Slots Like Bones & Bounty: A Ghost Reel Multiplier and a 25,000x Cap
Bones & Bounty is Thunderkick’s haunted pirate slot, a six reel, four row grid with 4,096 ways to win and a 96.16% return to player. Stakes start at 10p and run to £100, the volatility is high, and the maximum win is 25,000x your stake. The base game is built on stacked wilds that lock and respin, while the real business happens in the Cash Bonus, where coins shift across the grid, pass through a multiplying Ghost Reel and get topped up by persistent payer symbols. If you have been hunting slots like Bones & Bounty, what you are really looking for is a hold and win round with a multiplier that can run away with itself, and this one hides that behind a rare trigger.
Where to Play
18+ only. T&Cs apply. Please gamble responsibly.
How the Game Works
Reviewed by Paul StonePublished: July 2026
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The base game is a six reel, four row grid with 4,096 ways, so wins are counted left to right on adjacent reels rather than along fixed lines. Thunderkick has framed the reels in salvaged ship timber and set them against a becalmed sea, with a wrecked galleon and a ghostly helmsman drifting behind the grid. Stakes run from 10p to £100 a spin, which is a wide enough spread that the game works for a slow grind as well as for a short, sharp session.
Two things drive the base game. Stacked wild symbols land two, three or four positions tall and lock in place for a respin, and bonus symbols collect towards the Cash Bonus round on a small panel below the reels. Neither happens often. Between those moments the reels drop a lot of dead spins and small royal wins, which is exactly what a 25,000x ceiling costs you elsewhere in the maths.
One point worth flagging before you play: sources do not fully agree on where the stacked wilds can appear. Thunderkick’s own paperwork and the review at Hideous Slots put them on reels two to six, while The Slots Corner limits them to reels two, three and four. We have spun enough of it to see wilds well right of the middle reel, so the wider range looks right, but the game information screen in whichever build you load is the version that counts.
Symbols and Paytable
The pay ladder is short and shallow, which is normal for a game that keeps its money in the bonus. Nine, ten, jack, queen, king and ace fill most of the grid and pay roughly 1.5x to 3.2x the stake for a full six of a kind. Above them sit four themed symbols, a treasure map, an hourglass, a brass spyglass and a compass ring, worth around 4.2x to 10x for six. The pirate captain in his tricorn hat is the premium, and even he tops out at the upper end of that range rather than paying anything spectacular on his own.
That flat paytable is deliberate. Six of a kind across a 4,096 way grid is not a rare event, so Thunderkick keeps the base rewards modest and pushes the variance into the wild respins and the coin round.
Bonus Features Explained
Stacked Respin Wilds
Wild stacks are the base game’s engine. When one lands it locks, everything else respins around it, and any further wild that arrives during that respin locks too and buys another spin. Up to four stacks can sit on the grid at once. Because a four high wild covers a whole reel on a four row grid, a pair of full stacks turns 4,096 ways into a run of guaranteed connections, and bonus symbols picked up during the respin sequence still count towards the round below.
The Cash Bonus Round
Three bonus symbols open the Cash Bonus, and the reels are swapped out for a set carrying only cash coins, multiplier coins, persistent payers and blanks. You start with three spins, and every new symbol that sticks resets the counter to three. Cash coins carry values from 1x to 10x the stake. It is a hold and win round in structure, but Thunderkick has bolted two of its own ideas onto it.
The Ghost Reel and the Shift
After each landing, every symbol already on the grid shifts one position to the right. Anything pushed off the right hand edge passes through the Ghost Reel, a lit column headed by a multiplier that begins at x2, gets multiplied by that figure, then drops back onto the grid at a random empty position. Multiplier coins raise the Ghost Reel value by one to three before turning into ordinary cash. Persistent payers are the other half of the trick: when one of them reaches the Ghost Reel it adds its own value to every cash symbol on the grid before being multiplied and repositioned itself. Get a persistent payer surviving several passes while the multiplier climbs and the totals stop looking like a hold and win round at all, which is the route to the 25,000x cap.
Buy Feature
A buy button sits in the bottom bar and opens the Cash Bonus directly for 100x the stake. Records list the RTP on the bought version at 96.50%, slightly above the standard 96.16%. As always, the buy shortens the game to its most volatile part, so a £1 spin becomes a £100 decision and the swings scale with it.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- The Ghost Reel multiplier and persistent payer combination gives the coin round genuine upside rather than a fixed grid fill.
- 25,000x is a serious ceiling for a game that is not built on cascades or Megaways.
- Stacked respin wilds keep the base game from being pure filler between bonuses.
- Art direction is a cut above the usual pirate slot, with the ghost ship and the shifting green light doing real work.
- Wide stake range, from 10p up to £100, suits very different bankrolls.
Cons
- The paytable is flat, so base game sessions can feel like a long wait with very little in between.
- 96.16% is fair without being generous, and reduced configurations as low as 92% are recorded at some operators.
- The shift mechanic takes a couple of rounds to read, and the game does little to explain it in play.
- At 100x, the buy is expensive relative to how often the round pays back its cost.
- Sources disagree on which reels carry the wild stacks, which is not ideal for anyone trying to work out the maths.
Game Screenshot
The six by four grid framed in ship timber, with the wrecked galleon and its ghostly helmsman behind it. The Cash Bonus panel under the reels shows three empty sockets waiting on bonus symbols, and the bottom bar carries Auto Play, the stake box and the Buy Feature button. This capture was taken in euros, so the balance and stake read in that currency rather than sterling.
The Cash Bonus in progress. Four gold coins hold their positions on the darkened grid, the lit column on the right is the Ghost Reel with its multiplier banner reading 2, and the spin tracker under the grid shows two of three lights still burning. The counter at the right of the screen is down to its last two spins.
Demo Play
You can spin the game below without staking anything. A demo is the sensible way to meet the shift mechanic for the first time, because watching a persistent payer travel across the grid twice explains the round faster than any paytable screen does. Balances in demo mode are play money only and the maths runs at the same settings as the real game.
Game Information
Expert Take
Reception has been warm rather than ecstatic. Reviewers who cover Thunderkick closely tend to praise the presentation and the Ghost Reel idea while noting that the base game asks for patience, and the recurring criticism is that the coin round can end quickly and cheaply when the multiplier refuses to climb. The community view lines up with ours: this is a game whose interesting half is locked behind a trigger that does not come around often. Nobody is claiming it displaced Esqueleto Explosivo in the studio’s affections, but it has held a spot in Thunderkick lobbies since 2023, which for a Halloween tie in release is a decent record.
Similar Slots to Try
Alchemy Gaming’s skeleton pirate uses the same six by four frame but files as medium volatility with a 5,000x cap, so it is the gentler version of this night out.
NetEnt’s undead crew is the older, simpler take on the same idea, five reels and fixed lines instead of ways, and worth a look if the shift mechanic here feels like too much bookkeeping.
Red Tiger keeps the treasure hunt but builds it around unlocking reels and a ship’s map rather than a coin round, and its 5,000x limit makes for far shorter swings.
If it is the coin collecting you are here for, Reel Kingdom expands to a ten by ten grid in its bonus and caps at 10,000x, a much bigger canvas for the same hold and win instinct.
About the Developer
Thunderkick has been running out of Stockholm since 2012 and has never sold up, which in this industry now counts as unusual. The studio builds everything in house, ships a handful of games a year instead of a conveyor belt of them, and holds supplier permissions with the UK Gambling Commission, the Malta Gaming Authority and Sweden’s Spelinspektionen. Bones & Bounty is an interesting entry in that catalogue because it steps outside the studio’s comfort zone. Thunderkick made its name on cluster grids and cascading multipliers through the Esqueleto Explosivo line, whereas this one is a straight 4,096 way build with a hold and win bonus, a format the studio rarely touches. The Ghost Reel is the tell that it is still their game: rather than lift a stock coin round, they added a shifting conveyor and a multiplying column so that the same three spin structure behaves differently. You can see the full range on our Thunderkick slots page.
The only other Thunderkick game on our books with the same 25,000x limit, though it gets there through an uncapped multiplier on variable height reels.
The studio’s flagship skulls and cluster pays series, and the clearest illustration of how far Bones sits from Thunderkick’s usual house style.
Another high volatility Thunderkick sea trip, this one with reels that grow between two and seven symbols tall and a 15,040x maximum.
A five by three sequel that trades atmosphere for pace, and one of the studio’s more reliable performers with a 15,000x ceiling.
Bones & Bounty Key Stats
Bones & Bounty slot information last reviewed: July 2026
| Bones & Bounty Slot Info | |
|---|---|
| Name | Bones & Bounty |
| Provider | Thunderkick |
| Developer Rank | 12 out of 49 Thunderkick games in our directory |
| RTP | 96.16% (the buy feature build is recorded at 96.50%, and reduced configurations down to 92% exist at some operators, so check before playing) |
| RTP Category | Medium-High (96.00% to 96.49%) |
| RTP Rank | Lower half of the Medium-High band, roughly a third of the way up from its 96.00% floor |
| Feature Description | Stacked wilds two to four symbols tall that lock and trigger respins, feeding a three spin Cash Bonus in which shifting cash coins pass through a multiplying Ghost Reel and persistent payer symbols top up every value on the grid |
| Feature Categories | Respins, cash collect bonus, multipliers, ways to win, bonus buy |
| Reels | 6 |
| Rows | 4 |
| Paylines | 4,096 ways to win |
| Volatility | High (Thunderkick rates it 4 out of 5; a few listings file it as very high) |
| Volatility Rank | Top end of our high volatility band, just short of the very high tier |
| Min Bet | £0.10 |
| Max Bet | £100 |
| Max Win | 25,000x stake |
| Release Date | 18 October 2023 |
| Slotslike Rank | New listing, not yet ranked among our 4,300+ games (View Top 100) |
Slots with the Same Features
Locking and Respinning Symbols
Games where a symbol sticks and buys you another spin, the same instinct that drives the wild stacks here.
Thunderkick’s medieval tournament drops wilds entirely and hangs the whole game on one random sticky respin trigger, capped at 5,000x.
NetEnt’s outlaw sequel takes locking wilds to their extreme, a punishing five by five with a 66,666x ceiling when the buy is active.
Wide Ways to Win Grids
Other six reel games that count adjacent symbols rather than lines, so the shape of a win looks much like it does here.
Pragmatic Play keeps the sea monsters but swaps the fixed four row grid for reels that shift between two and seven symbols, topping out at 10,000x.
A plains stampede rather than a haunted sea, but the same six reel logic and another 10,000x limit reached through multipliers.
Halloween and Undead Themes
If the ghost ship is the draw more than the maths, these sit on the same shelf.
NetEnt’s pumpkin lantern classic, five reels and walking wilds, and a far shorter session than the coin round here.
Microgaming’s Day of the Dead skulls, prettier and much tamer, with a 2,750x maximum that tells you how differently it is tuned.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the Bones & Bounty bonus work?
Three bonus symbols start the Cash Bonus. The reels are replaced by a set of cash coins, multiplier coins, persistent payers and blanks, and you get three spins that reset every time a new symbol sticks. After each landing everything shifts one place right, and whatever falls off the edge passes through the Ghost Reel, gets multiplied by its current value and lands back somewhere empty. Multiplier coins raise that Ghost Reel figure, and persistent payers add their own value to every cash symbol on screen when they pass through.
What is the RTP of Bones & Bounty?
The standard return to player is 96.16%, which puts it in the medium-high band. Buying the bonus for 100x is recorded at 96.50%, and some operators run reduced configurations as low as 92%, so always open the game information panel and check the figure in the build you are playing.
What is the maximum win on Bones & Bounty?
25,000x your stake. That is the theoretical cap on a single round, and realistically it needs a persistent payer surviving several passes through the Ghost Reel while the multiplier keeps climbing. At the £100 maximum bet that would be £2.5 million, which no player should expect to see.
Is Bones & Bounty high volatility?
Yes. Thunderkick’s own scale puts it at 4 out of 5 and a handful of directories file it a notch higher again. Expect long stretches of small royal wins with the bankroll quietly draining, then most of the value arriving in one bonus round.
What are the best slots like Bones & Bounty?
For the pirate skeleton theme on the same six by four frame, Captain Bones Big Bounty is the closest match, though it is a calmer game. For the coin collecting side, Rock Vegas gives you a far bigger bonus grid. If it is the Thunderkick house feel you are after, Carnival Queen 2 shares the 25,000x ceiling and Big Fin Bay shares the seafaring setting.
Can I play Bones & Bounty free?
Yes, there is a demo. The version embedded further up this page runs on play money at the same settings as the cash game, which makes it a cheap way to see how the shift and the Ghost Reel behave before you commit a stake.
Who makes Bones & Bounty?
Thunderkick, the independent Stockholm studio that has been building its own games since 2012. It is the same team behind Esqueleto Explosivo, Midas Golden Touch and Big Fin Bay, and it holds supplier licences covering the UK, Malta and Sweden.
When was Bones & Bounty released?
It launched on 18 October 2023, timed for that year’s Halloween window, which explains why a pirate slot is dressed in ghosts and green mist rather than sunshine and palm trees.
Our Verdict on Bones & Bounty
Bones & Bounty is a better idea than it is an everyday game. The Ghost Reel and the shifting conveyor genuinely change how a hold and win round plays, and when a persistent payer keeps surviving the multiplier column you can watch a modest board turn into something worth talking about. The price of that is a base game with a flat paytable and not much to do between wild stacks, and a 96.16% return that gives you no extra room to wait it out. We would take it over most pirate slots on the strength of the bonus design alone, but we would play it in short bursts with a demo first, and we would look hard at the RTP figure before staking anything at a new operator.
SlotsLike rating: 7.4/10