Fire in the Hole 2: Slot Overview

Back in early 2021, creative studio Nolimit City released its slow-burner Fire in the Hole xBomb, which effectively set the stage for Misery Mining and Dead Canary. Each of the three delivered a memorable trip under the surface, chasing treasure and detonating anything in the way. With that in mind, it’s hardly shocking that Fire in the Hole 2 arrived with plenty of buzz. Still, it helps to set expectations right away. For starters, Fire in the Hole 2 isn’t a massive leap forward from the first game. Instead, the developers have leaned back toward the original formula, meaning much of the core play remains familiar—though there are several tweaks to explore while you’re down in the tunnels, cracking stone.

Secondly, Fire in the Hole 2 also looks a lot like the first instalment, though mining-themed slots tend to share a similar visual language anyway. Once again, the action unfolds deep underground in a wooden-braced mine shaft where fortune—or frustration—waits to be dug up. That same weighty, oppressive, methodical mood returns, boosted by audio that feels like a troop of dwarves stomping through the depths, picks on their backs, ready to start swinging. Early on, Fire in the Hole 2 can come across as either “nice to be back” or “why did Nolimit keep it this close to the original?”

On every hit of the spin button, Fire in the Hole 2’s symbols slam into an expanding grid that begins with 3-rows active on a 5-reel setup, offering 486 ways to win. Break open the 3 locked rows, though, and up to 46,656 ways to win can be unlocked. Volatility is rated ‘Extreme’, or 10 out of 10—something that’s never just marketing talk in an NLC slot. The default player return is 96.07% when wagering 20 c to $/€100 per spin, or 96.09% if you enable the xBet feature.

The pay symbols are the same ones as before, and their payouts haven’t changed either. Low symbols are the 9-K stamped crates, paying 1 to 1.5 times the bet for a 6 OAK win, while the premium set—shovel, boots, map, bag, and lantern—pays 1.75 to 7.5 times the bet for 6-of-a-kind.

Fire in the Hole 2: Slot Features

“Largely familiar, but not identical” is a fair summary of Fire in the Hole 2’s feature set, which includes Collapsing Mine, xBomb Wild Multiplier, Wild Mining, Buried Features, xSplit, Lucky Wagon Spins, xBet, and feature buys.

Collapsing Mine

Every spin starts with 3 active rows, and whenever a collapse happens, one extra row is opened. You can reach up to 6 rows altogether. Collapses are triggered by winning combinations, when an xBomb Wild explodes, or by activating the Wild Mining feature. Winning symbols are removed before the next collapse begins, letting the remaining symbols drop down. This leaves gaps for new symbols to fall into, giving you another opportunity to land a win.

xBomb Wild Multiplier

xBomb Wild symbols act as substitutes for any symbol except scatters. When xBomb Wilds detonate, they clear all adjacent symbols except scatters and boost the win multiplier by its value for the following collapse. All xBomb Wilds explode before the next collapse, except when Wild Mining is triggered.

Wild Mining

Wild Mining can trigger in the base game when 3, 4, 5, or 6 of the same type of symbol type appear in a horizontal or vertical line, but there is no winning combination. The symbols that caused the trigger are removed, and 1, 2, 3, or 4 wilds appear in the middle positions of the alignment when 3, 4, 5, or 6 symbols are removed, respectively. All other positions above the bar then explode (except scatters or wilds), setting off another collapse.

Buried Features

In the base game, the dirt symbols can hide wilds, xSplit, or scatter symbols. These hidden symbols don’t do anything until the dirt block containing them is cleared away or struck by an xSplit feature.

xSplit

When an xSplit appears, it splits the symbols on its row, effectively duplicating them. Symbols that split into 8 or more are displayed as a multiplier instead. Scatter symbols and xSplits can’t be split. Dirt blocks affected by a split are removed if a collapse occurs. After all xSplit symbols have triggered, they transform into one of the standard symbols.

Lucky Wagon Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols starts Lucky Wagon Spins with 2, 3, or 4 active rows, respectively, opened at the beginning. The feature begins with 3 spins and resets back to 3 whenever a Coin lands on the reels. During the bonus, the top row shows enhancers – Coin values, Multipliers, Dynamite, Beer, or Dwarf. An enhancer triggers when a Coin lands on the reel position directly beneath it.

• Coin values – determines the Coin’s value.
• Multipliers – multiplies the value of every Coin on the reel below.
• Dynamite – adds the Dynamite’s count to the triggering Coin, then throws as many dynamites as its count to reel positions. If Dynamite lands on dirt, the dirt is removed; if it lands on a Coin, it doubles the value; if it lands on a chest, it activates the chest.
• Beer – reactivates 0-5 old Coins, making them trigger their enhancers on the next spin. The triggering Coin receives a 1x value.
• Dwarf – gathers all values on the reels into the triggering Coin position.

A potential 7th reel can reveal Upgrade crystal symbols on each spin. Any enhancer-triggering Coins that land on the Upgrade symbol row receive these effects – Coin values and multiplier make the Coin stay active for the next spin. Dynamite, Beer, and Dwarf features become persistent, continuing to trigger their effects until the bonus ends. The bottom row of locked Collect Chests can be activated when Dynamite lands on them. Once activated, a Collect Chest collects the values from the reel above it every spin. The feature ends when the reel area is full and there are no active features left.

xBet

With xBet enabled, at least 1 scatter symbol is guaranteed on the last inactive row each spin. In addition, all dirt positions are removed from the base game, and any buried features activate immediately once they appear on active reels.

Nolimit Bonus

In the Nolimit Bonus menu, players may purchase 3 (RTP 96.1%), 4 (RTP 96.34%), 5 (RTP 96.33%) scatter-triggered Lucky Wagon Spins, or a guaranteed collector bonus for 70x, 200x, 600x, or 3,600x the bet, respectively. There’s also the Lucky Draw option, priced at 175x (RTP 96.12%).

Fire in the Hole 2: Slot Verdict

So, no—Nolimit City hasn’t gone completely off the rails with the sequel to Fire in the Hole. Two clear responses come to mind. First, the fanbois and girls who wanted another helping of Fire in the Hole with a few extras bolted on should be pleased with what Fire in the Hole 2 delivers. On the other hand, anyone expecting big technical leaps may be left asking what the point was. That said, Fire in the Hole 2 does have close relatives—Misery Mining and Dead Canary—ready to go for players who still want underground action but with different mechanics and rules.

Regarding what’s new in Fire in the Hole 2, the additions mostly serve to improve the overall ride. The most enticing twist is the chance for Upgrade symbols to make Dynamite, Beer, and Dwarf features persistent—if it happens. It’s probably not something to count on, though. Still, by potentially speeding up the path to the bonus, xBet reduces the free spins wait from 1 in 211 spins to 1 in 49, albeit with a fairly hefty cost. xSplits—one of Nolimit City’s signature mechanics—finally make it into the mine this time around, and it’s hard to complain about that, while digging up Buried features is another welcome touch. Overall, there’s little here worth grumbling about once everything’s considered.

The original Fire in the Hole made headlines by reaching its win cap on day one, so expectations for Fire in the Hole 2 to pull off something similar are understandably high. Triggering Elbeerado awards 65,000 times the base bet, meaning the max win is higher than previously. Some players may have hoped Nolimit City would open the floodgates even further, but it is an increase. The real question is whether Fire in the Hole 2 will be viewed as a victorious return to the Earth’s depths—an sequel that does the original proud—or whether it ends up feeling more like a patch or bugfix due to the comparatively limited set of changes. Let the arguments begin.