Skulls Up! slot review (Quickspin)

With Quickspin’s Skulls Up! slot, you’ll sail across raging seas and tough out violent storms. You do whatever it takes to grab those priceless gold treasures and jewels!

Quickspin is a well-respected slot provider that is known for creating top-notch quality slots.

The pirate-themed design is stunning, and the bonus features are innovative and full of surprises.

This video slot’s driving force is the win all ways mechanism, where you start with 243 ways to win and which you can accumulate up to as many as 1,944 ways to win.

It allows you to win up to 3,650 x the total bet. Of course, that’s not bad at all, but it’s a bit disappointing when you compare it to all the high variance power of Megaways slots or slots like Dead or Alive 2 and Dragonfall.

The Skulls Up! gameplay & features

Skulls Up! has 5 reels with 3 rows of symbols for starters, which amounts to 243 ways to win.

During the base game and the free spins bonus, you can expand the playing field, creating up to 1,944 ways to win. In that case, you play on a playing field consisting of 3 x 6 x 6 x 3 symbols.

Skulls Up! welcomes all kinds of players. You can already bet from $€ 0,10 per spin. The betting range levels out at $€ 100 per spin. Are you a real high roller who plays the maximum bet? Then you can win $€ 365,000 on this slot. Arrrrr, matey! That’s a serious treasure.

The variance is high, and the theoretical payout percentage is 96.29%. With such a Return to Player, you won’t make it into our top 10 best paying slots, but it’s an excellent RTP nonetheless.

Symbols & payouts

The main pirate is a handsome, redheaded lady with the unflattering name No Beard. Spin 5 of the same, and you win 20 x the total bet.

A colourful mix of parrots, monkeys, shipmates and muscular pirates are the medium paying symbols. They listen to beautiful names like Biggie, Smelly, Wrench and Biscuit, and in the case of a 5-of-a-kind, they will yield you between 5 x and 15 x the bet.

The low-value symbols consist of five card symbols: 10, J, Q, K and A. The ace is worth the most: 4 x the total bet for five of the same. The ten rewards you exactly your bet in case of a 5-of-a-kind.

We end with the wild symbols: the skulls. There are two types of wilds: a regular wild and a so-called Flaming Skull wild.

The regular skull replaces all symbols except the scatters. The Flaming Skull wild activates the Flaming Skull Respin feature.

Flaming Skull Respins

As soon as a skull with raging flames drops on the reels, you’ve activated the Flaming Skull Respin feature.

You now get a free respin, where each Flaming Skull unlocks a new position on the playing field, resulting in additional ways to win.

The wilds move up one step after each respin, and only when the Flaming Skulls disappeared off the reels will the respins stop.

Although this is “just” a mini-feature, you can rake in some serious money, especially if you spin several Flaming Skulls on the reels at the same time.

Free spins bonus

As soon as three scattered treasure chests appear on reels 2, 3 and 4, you have won 8 flaming free spins.

Each Flaming Skull will give you a larger reel setup, which will last for the rest of the free spins. When you unlock all positions, you have reached the maximum of 1,944 ways to win, with the highest possible odds of big payouts.

Besides, if a reel reaches its maximum size, you will receive +2 free spins.

It is possible to earn six additional free spins, up to a total of 14 free spins.

Our verdict on the Skulls Up! video slot

We’ve been fans of Quickspin slots for years: they always look stunning, have well thought out and original bonus features and nicely developed themes.

Skulls Up! is a typical Quickspin title, and we can safely say that it’s a more than excellent slot and a strong contender for our top 10 Quickspin slots. The fact that another pirate slot holds the top position is no coincidence!

You can win handsome amounts of money with Skulls Up!, the two bonus features are entertaining, and in general, who doesn’t like pirates?

In short: try this beautiful slot, and maybe you too will find a treasure chest full of money.

And even if that doesn’t quite work out, you will have enjoyed this masterpiece of a game.

4 out of 5 stars