Hong Bao (Kalamba Games): Review

In Chinese culture, Hong Bao, meaning red envelope, is a cash gift typically presented on special occasions like weddings, graduation, or the birth of a baby. In this 5-reel, 50-payline Relax Gaming powered slot created by partner studio Kalamba Games, gathering red envelopes, among other things, is exactly what you’ll be doing in the Bonus Spins feature. There’s also a Free Spins feature where multiplier wilds can appear at random, potentially resulting in up to 3 fully stacked reels.

The Return to Player percentage in Hong Bao changes depending on your Hyper Bet level. At the lowest setting, you’ll be playing at 94.74%. With the highest bet level enabled, the RTP rises to 97.50%, which is very generous. It’s a bit technical, but in short, the higher the bet level, the better your chances of winning become. You can play this Chinese-themed slot from 0.30€ up to an impressive 2120€ per spin.

The visuals are packed with detail, and it’s clear a lot of effort has gone into making Hong Bao look and feel immersive. Set against a misty mountain valley with a calm, zen-like soundtrack, you’ll find Chinese-style 9 to A card suit symbols alongside premium icons like lotus-flowers, folding-fans, Octagonal boxes and Ming Dynasty vases, with the vase being the top regular symbol paying 1.6 times your stake for 5 of a kind. Helping you along is the wild symbol, shown as a lucky golden coin, which substitutes for all regular symbols as expected. Hit 5 of them on a full payline and you’ll collect 8.3 times your total stake.

Hong Bao (Kalamba Games): Features

On the left side of the reels you’ll find the Hyper Bet options. Here you can pick between 4 bet levels – 1x, 2x, 3x and 4x. Each of these 4 betting levels is tied to a specific multiplier for wins that include a multiplier wilds symbol, as well as a different number of starting free spins when free spins are triggered. If one or more multiplier wild symbols land in a winning combination, the payout for that win is multiplied by the value shown on the multiplier wild. In the base game, these multiplier wilds can appear randomly and shift down one position on every base game spin until they leave the game.

On the right of the reels, you’ll notice a collection meter. Whenever a red envelope lands in the base game, it’s added to this meter. Once you’ve collected 50, you can choose to play the Bonus Spins feature at bronze level or continue collecting envelopes to unlock the next bonus level as follows:

• Bronze level: 50 envelopes.
• Silver level: 100 envelopes.
• Gold level: 150 envelopes.
• Platinum level: 220 envelopes.

The bonus game starts with 3 initial spins and lets you win 1 extra spin for each extra spins symbol that appears during the bonus. When the bonus spins end, you receive a prize based on how many red envelopes were collected in the feature, as shown below:

• 20 symbols – Bronze Level Pays 10x, Silver Level Pays 15x, Gold Level Pays 30x, Platinum Level Pays 50x.
• 30 symbols – Bronze Level Pays 15x, Silver Level Pays 30x, Gold Level Pays 40x, Platinum Level Pays 70x.
• 40 symbols – Bronze Level Pays 25x, Silver Level Pays 60x, Gold Level Pays 80x, Platinum Level Pays 100x.
• 55 symbols – Bronze Level Pays 35x, Silver Level Pays 70x, Gold Level Pays 120x, Platinum Level Pays 150x.
• 70 symbols – Bronze Level Pays 60x, Silver Level Pays 120x, Gold Level Pays 200x, Platinum Level Pays 200x.
• 85 symbols – Bronze Level Pays 100x, Silver Level Pays 200x, Gold Level Pays 500x, Platinum Level Pays 1000x.

Hong Boa also features a Free Spins mode, which activates when 3 scatters land. If you prefer, you can buy the free spins via the somewhat confusing Hyper Bonus button (the Free Spins and Bonus features are not the same in Hong Bao). The amount of initial free spins depends on the chosen Hyper Bet level as follows:

• Bet Level 1: 5 initial spins with a multiplier wild value of 1X.
• Bet Level 2: 7 initial spins with a multiplier wild value of 2X.
• Bet Level 3: 8 initial spins with a multiplier wild value of 3X.
• Bet Level 4: 9 initial spins with a multiplier wild value of 5X (not available in the bonus buy option).

The multiplier wilds can drop randomly on reels 1, 3 and 5 and then stay locked in place for the rest of the spins. In the best possible outcome, you can end up with 3 fully stacked multiplier wild reels. Free spins can also be retriggered by landing the extra spins symbol, which adds 1 spin to your total.

Hong Bao (Kalamba Games): Verdict

With SG Interactive’s slot Endless Treasures still fresh in mind, it almost feels like Chinese-themed slots are required to be as confusing and overcomplicated as possible. As you’ve seen, Hong Bao follows that pattern.

There isn’t a great deal of potential here either, which makes Hong Bao about as thrilling as its drowsy background music. Even with 3 fully stacked wild reels during the free spins, our test runs didn’t produce anything particularly noteworthy. Instead, the biggest reward seems to sit in the Platinum level Bonus Spins feature, but reaching it demands real patience and a true Zen mindset. All in all, Hong Boa is more enjoyable to watch and hear than it is to actually play.