Playing Star Pops is fairly simple. Starting bets range from 0.20 to 50 each spin. All winning balloons pop to create place for additional balloons to float up from below. Landing 5 to 25 or more matching balloons in the same cluster pays between 0.25 and 5 times your stake. A balloon-specific multiplier is also included with this cascading function. It starts at x1 and rises by +1 for each cascading win a certain balloon type is a part of.
The balloon-specific multiplier can only go as high as x100 without joining with another balloon cluster via Wilds, and everything resets between cascading sequences. In addition to replacing all conventional symbols to complete winning clusters, the Star Balloon Wild also adds the corresponding balloon multipliers. The maximum combined multiplier is 1,000.
The Wild adheres to each cascading sequence and, depending on the cascade, either floats upward (if possible) or travels around. Sometimes, a random symbol will be chosen as the Destroyer Balloon on losing spins or at the conclusion of a cascade series.
The Star Balloon Wild doubles as the game's scatter, and if you can collect three scatters in one cascade round, you'll enter the Bonus Round. The triggering Star Balloon Wild/Scatters are sticky for the length of the feature, which grants 7 free spins. Balloon multipliers are maintained from the base game and are never reset when the feature is active. When you go back to the original game, they all reset.
A double diagonal line of typical balloon symbols, like a 'X' with the selected balloon in the centre, is also destroyed along with it. This starts a fresh cascade, giving you a fresh chance to win.