18+ Only. Play Responsibly.
The pearl moved before the reels did.
It abandoned the left side of the palace, appeared on reel four and settled into its golden shell as though it had simply remembered that the jellyfish wing had better lighting.
I had just pressed my first €1.00 spin.
Nothing else had happened.
The treasure chest remained where it was.
The starfish had not travelled.
A manta ray was still behaving with considerably more architectural discipline than the pearl.
Then the reels started.
That became my first problem with Mermaid Riches.
The palace had rooms.
The pearl did not believe in assigned seating.
The screen itself rose from left to right like somebody had built an underwater staircase without considering that mermaids do not require stairs.
One symbol high on the first reel.
Two on the second.
Three in the middle.
Four next.
Five on the far right.
The whole palace leaned upward through the sea.
Jellyfish floated through it.
Starfish occupied valuable floor space.
Treasure chests appeared.
There were ornate cups that suggested somebody was still serving tea several hundred metres underwater.
Manta rays glided through the higher symbols.
And beside all of it stood the red-haired mermaid princess, perfectly comfortable with a building whose main pearl changed rooms before every spin.
On that first round, the wandering Wild had chosen a useful position.
A group of Q symbols connected through it.
€1.40.
The winners disappeared.
Everything above them fell.
The multiplier moved to x2.
Another little group formed through the same Wild.
€2.80.
Collapse.
x3.
A jellyfish connection managed €4.20.
Then the x5 round received nothing.
€8.40.
The pearl stayed in exactly the same place through the whole collapsing sequence.
Only when the paid spin ended did it finally release the room.
Next spin, it moved again.
Reel two this time.
The mermaid had a palace containing five differently sized floors and one Wild pearl operating a private relocation service.
I stopped asking where it belonged.
Clearly nowhere.
A few spins later, another kind of pearl appeared.
Purple shell.
A small three inside it.
This one was less interested in changing rooms and more interested in mortality.
It joined a treasure-chest win at x1.
€2.20.
The symbols disappeared.
The shell remained.
Its three became two.
Fresh symbols dropped.
The same Wild helped a line of ornate cups at x2.
€4.80.
Collapse.
The counter fell again.
One use.
x3.
A group of starfish found it.
€6.60.
Gone.
The pearl had spent all three lives helping sea creatures organize themselves.
x5 waited after the collapse.
Nothing.
€13.60.
The Wild had entered the palace as a pearl with three chances.
A treasure chest, a teacup and several starfish had exhausted it.
Underwater wealth was apparently very hard on shellfish.
The Special Sticky Wild moved again on the next paid spin.
It chose the bottom of reel five.
This was the largest part of the palace.
Five rows.
Excellent accommodation.
Absolutely no winning symbol reached it.
The pearl had upgraded its room and lost its purpose.
A few ordinary rounds followed.
€0.80 from letters.
€2.40 from jellyfish.
A manta ray connection gave €3.20 and died immediately.
The treasure chest arrived several times without enough matching treasure chests.
That bothered me more than it should have.
The chest was visibly overflowing.
Gold everywhere.
The symbol itself looked financially complete.
Apparently the deep-sea palace required several identical treasure chests before acknowledging that treasure existed.
Then came the base-game spin that made the rest of the session dangerous.
The moving Special Wild chose reel three.
A second numbered Wild arrived on reel four showing three uses.
Treasure chests connected from the left.
At x1:
€4.00.
Collapse.
The numbered Wild dropped to two.
The Special Wild remained exactly where the mermaid had parked it.
Fresh symbols fell.
More chests.
x2.
€7.20.
Another collapse.
The counted pearl went down to one use.
x3.
Manta rays connected through both Wilds.
€12.00.
The numbered pearl was used again and disappeared.
The wandering golden Wild stayed.
The multiplier reached x5.
New symbols dropped into the crooked palace.
A line of premium cups connected through the Special Wild.
€24.00.
Then nothing.
€47.20.
One spin.
Forty-seven euros twenty.
The five-row right side of the palace was full of treasure, rays and cups.
The mermaid looked perfectly composed.
The Special Wild had spent the entire collapse sequence sitting in one place after changing rooms before the spin.
I made the mistake of becoming comfortable.
€47.20 at €1.00 gives comfort very quickly.
The palace noticed.
The next stretch was mostly water.
Cards.
A.
K.
Q.
J.
Tiny wins.
A starfish for €1.20.
A jellyfish connection for €1.80.
The Special Wild moved beautifully from reel two to reel four to reel three across successive spins and managed to choose positions with the precision of a pearl actively avoiding employment.
One numbered Wild arrived showing one use.
It helped a €2.60 win.
Immediately destroyed itself.
One shift.
One job.
Gone.
That was less a Sticky Wild and more a pearl with a final wish.
The Scatters began appearing as portraits of the mermaid princess.
One.
Then two.
No third.
Later, two again.
Her face sat on opposite sides of the palace while jellyfish occupied the middle.
No feature.
Another pair appeared a few spins later.
The mermaid was everywhere except in sufficient quantity.
Three portraits were required.
Two mermaids apparently constituted regular palace staff.
The €47.20 lead slowly dissolved.
The staircase stayed pointed upward to the right.
The Special Wild kept moving.
Tea remained permanently available underwater.
The treasure chest continued to require colleagues.
And every time a numbered pearl appeared, I watched its little counter as though the shell had arrived with a medical condition.
A three-use Wild gave me one useful collapse and survived at two.
No second win.
Spin over.
Gone anyway.
Another appeared with two uses and managed to spend both in a short €7.80 sequence.
The palace was full of pearls either moving house or wearing themselves out.
The actual riches were proving harder to locate.
Then three mermaid Scatters arrived.
No fourth.
Eight Free Spins.
The palace turned around.
That was not decorative language.
The staircase reversed.
The five-row reel moved to the left.
Then four.
Three in the middle.
Two.
One lonely symbol position on the far right.
I had spent most of the session looking at a palace growing taller toward the right.
The mermaid had just mirrored the entire building because I found three portraits of her.
The tea cups remained upright.
Nobody in the palace reacted.
The jellyfish were perhaps used to this.
The multiplier ladder changed too.
x2.
x4.
x6.
x10.
Everything had doubled except the architectural confidence.
First Free Spin.
The Special Sticky Wild chose a position on the now-enormous left side.
Five rows on reel one.
The pearl had clearly heard there was more floor space available.
A jellyfish connection formed immediately at x2.
€3.20.
Collapse.
x4.
Another group connected.
€4.80.
Collapse.
x6.
Nothing.
€8.00.
Good opening.
The reversed palace looked completely wrong to me.
That was unfair.
It had only been the other way around for twenty minutes.
The mermaid had probably been flipping it back and forth for years.
Second Free Spin.
A numbered Wild arrived with three uses.
The Special Wild moved near it.
Nothing connected.
Two pearls.
Five-row left wing.
One-row right cupboard.
Zero euros.
Third Free Spin.
Treasure chests connected at x2.
€2.80.
Collapse.
x4.
The numbered Wild joined cups.
€4.80.
Counter down.
x6.
Starfish managed another €5.40.
The shell lost another use.
x10 appeared.
One use remained.
The entire deep-sea palace glowed.
The highest feature multiplier sat above the reels.
The numbered pearl waited.
The Special Wild waited.
Treasure chest.
Jellyfish.
Manta ray.
Letters.
Nothing.
€13.00.
The sea had built x10 and then misplaced the treasure.
Fourth Free Spin brought one Scatter portrait.
No retrigger.
The Special Wild relocated to reel two, where it sat beside three jellyfish and contributed nothing.
Fifth Free Spin produced two Scatters.
No third.
The mirrored palace had apparently decided that three mermaids in the base game had been enough socializing for one evening.
A small x2 connection paid €2.00.
That was it.
Sixth Free Spin finally built another collapse.
A manta ray group at x2 brought €3.60.
Symbols disappeared.
x4.
A numbered Wild showing two helped a starfish route for €4.80.
One use remained.
Collapse.
x6.
The surviving pearl sat directly beside matching symbols.
No connection across enough reels.
End.
€8.40.
Two Free Spins remained.
The feature total was not behaving like something with x10 printed across the top of its staircase.
Seventh Free Spin:
nothing.
The Special Wild had moved to the single position on reel five.
One tiny room at the narrow end of the mirrored palace.
It occupied the entire available property.
No win reached it.
The most important pearl in the building had booked a private tower and spent the spin staring at a K.
Final Free Spin.
The Special Wild moved again.
Reel three.
A three-use numbered pearl landed farther right.
Jellyfish connected at x2.
€2.40.
Collapse.
x4.
The numbered Wild joined a line of ornate cups.
€3.60.
Counter fell to two.
Collapse.
x6.
A treasure chest route survived.
€4.00.
The pearl dropped to one use.
Collapse.
x10.
There it was again.
The whole palace had worked its way from x2 through x4 and x6.
Now x10 waited over the mirrored staircase.
The remaining Wild pearl sat with one life.
The Special Wild was still fixed in the middle.
Fresh symbols fell.
Several starfish.
One jellyfish.
A manta ray.
Two card ranks.
Nothing connected.
The feature ended.
€41.40.
Eight Free Spins.
The palace had reversed itself.
The multipliers had doubled.
x10 had appeared more than once.
Pearls had survived, worn down and disappeared.
The mermaid had mirrored an entire deep-sea residence.
Forty-one euros forty.
It was not enough to recover everything the long base-game drought had taken after that early €47.20 spin.
I was slightly down.
The feature disappeared.
The ordinary palace returned.
One row on the left.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five on the right.
Architecture restored.
I pressed another €1.00 spin.
Before anything else moved, the Special Sticky Wild abandoned its room and reappeared somewhere else.
Of course it did.
The mermaid had put the entire palace back where it started.
The pearl still refused to live there.
Midas Fortune doesn’t trigger bonuses — it triggers trauma.