Monkey’s Gold xPays Review

xPays is Nolimit City’s third branded mechanic, alongside xWays and xNudge. Where xWays randomly expands symbol height and xNudge nudges symbols with unlimited multipliers, xPays is about connected symbol collection. Land symbols that connect adjacently starting from the first reel — meaning they touch horizontally or vertically from reel 1 through subsequent reels. Non-connecting symbols disappear and trigger a drop. Any newly dropped symbols that continue the connected group extend the collection.

Each connected symbol in the active group is counted. When the collection ends (no new matching symbols drop into connection), the total count multiplied by the symbol’s value gives the win. Fill an entire row left-to-right with connected symbols and that row locks: all collected symbols in the locked row upgrade to the next pay tier, and the multiplier increments by 1x, 2x, or 3x depending on a pre-bonus dice roll. Lock all six rows: six upgrades, maximum multiplier stacking, and a Colossal Symbol chance. This is where the 12,683x ceiling lives.

Colossal Symbols appear as oversized 2×2 or 3×3 symbol blocks on the 6×6 grid. When a Colossal Symbol lands, it counts as multiple symbols simultaneously — a 2×2 counts as four, a 3×3 counts as nine. This dramatically accelerates row-locking during the xPays collection phase because one Colossal landing can fill large portions of multiple rows at once.

More importantly, Colossal Symbols carry their own multiplier up to 500x that applies to any win they contribute to. The wild inherits any symbol multiplier — so a Wild that lands adjacent to a Colossal Symbol with a 500x multiplier can pass that multiplier to the wild’s substituted wins. The combination of Colossal Symbol multi-row filling, symbol upgrades from locked rows, and a 500x symbol multiplier is what generates the extreme end of the pay distribution. Any empty space underneath a Colossal Symbol is automatically filled with wilds, adding further connection opportunities.

This is the mechanic that separates a good run in Monkey’s Gold from a great one. Every time you fill an entire row with connected active symbols, two things happen: the row locks (those symbols stay fixed for the remainder of the collection run), and all symbols in the locked row upgrade to the next pay tier. Cherry becomes Plum. Plum becomes Orange. Orange becomes Banana — and so on up the pay table to the Monkey King (top symbol).

If the top symbol is already locked and you fill another row, those symbols receive an incremented multiplier rather than another upgrade — stacking value on top of value. The practical result is that a run that starts with low-value fruits connecting can end up with all locked symbols at the top pay tier if enough rows fill. This upgrade system transforms extended collection runs into exponentially larger payouts compared to simply counting matched symbols at their base value.

Three or more scatter symbols trigger Free Spins — 10 base spins, with 3 additional spins per extra scatter beyond three. Before the bonus begins, a dice roll determines the Vine Multiplier’s starting value and its increment per locked row: the dice shows 1x, 2x, or 3x. If the dice shows 3x, every locked row during free spins adds 3x to the Vine Multiplier, which is sticky (it does not reset between spins).

During free spins, every xPays collection run that locks a row advances the Vine Multiplier and applies it to all wins in that spin. A run that locks four rows in one spin with a 3x increment adds 12x to the sticky Vine Multiplier before the wins are even calculated. The Vine Multiplier carries into the next spin at its accumulated value, then grows further with any new locked rows. By the end of a strong free spins session, the Vine Multiplier can be significant enough that even modest xPays collections pay substantially — and an encounter with a Colossal Symbol on a high Vine Multiplier spin is the event that produces the top end of the 12,683x distribution.