Starquest is BTG’s own video slot running on Megaways engine which is nowadays licensed to several other game developers. And while competitors tend to stick to standard Megaways gameplay, Big Time Gaming does its best to make each of its titles different to all others. Starquest still plays with 6 reels and up to 117,649 winning ways but is unique in pretty much every other way.
Matching symbols on consecutive reels pay from left to right (starting from the leftmost reel) as well as right to left (starting with the rightmost one). There are no Scatters or Bonus symbols; magic happens exclusively thanks to Wilds which always appear stacked, launch re-spins and boost payouts. Regardless of the relatively simple gameplay, Starquest has what it takes to keep you glued to the screen for quite a while. The theoretical return of the game is 96.22%.
Star Clusters Megapays Data and Features
| Reels | 4 |
| Max cash jackpot | $50.00 |
| Payout Percent | 96.27 |
| Wild Symbol | Yes |
| Multiplier | No |
| Betting Range | $0.2 - $20 |
| Coin bet range | $0.01 - $1 |
| Coins per line | 1 |
| Progressive | Yes |
| Max coins jackpot | 50 |
| Max coins | 1 |
| Scatter Symbol | No |
| Free spins available | Yes |
| Bonus Game | No |
| Buy feature | No |
| Game theme | Gems & Jewels |
| Volatility | High |
Bonus Features Deconstructed
Winning is made easy with the inclusion of Full Reel Wilds willing to appear on reels 2, 3, 4 and 5 and substitute for any other game symbol (which is kind of expected owing to the absence of any other special icons). Each Wild, depicted as an attractive female space explorer, counts as up to 5 symbols and comes with a multiplier which starts at x1. The multiplier will increase by 1 with each re-spin caused by the appearance of Wild reels. Should a new Wild icon join the party after the re-spin, all other positions will spin once again while all Wilds remain frozen. Multipliers can grow to up to x5, and what’s more, Wild reels multiply each other so it’s theoretically possible to boost the payout by as much as 625x.
Before you get too excited, be aware that Wild beauty tends to be quite elusive and one can easily experience multiple spins without a single occurrence of a Wild reel. Furthermore, even when the lady does decide to show up, the re-spin which follows may not deliver a win or another Wild and that can be quite frustrating. At the same time, you might get lucky with multiple Wilds resulting from multiple re-spins and consequently celebrate a huge payout.
Starquest vs Other Megaways Slots
Those that have played a few other Megaways slots will instantly realize Starquest is very different. Other than the fact it randomly changes the number of winning ways on each spin, there are virtually no similarities to titles launched by other developers nor those released by Big Time Gaming. Instead of cascading reels, mystery symbols and free games with an unlimited multiplier, Starquest offers one very powerful feature. What’s more, this game is one of the rare Megaways slots that pay both ways. The simplicity of gameplay shouldn’t be an issue because the same recipe has already been proven to work with another space-themed hit, NetEnt’s Starburst. RTP may be a bit lower than in other Megaways games but the max win potential is very decent 12,500x the bet.
