Shippy D Pop: Slot Overview

You may already know pirates like Blackbeard or William Kidd, but game maker AvatarUX is introducing you to Shippy D Pop, billed as ‘a young adventurer with power of the Magic Fruit!’ It’s a slightly… unusual setup, and thematically Shippy D Pop is definitely on the quirky side. Feature-wise, though, most players will recognise what’s on offer, as the mechanics are largely carried over from the off-the-wall slot LooneyPop.

Shippy D Pop takes place in a world where pirates and corsairs roam the seven seas hunting for a mysterious treasure called The Golden Piece. After a session, it’s still not entirely obvious what The Golden Piece actually is, but at least it’s “golden,” which is something. The setting is a fairly classic launchpad for pirate antics too—oceans, beaches, and islands. That said, the overall vibe felt almost as influenced by Asian styling as it is by buccaneer energy, which makes the skin a little confusing. Still, since Shippy D Pop is essentially a clone, its look may simply reflect a particular regional focus.

During the base game, 15 symbols land on Shippy D Pop’s 5-reel game grid, with 3 symbols per reel, creating 486 ways to win. Just like before, the RTP is set at 96.087%, and the volatility is medium. There are three bonus buys available in the bonus buy menu, and whichever route you take, stakes range from 10 c to $/€40.

Shippy D Pop forms winning combinations left to right starting from the leftmost reel, and right to left starting from the rightmost reel. There are 13 standard pay symbols: 9-A card ranks, a rhino, a fish, a boat, plus four character symbols. Landing 5 matching symbols returns 0.6x for the royals, 1x the bet for the mids, and 1.5x the bet for the highs. Five-of-a-kind only pays from a single direction, and Shippy D Pop does not include wilds.

Shippy D Pop: Slot Features

First up is PopWins. Every winning symbol is removed from the grid and replaced with two new symbols, increasing the size of the reel. PopWins continues in this way until no further wins appear, with reels limited to 6 positions high in the base game or 9 high in free spins. In the base game, once a PopWins sequence ends, the reels drop back to their standard three-symbol height.

ZapReel

Sitting above the main reels is a three-slot strip called the ZapReel. Each spin, the ZapReel displays a new set of Feature Rewards, and these are applied to the reels directly beneath. In the base game, possible rewards include:

• Multiplier – x2 and x3 multiplier values. Multipliers are multiplicative if more than one land. Multipliers are applied to winning combinations and all further wins that occur directly below the Multiplier Reward on the main reels.
• Split Symbol – creates up to 5 of the same symbols in the same position.
• Expand Winning Symbol – expands to cover the whole reel if the symbol below the Expanding Reward is part of a win.

Synced Reel – synchronises 2 adjacent reels in the base game with identical symbols. Sync Reels can either sync right or left.

Free Spins

In the main game, once all reels reach 6 positions high, players receive 6 free spins, with the option to gamble for extra spins on the Pirate Wheel. The wheel can award up to 18 free spins, though a failed gamble wipes out the prize entirely.

During free spins, the grid starts at 6 symbols high, and with each free spin the reel-unlocking progress does not reset between spins. Instead, it only drops back to the shortest reel height, which may be higher than 6. If all reels reach 9 cells high, players gain +2 free spins. The ZapReel is always filled with 3 rewards on every free spin, and the following rewards can appear.

• Multiplier – x2, x3, x5, or x10 multiplier values. Multipliers are multiplicative if more than one is used. Multipliers are applied to a winning combination and all further wins that occur directly below the Multiplier Reward on the main reels.
• Split Symbol – creates up to 10 of the same symbols in the same position.
• Expand Winning Symbol – expands to cover the whole reel if the symbol below the Expanding Reward is part of a win.
• Synced Reel – synchronises 3 adjacent reels with identical symbols. Sync Reels can sync right, left, or both. Both is only available in Bonus Max mode or after winning in the Gamble Wheel. Synced Reels can combine rewards on the ZapReel.

Bonus Buy

Shippy D Pop offers three bonus buys. The first is the Shippy Bonus, granting 6 free spins for 125x the bet. The second is a Pirate Wheel gamble for up to 18 free spins (or zero) for 125x the bet. The final choice is Bonus Max for 500x the bet, which awards 12 free spins. In maxed-out free spins, there’s a better chance of landing x10 multipliers, up to 10 splits per symbol, and 3 synched reels.

Shippy D Pop: Slot Verdict

Row, row, row your clone, gently down the stream… AvatarUX certainly isn’t the only studio that reworks its own ideas, particularly for exclusive launches, and Shippy D Po looks to be one of those. The upside is that if Shippy D Pop appeals to you but you can’t play it, you can get almost the same ride in LooneyPop, which has a much broader release. The core gameplay is practically identical; the themes, however, are completely different, and in truth Shippy D Pop feels like something you either click with or you don’t. It’s not necessarily a bad thing—just a strange one, and far from a standard pirate slot, which could be exactly what some players want. Or not.

Gameplay-wise, there’s little to add beyond what was already covered in the LooneyPop review. The win potential is huge at 50,000x, and the feature set seems powerful enough to deliver some seriously tense moments. ZapReel rewards can trigger effects like full-reel symbols, splits (up to 10 per position in free spins), multipliers, and synched reels, plus the game pays both ways on a generous grid—plenty to like there.

One thing that came to mind while reviewing Shippy D Pop is that more ZapReels slots would be welcome. “Need” might be overstating it, but it’s a solid mechanic that pairs neatly with PopWins’ expanding-reel behaviour. AvatarUX is well known for using its PopWins system again and again, so it’s surprising there aren’t more ZapReels titles. Then again, it may be wise not to tempt fate—there could be a flood of them waiting to hit the market. We’ll see.