UGLIEST CATCH

HOW TO PLAY UGLIEST CATCH

The full game board of Ugliest Catch is a wide 5×5 table. However, not all of these positions are available straight away. The reels are fixed – there are always 5 of them, and they always work. However, the top and bottom rows of the slot machine are not greyed out by default. You’ll have to unlock them through specific features, which we’ll explain in a minute.

For now, we’ll mention that the base game does not have any fixed paylines. All you have to do to win is hit matching symbols on at least three reels going from left to right. The row in which the symbols appear doesn’t matter, which means Ugliest Catch boasts 247 ways to win in total.

Beyond that, it’s all about catching the biggest, nastiest fish you possibly can.

Scatters & Enhancer Cells

Hitting the Scatter symbol (the square-shaped one with the letters FS) on any position will open up the top and bottom positions on that reel.

These two positions are special, and they’re called Enhancer Cells. Unlocked Enhancer Cells can contain any regular symbol, but they can also one of three special symbols called xWays, Big Bertha, and Fisherman Wild.

• xWays symbols only appear on Enhancer Cells. After one is revealed, it turns into a random regular symbol while also revealing 2-4 symbols of the same kind on other Enhancer Cells. This effectively also increases the number of ways to win.
• Big Bertha displays a multiplier value that can be won through the Kill N’ Grill Wild Fishing feature. Big Bertha multipliers range can be 100x, 250x, 1,000x or 5,000x. Interestingly, multipliers for this feature can also be increased by hitting Fishing Trophy symbols during regular spins.
• Fisherman Wild acts as a wild, and landing one in an Enhancer Cell triggers the Kill N’ Grill Wild Fishing. The same feature is triggered if you hit a Fisherman Wild anywhere on the table during free spins.

Kill N’ Grill Wild Fishing

If you hit a Fisherman Wild in an open Enhancer cell, this fun little feature kicks off. During it, Fisherman Wilds collect multiplier values that appear on the board through Big Bertha and Fishing Trophy symbols. These multipliers are added on top of any regular winnings. Fish Trophy multipliers can be 2x, 5x, 25x, 250x, 1,000x or 5,000x.

Free Spins

Free spins in Ugliest Catch come in three forms.

• Lunker Spins – Landing 3 scatters triggers 8 Lunker Spins with 6 opened enhancer cells
• Hawg Spins –  Landing 4 scatters triggers 9 Hawg Spins with 8 opened enhancer cells
• Honey Hole Spins –  Landing 5 scatters triggers 10 Honey Hole Spins with 10 opened enhancer cells

Free spins work as they do in most slot games – the reels simply respin 6-10 times while using the stake you used when you triggered the feature. Note that landing extra Scatters will award an extra free spin during Lunker and Hawg spins, but not Honey Hole spins.

Fisherman Wilds during the Ugliest Catch bonus round always collect any Trophy multipliers. For every four Fisherman Wilds collected, you receive +2 free spins and a standing multiplier called Troll Level. Troll level can increase up to three times, awarding multipliers of 2x, 3x, and 10x to all winnings until the end of the bonus round.

Feature Buy

Ugliest Catch is certainly feature-heavy, but you can control these features in two ways.

The first way is by turning on Boosted Bets on the right side of the screen. Booster Bets guarantee that at least one Scatter hits on reel 2 in every spin at the cost of adding a 75% fee to all bets. This substanially increases your chances to trigger free spins. However, it also means that both Enhancer Cells on the second reel are always active, which increases the overall number of active ways to win.

Additionally, you can buy features at any moment by clicking the gold star to the left. Players can get 8 Lunker Spins for 94x the bet, 9 Hawg Spins for 300x the bet, or 10 Honey Hole spins for 866x the bet. If you’re feeling lucky, you can also opt for the “lucky dip” for 390x the bet. This will randomly award one of the three options.

Casino Bloke Best tips for Ugliest Catch Slot

• 1Boosted Bets technically have no effect on your RTP. However, they play to the game’s strengths and we recommend using them even though the option increases volatility.
• 2Statistically, buying Lunker Bets is the optimal way to play Ugliest Catch. All of the feature buy options are worth it, but Lunker Bets also expose you to the least risk.
• 3Ugliest Catch is definitely not for beginners and those who don’t like volatile games.

PAYOUTS

The base game contains 10 regular symbols of varying values. The general rule of thumb is that the bigger and uglier the fish, the more it pays if you make a winning line. If your “catch” isn’t even a fish, you’ll win less. Also, note that the Fish Trophy symbol also counts as a medium-value symbol on top of the multipliers it contributes to Fisherman Wilds.

The maximum payout in Ugliest Catch is 50,000 times your base bet. If the total prize for any feature, such as the free spins rounds, exceeds 50,000x your bet the feature ends instantly.

The base RTP in this game 96.11%. The same is true if you use the Boosted Bet feature.

However, buying Lunker Spins, Hawg Spins, or Honey Hole spins increases the RTP to 96.44%, 96.22%, or 96.34%, respectively. Choosing the ‘lucky dip’ feature buy results in 96.36% RTP.

UGLIEST CATCH BY NOLIMIT CITY – CASINOBLOKE’S VERDICT

With Ugliest Catch, NoLimit City took an age-old concept and flipped it upside down. Instead of a relaxing atmosphere by a river or lake, fishing in this game is all about beer, trash, and deformed fish lurking underneath the waves. The same is true for the mechanical aspects of this slot game – it’s extremely volatile, complex, and often frustrating.

Note that these aren’t necessarily drawbacks – just observations. Big wins in Ugliest Catch come rarely. When they do, though, all of the multipliers, expanded reels, and features come together for a massively profitable result. Most of the time, however, you’ll be fishing out tin cans and dead fish. In other words, don’t underestimate just how volatile this game is, or it might just bite your head off like the swamp fish monsters that are central to its theme.

NoLimit City slot games are certainly not built for wide appeal, and understanding that fact is crucial to enjoying this provider’s offers. If you can deal with the variance and “ugly” imagery, though, Ugliest Catch is a hugely rewarding experience.