Gonzo’s Quest is NetEnt’s slot about a conquistador looking for the lost city of gold. It opens with a short animation of Gonzo walking away from his ship, and then the reels turn out not to be reels at all — carved stone blocks drop into a wooden frame, winning blocks crumble away, and new ones fall into the gap. NetEnt called that the Avalanche, and it is the reason the game is still in lobbies more than a decade later: the mechanic was new at the time and has been copied across the industry since.
- Avalanche reels
- Increasing multipliers
- Free Falls
- Wild substitutions
- Studio
- NetEnt
- Released
- 2010
- Layout
- 5 reels, 3 rows
- Ways to win
- 20 paylines, left to right, with tumbling wins
- Volatility
- Medium
How It Plays
Five reels, three rows and twenty paylines, paid from the leftmost reel rightwards on adjacent reels. Nothing spins — the blocks fall from above and settle into the frame, and the same fall is used for the base game and for the bonus round.
The stake is built from three controls rather than one: the number of lines in play, a bet level from 1 to 5, and a coin value. Together they give the total shown as Bet, which in the standard build runs from about 0.20 to 50 a spin; the limits of the version in play are shown in the information panel of the game. Because winning blocks are removed and replaced, a single stake can resolve several times over before the spin is finished.
Symbols
The playing symbols are stone blocks carved with Inca-style glyphs in different colours — plain geometric shapes at the low end, face-like masks at the high end. They are drawn large and read clearly, which matters more here than on a normal slot, because the grid rearranges itself two or three times inside one stake and you need to follow what changed.
Two blocks are not ordinary symbols. The wild stands in for any playing symbol to complete a line but not for the Free Fall symbol, and the Free Fall symbol is the one that opens the bonus round. Exact multipliers per symbol are listed in the game’s own paytable, which is worth opening once before the first spin.
Bonus Feature
Two things multiply wins in Gonzo’s Quest, and both come out of the same Avalanche. When a combination lands, the blocks that formed it explode, the blocks above fall down to fill the space, and if the new arrangement makes another combination the sequence continues. The multiplier climbs with it: the first win in a sequence pays as normal, the second is doubled, the third tripled, and the fourth and any after it multiplied by five. When an avalanche produces no win, the sequence ends and the multiplier drops back to the start.
The bonus round is Free Falls. Three or more Free Fall symbols landing on adjacent reels from the leftmost award ten free rounds. Inside them the ladder works exactly the same way but starts higher — three times, then six, then nine, then fifteen from the fourth avalanche onwards — and three more Free Fall symbols during the round add another ten rounds on top.
It is worth being plain about what the ladder is and is not. A long chain is a good run inside one stake, not a state the game builds towards. Each spin is resolved on its own, so a stretch without Free Falls does not make the round any nearer on the next one.
Controls
The panel sits along the bottom of the screen. Lines sets how many of the twenty paylines are active, Level sets a multiplier from 1 to 5 on the line stake, and Coin Value sets what a coin is worth; the three together produce the total that Bet displays. Max Bet takes the lines and the level to maximum without touching the coin value, so the coin is the control to set first if you want a specific stake.
Autoplay runs a fixed number of spins at the current stake and can be told to stop on a condition — on any win, when the bonus round triggers, or when the balance moves by an amount you set. One thing to expect: because each avalanche has to settle before the next one starts, a spin here takes noticeably longer than on a plain reel game, so a long autoplay sequence is not quick to work through.
Every game also carries an information panel with its rules and its return-to-player figure for the build running here. That panel is the accurate source; a number copied from elsewhere may describe a different build — see how to read RTP.
Pros and Cons
Gonzo’s Quest is a medium-volatility game whose whole character comes from one idea. Strip out the Avalanche and what is left is an ordinary twenty-line slot with a cartoon conquistador standing beside it. With it, a stake either dies on the first fall or turns into a chain of three or four wins with a rising multiplier attached, and most of the interest sits in the Free Falls round, where that ladder starts at three rather than one.
It suits someone who wants some structure to a spin without side bets or decisions to make, and it is a fair game to learn tumbling mechanics on, because the multiplier is displayed on screen and nothing about it is hidden. It is a poor fit if you want steady small wins to keep a balance ticking over, or if you want to get through a lot of spins quickly — the animations set the pace and there is no way around them. There is no jackpot and no gamble round, and the presentation is old enough now that some players will find it dated.
- The Avalanche turns one stake into a chain of results rather than a single one
- Multiplier ladder is simple and stays visible on screen
- Free Falls starts its ladder at 3x instead of 1x
- Stake range is wide enough to play small
- Most stakes end on the first fall with nothing
- Animations make each spin slower than a standard reel slot
- No jackpot, no gamble round, no feature beyond the ladder
- Graphics and sound show their age
18+ or the legal age where you live. This game carries a house edge like every other. Play only with money you can afford to lose.
More From NetEnt
Other titles by the same studio in our lobby.
Questions
- How does the Avalanche work?
- Blocks fall into the frame instead of reels spinning. Any block that forms a winning line is destroyed and the blocks above drop into the gap. If the new arrangement makes another win, it pays too, and the chain continues until an arrangement pays nothing.
- How do I start Free Falls?
- Three or more Free Fall symbols have to land on adjacent reels starting from the leftmost one. That awards ten free rounds, and three more of the symbols during the round add another ten.
- What are the multipliers?
- In the base game a chain pays 1x, then 2x, then 3x, then 5x for the fourth avalanche and any after it. In Free Falls the same ladder runs 3x, 6x, 9x and 15x. The multiplier resets when a chain ends.
- Does a losing run make the bonus more likely?
- No. Each spin is worked out on its own and nothing carries over between them, so a long stretch without Free Falls says nothing about the next spin. The multiplier ladder resets with every chain for the same reason.
- Can I try it without staking money?
- Yes, the game has a demo mode on virtual credits. It is the cheapest way to see how often chains actually run on and whether the pace of the animations suits you.