Fire in the Hole 2 – A New Chapter in Nolimit City's Mining Saga

Fire in the Hole 2, the upcoming slot by Nolimit City is going live on the 20th of February 2024. The new version of the favourite has an instantly recognisable interface and gameplay but is played with a couple of extra X-mechanics, the xSplit and xBet, and an additional reel during the bonus for symbol upgrades. Let’s dig deeper and see how much bang for the buck this game produces.

Gameplay and Features

Let’s go through the main features of Fire in the Hole 2.

• Collapsing Mine Mechanism – The game employs a cascading reels feature, where winning symbols are blasted away, and new symbols drop down, potentially creating new winning combinations in a single spin. Initially, there are 3 active rows, which can be expanded up to 6 by a winning combo, an xBomb Wild explosion, or a Wild Mining feature.
• Buried Features – In the main game, some dirt aka unlocked symbols might hide a Wild, Split, or Bonus symbol inside them. These special symbols don't do anything while they're covered in dirt. They only become active if the dirt covering them is cleared away or if they're hit by a Split feature.
• Wild Mining – Slightly boosted from the original game, if you line up 3, 4, 5, or 6 identical symbols either horizontally or vertically without making a win, you'll start the Wild Mining feature. This feature takes away the symbols that caused it and puts Wild symbols in the middle of where they were. For 3 to 6 symbols, you’ll get 1 to 4 Wilds, respectively. Then, any symbols above these, except for Bonus or Wild symbols, will blow up and cause the symbols to fall again, starting a new round.

Main Bonus

Lucky Wagon Spins – The main bonus plays similarly to the first version of the game and gets triggered with 3-5 Bonus symbols. The more Bonus symbols, the more rows will be unlocked. The feature starts with 3 spins and will reset to 3 spins every time a coin lands in the reel area, which are valued as times the active bet. Here's what else becomes available or is otherwise related to the feature:

• Enhancers – The extra reel at the top features enhancer symbols, such as Coin values, Multipliers, Dynamite, Beer (reactivates 0-5 old Coins) or Dwarf (collects all values in the reel area). Any of these is activated when a new coin lands on the reel below the enhancer.
• Upgrade Crystal – New to the second release, there’s an additional 7^th reel that contains Upgrade symbols. If an enhancer symbol pops up on the Upgrade symbol row, it will either stick for another spin or become persistent and keep on giving until the end of the feature.
• Collect Chests – Yet again, this is the highlight of the free spins bonus. During the feature, the bottom row Collect Chest can be activated by Dynamites. When activated, it will collect the values in the reel area for the corresponding column above for every spin!
• El Beerado – The max payout of the game is 65,000x the base bet.
• Bonus Buy – There are four bonus buy options for players to explore, ranging from 70x to 600x the base bet.
• Nolimit Action Spins – Autoplay on steroids that you can read on how it works in our blog post. Play a high volume of rounds of the base game or the bonus in a rapid and exhilarating way.

Game xMechanics

xBet – Pay a little extra when you spin, and you'll have a better shot at getting into special bonus games. Paying 2.5 times your original bet guarantees that you'll get at least one Bonus symbol on the last inactive row for each spin. Also, all the dirt is cleared away in the main game. This means any special features hidden under the dirt will show up without it and start working right away when they are in the active reels. The amount you win for each symbol stays the same.

xBomb – An xBomb Wild symbol substitutes for any symbol except Bonus symbols. When an xBomb Wild explodes, it gets rid of the symbols close to it, except for Bonus symbols, and makes your next win bigger by adding a multiplier. Every xBomb Wild will blow up before the symbols fall into place again, unless the Wild Mining feature starts up.

xSplit – First seen in the game xWays Hoarder xSplit in July 2021, xSplit symbols help you win by splitting symbols on their row, thus doubling those symbols. Symbols split into 8 or more will be shown with a multiplier instead. Bonus symbols and xSplit symbols cannot be split and dirt blocks affected by a split feature are removed if there is a collapse.

Conclusion

Nolimit City has successfully built upon the foundation laid by the original Fire in the Hole slot, delivering a sequel that is both familiar and refreshingly new. With its engaging theme, innovative gameplay mechanics, and the potential for substantial rewards, FITH2 is poised to become another favourite among Nolimit City slot enthusiasts, alongside Misery Mining and Dead Canary renditions. Whether you're a fan of the original game or new to the series, this title offers a compelling blend of excitement, challenge, and the chance for significant payouts. However, be mindful of the fact that the maximum win is poised to statistically drop only 1 in 17 million rounds, versus “just” 1 in 2.4 million rounds in FITH1. That said, check out our Nolimit City casinos for where to play when the game comes out tomorrow!