Io (ELK Studios): Slot Review & Theme

Io at BC.GAME is a space-themed slot where from the dock of a futuristic spaceship, the stars and Io moon look like a celestial paradise. The former twinkles and sparkles, while the latter glows with an eerie purple beauty. Even though the Io moon’s craters and volcanoes, illuminated by the light of the stars, are not seen properly, the background still creates an exotic scenery worth gazing over. The reels are aesthetically pleasing as they are not separated from each other, with any lines creating a clean and minimalistic look, making it feel as if the symbols, which are located inside of a neon machine with a disposing hatch, are levitating.  

The main symbols include card ranks - J, Q, K, and A, and golden symbols - star, four-leaf clover, pink diamond, and lucky seven.
About Io at BC.GAME

Io from ELK Studios is a high-volatility online casino slot with 262,144 paylines on a 6 x 8 reel layout that lets you win up to 5,000x of your total bet. It has a 96% Return to Player (RTP), which is average compared to other titles in the iGaming industry, and a 24.6% hit rate, meaning, in general, every fifth spin will result in a win. It also has a standard wide betting range from $0.2 to $100, habitual to most of the titles at BC.GAME and advantageous enough to utilize in any playstyle.

The low-paying symbols are card ranks, with a payout value ranging from 0.05x for three identical symbols to 0.3x for six. Further on the list are medium-paying symbols - a star, four-leaf clover, and pink diamond with a 0.9x, 1.2x, and 2.4x bet multiplier for six matches, respectively. And finally, the golden lucky seven is a high-paying symbol that gives you a 10x reward for six identical symbols.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
Features of Io        

The slot offers three unique symbols - four types of wilds, each with its own distinctive feature, scatters, leading to the free spins round, and bonus symbols with an extremely satisfying game mechanic discussed more thoroughly below.
Wilds

ELK Studios implemented four types of wild symbols - standard, charged, forge, and multiplier.

Standard wilds work similarly to wilds in other casino slots - they substitute all paying symbols except for scatters and bonus symbols.

Charged wilds also can replace symbols, but their primary function is to stay on the reels as long as possible. They have four charges which are spent each time they contribute to a winning combination.

If there is an empty slot position below a wild forge, it will fill it with a multiplier wild starting with a 2x value. In case that wild moves below and creates a new empty slot position below the wild forge or completely disappears after being a part of a winning combination, a new multiplier wild will appear but with a 3x value. In other words, every time the wild forge is used, a new multiplier wild will appear with a multiplier value bigger by 1x compared to the previous one.
Bonus Symbols

Bonus symbols are symbols with a laser beam that can point in three different directions, depending on the cascading of the reels - downwards, diagonally downwards and left, and diagonally downwards and right. A single laser bonus symbol destroys itself and all symbols on its beam path and pays for the formed winning combination. However, two laser bonus symbols have an absolutely different game mechanic. When their beams intersect, everything along the combined beam path is turned into standard wild symbols.
Cascading Reels

All symbols that are part of a winning combination explode and disappear, leaving empty slot positions after themselves. These slot positions are then filled with already-existent symbols that gravitationally drop to the bottom of the reels, leaving their own empty spaces, which are, in turn, filled with newly added symbols, falling from the top.  
Scatters and Free Spins

Three scatter symbols activate the free spins round, which can be retriggered if additional scatters land on the reels. Its distinctive feature is that it changes the reel layout from 6 x 4 to 6 x 8. Furthermore, charged wilds and wild forge are collected at the bottom of the gaming area and do not disappear between spins.  
Summary

Io from ELK Studios is one of those casino slots that are not scared of experimenting with new and unique features unseen in the iGaming industry. And the thing is, its experiments in Io became fruitful as it created an incredibly enjoyable experience for our players at BC.GAME. Not to mention the visual and audio effects that have surely taken a considerable effort to develop solidified everything that was said above and immerse you into outer space near the orbit of a volcanic moon. All in all, Io from ELK Studios is a highly recommended slot to try out on our platform, considering its unique look and gameplay.