Pink Elephants Trinity

Pink Elephants Trinity: Slot Overview

The online slot Pink Elephants was released in 2017 and went on to become one of software provider Thunderkick's most successful titles. Its base game wasn't much, but that made way for a bonus round which could transform high pay symbols into the highest paying symbol to shine bright like, well, a pink elephant. The studio followed up with a sequel, Pink Elephants 2, in 2020, that didn't alter the winning formula to an enormous degree, understandably so, though its feature refresh was accompanied by winning potential expansion. Thunderkick has since mulled over some new ideas and come up with Pink Elephants Trinity, which not only offers the biggest potential of them all, but also gives the bonus round ruleset a solid shakeup, which may cause fans to celebrate or run for the hills. Or ambivalence, let's work it out.

Even if Pink Elephants Trinity doesn't turn out to be the favourite of the range, it does look good, and is arguably the most other-worldly of the three. The action takes place at night, and monkeys, instead of lemurs or goats, play the role of support animal. Naturally, the Pink Elephant is the alpha around here, and it has found a new species to play with. It also glows with a pink light, and all of the animal symbols actually have a curious, animated appearance to them, as if they're aware of something we aren't. The background imagery is no less curious, depicting elephants, they may be statues, and waterfalls, as a mysterious pink triangle illuminates the place. The atmosphere is darker than before; gone are the happy-go-lucky outdoor scenes of the earlier versions, to be replaced with one of intrigue and enigma.

Like the other two, Pink Elephant Trinity is held on a 6x4, 4,096 ways to win gaming area, though this one can get an extra reel when reaching the final level of the bonus round. It's also got the stingiest RTP of the trio, clocking in at 94.15%, and a highly volatile math model. $/€0.10 to $/€100 is wagerable, and a bunch of boosters and buys help quicken the transition from base to bonus game.

The symbol hierarchy contains bone-shaped 9-A royals, 4 monkey symbols, and the Pink Elephant. Royals pay 1x to 2x the bet for 6 OAK, monkeys are worth up to 2.5x to 5x, while the Pink Elephant is worth 8x for 6 OAK. Pink Elephants may also land when the extra reel is added to the grid during End Game and pay 13x for 7 OAK when this happens. Wild symbols substitute all other symbols except the scatter. Wilds appear as single symbols, and do not land on the leftmost or rightmost reels.

Pink Elephants Trinity: Slot Features

Pink Elephants Trinity is surprisingly different to the original, and its features consist of a Mystery Feature, a levelling-up bonus round, Bet+ boosters, and bonus buys.

Mystery Feature

The Mystery feature can trigger in all phases, injecting scatters before a spin. In the base game, up to 5 scatters may be injected, and a regular sixth scatter is still possible. In the bonus round, up to 3 can be injected. It may activate the bonus round with regular scatters, injected scatters, or both, and during level 5, Monkey Ascension, it occurs on every spin.

Bonus Game

The bonus round is triggered by landing 3 scatters, regular or Mystery, and awards 8 free spins. When activated by 4-6 scatters, feature animals may start the round active. Pink Elephants and scatters carry Peanuts that advance levels, each level awarding +3 free spins. Hitting 2 scatters grants an x2 Peanut multiplier, while 3 scatters grant an x3 Peanut multiplier and +3 spins. The round has 6 levels, and levelling up not only grants free spins, it can unlock features, and levels may be skipped. With 4-6 scatters, Panthera, Jaguar, and Bufo may start active.

• Level 1 - base level, (0 Peanuts.) This is the same as the base game but with the Peanut collection active.
• Level 2 - Panthera Wild Paw (21). Highlights wilds with frames that can later become sticky wilds if hit by a wild or injected by a Jaguar/Bufo.
• Level 3 - Jaguar Wild Claw (34). Adds a wild before each spin to reels 2-5. On a Panthera frame, it becomes a sticky wild
• Level 4 - Bufo Wild Jump (55). Upgrades a sticky wild into a Sticky Peanut (basically puts a Sticky Peanut on a sticky wild), or creates one if none exist. Stays idle if no upgrade is possible.
• Level 5 - Monkey Ascension (89). Feature animals off; the 4 mid pay Monkeys are removed. Sticky wilds with or without Peanuts remain, and the Mystery Feature is active on every spin.
• Level 6 - End Game (144). Monkey Ascension and Mystery Feature are deactivated. A 7th reel is added, creating 16,384 ways, and all sticky wilds become Sticky Pink Elephants. Peanuts are removed, and all non-Elephants are replaced with non-paying bone-cross.

Bet+ & Bonus Buys

The Bet+ has four boosters. They are the Bonus Boost, Bonus Boost Plus, Bonus Boost Ultra, and the Bonus Boost Extreme, costing 2x, 3x, 5x, or 55x the bet to make each spin 3, 6, 12, or 144 times more likely to trigger the bonus game, respectively. There are also three feature buys. They are free spins triggered by 3+, 4+, or 5+ scatters for 150x, 300x, or 600x the bet, respectively.

Pink Elephants Trinity: Slot Verdict

If you were expecting another session of collecting orbs to transform high pay symbols into Pink Elephant symbols, think again. Thunderkick has gone back to the drawing board to come up with a different task for players to accomplish. The bonus game still relies on collecting certain items to increase its effectiveness, but the pathway and rewards differ significantly from the two Pink Elephants games that preceded it. Pink Elephants Trinity takes the popular series in a bold new direction, though whilst its break from the past is daring, the fresh, risky added complexity might prove to be divisive.

What's changed is the original's straightforward orb-collecting bonus round that ultimately led to only having low pays and Pink Elephants on the reel strips, has been swapped for something with more moving components. It's a bit odd in parts. For instance, landing 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatters only ever triggers 8 free spins. The benefit of landing extra scatters is that the feature may, the rules are slightly vague on this, start with animals active. Not a huge deal when triggering the round organically, but when handing over substantially more dough for a 4 or 5 scatter feature buy, the lack of certainty, and the same amount of awarded free spins as a 3 scatter trigger might be something to consider. Poor RTPs for the Bet+ and feature buys of 92.1%-93.1% don't help either.

The level progression system took time to warm to. It's a little fiddly, but sticky wilds are always a positive in a slot with so many ways to win, and the two top levels are enticing indeed. The removal of monkey symbols in Monkey Ascension feels like old school Pink Elephants, while End Game is absolutely next level. There aren't a huge number of free spins to collect the required number of Peanuts to reach the final level, but the extra reel, the extra ways, and sticky Pink Elephants are a thrilling prospect.

Kudos to Thunderkick for shaking things up, injecting new life into a well-known franchise rather than merely polishing its past glories. Pink Elephants Trinity is a more demanding game in some ways, and even though winning potential now stretches to 14,400x the bet, it's not hard to picture fans of the original rejecting this on account of the added sophistication (and some questionable stats). But for gamblers who persevere (and are lucky), Pink Elephants Trinity's new bonus round pathway is able to lead them to a potentially insane End Game stage that's able to transcend the range in those moments to a higher level.