Based on the successful TV crime drama of the same name, Narcos is a new video slot by NetEnt which has 5 reels and 243 bet ways. The game offers plenty of action with its interesting Walking Wilds, Free Spins, and several additional features.
Narcos was launched in 2019 and quickly became a fan favorite due to its fast-paced action, medium to high volatility, and a great theme. It follows the dark, violent story of several characters from the award-winning TV series, including the notorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. The slot is set in the 1980s and uses a standard 5×3 reel grid but instead of the traditional pay lines, it has 243 bet ways, which means that symbols do not need to appear on any specific pay lines – they simply need to fall on several adjacent reels in order to form winning combinations.
| Narcos Slot Summary | |
|---|---|
| Software Provider | NetEnt |
| Paylines | 243 ways |
| RTP | 96.23% |
| Min Bet | $0.20 |
| Max Bet | $400 |
| Wild Symbol | The DEA badge is a Wild and it turns into a Walking Wild when it forms a winning combination. |
| Scatter Symbol | The car symbol functions as a Scatter and 3 cars appearing on reels 1, 3, and 5 activate the Free Spins Feature. |
| Bonus Features | The Drive-by Feature is Random and it turns high-value symbols into Wilds, while the Locked-Up Feature triggers when 3 or more Escobat images land on the same row. |
| Jackpot | 300x coin value |
Symbols and Winning Combinations of Narcos Slot
Although the slot is based on a TV series, the graphics have a retro, comic book feel to them and the symbols on the reels have that same interesting design. To bring a payout, they must land on three or more adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost reel, of course. The low-value symbols are represented as crime-themed playing cards from Jacks through Aces. The airplane and the pink flamingo are the medium-paying symbols, bringing a payout of 120:1 (120 times the coin value) when 5 identical symbols land on all 5 reels.
The high-value symbols are drawings of several characters from the TV show, namely José Rodríguez Gacha, Connie Murphy and DEA agents Steve Murphy and Javier Peña. The images of the two DEA agents pay as much as the Wild symbol in the game, represented as the DEA badge – getting 3, 4, and 5 identical symbols pays 20, 80, and 300 times the bet size.
Speaking of the Wild, we should say that it substitutes for all other symbols in the game, with the exception of the two other special symbols. Moreover, when Wilds are part of a win, they remain on the reels, moving one position left with every following spin. These Walking Wilds may appear during the main game or during the Free Spins feature.
The car image functions as a Scatter symbol and it activates the Free Spins Feature when it appears on the first, third, and fifth reel simultaneously. The other special symbol is the Locked Up symbol, which is a picture of Pablo Escobar and it triggers the Locked Up Feature.
Bonus Features of Narcos Slot
Narcos has several bonus features that make the gameplay much more interesting. One of them is the Drive-by feature, which may be activated randomly during the main game. When this happens, a car full of thugs drive by the reels and one of them shoot at some of the high-value symbols, transforming them into Wilds. This, of course, increases the player’s winning chances, especially with the Walking Wilds in the equation.
The other feature worth mentioning is the Locked Up feature when three or more Escobar images (the Locked Up symbol) appear on the same row. The feature is played on a new reel set and the Escobar symbols are given win values of between 1x and 10x. On the new set of reels, winning clusters can be formed by 3 connected Locked Up or Golden Locked Up symbols. The spins within the Locked Up feature are free.
The Golden Locked Up symbol is presented as a golden briefcase and when a briefcase is connected to a winning cluster, it triggers one of three possibilities – a 2x or 3x multiplier, an amount of money added as an initial value to the golden briefcase, or upgrade values that can appear between 7 and 15 times.
The other special feature in this slot is activated when 3 or more Scatter cars land anywhere on reels 1, 3, and 5. When this happens, players are awarded 10 Free Spins, during which one or more high-value symbols can transform into Wilds. If there are still Walking Wilds at the end of the Free Spins, additional spins will follow.
Verdict
As you can see, NetEnt’s new video slot Narcos has several different special features, some of which are random, while others are triggered by a specific event. The game also uses the 5×3 reel grid in combination with 243 ways to win, which is an interesting system for NetEnt slots. However, players need to know that this is a medium to a high-volatility slot, which means that winning spins would happen less frequently. The hit frequency of the special features is also quite low.