x50, x100, and the chance of Collect symbols appearing in this spin is higher than usual. An important nuance: the Respin mode cannot be triggered on a Super Spin; it's an autonomous "expensive single spin" without transitioning to Respin mode.

Both cannot be used simultaneously — these are separate buttons, and one of the two options is chosen at a time.

It's important to understand the math here. The Ante Bet, at triple the cost, gives approximately a fivefold chance — from a "cost per trigger" perspective, it is formally more advantageous than natural play. But Respin mode is a random event, and the average payout per trigger over time does not depend on how you entered the round. That is, Ante Bet is a tool for session pacing, not a "way to outplay the RTP." The Super Spin for 10x the bet is a separate story: a premium spin with an enhanced top row yields a higher average return for that single spin, but there is no Respin mode, and big wins from a Super Spin are usually uncommon.

Feature Buy — Purchasing Respin Mode

The Respin mode buy button offers two options: a standard entry and an "enhanced" one with guarantees on Green Collect symbols. On some launch platforms, this option is unavailable — Pragmatic Play releases different builds of the slot, and in one of them, the Feature Buy button is hidden.

The availability of Feature Buy depends on the launch platform. Pragmatic Play releases the game both with an active buy button and with hidden options — in the first case, the player sees an icon with a money spade on the bottom panel, in the second, it simply isn't there. It's impossible to know in advance which set will be available in a specific launch without referring to the product itself; in demo mode, the purchase is usually open, and one can see how both buttons behave. If the button is absent, it's not a bug or a limitation of our page, but a conscious choice of the provider in this version of the slot.