Stepping Diamonds: Slot Overview

Just when it feels like the market is already overflowing with fruit slots, local jackpots, and hold ‘n wins, along comes a title that rolls all three into one package. That game is Stepping Diamonds, giving long-time studio Play’n GO the opportunity to show what it can do with these familiar ingredients. The result is largely classic slot/hold ‘n win territory, although touches like the Step ‘N Reel could offer fruit-slot regulars something a little different from the usual.

From a sights-and-sounds perspective, Stepping Diamonds is largely what you’d expect: chunky, high-contrast symbols, vivid colours, and music with a quirky edge. It’s the same general vibe as countless other fruit slots. If anything sets it apart slightly, it’s the chrome accents and the blue patterned backdrop Play’ GO uses, which adds a mildly futuristic 80s/90s flavour to the presentation. Or maybe not.

The playfield in Stepping Diamonds uses a 5×3 reelset with 20 paylines. Bets range from 10 c to $/€50, and the slot is medium volatile (rated 6 out of 10). As is often the case, multiple RTP versions exist, and the top available return is the 96.2% model.

In Stepping Diamonds, wins are formed with 3 to 5-of-a-kind. Keeping to the genre’s basics, the pay symbols are cherries, lemons, oranges, plums, horseshoes, bells, BARs, and 7s. Hitting 5 matching symbols pays 4 to 50 times a player’s stake. Wild stars can appear on any reel, replacing any standard pay symbol and carrying the same value as the highest 7 symbol.

Stepping Diamonds: Slot Features

Stepping Diamonds features both special Diamond symbols and standard Diamond symbols, which connect to mechanics like Step ‘N Win and the Lock ‘N Spin round, alongside Cash pot Diamonds.

Step ‘N Win

With every spin, the steps reel above the main reels lands on a number from 1 to 5. If a special Diamond symbol appears, it activates the Step ‘N Win feature. When this happens, every Diamond symbol currently showing increases their value by the number of steps indicated on the Step ‘N Win reel, and then the updated values are paid. Only one special Diamond symbol can appear per spin, so you can’t trigger multiple Step ‘N Wins at once.

Lock ‘N Spin

Landing Diamond symbols anywhere lights up the diamond trail, and once at least 6 of them hit, the Lock ‘N Spin feature is activated. Gathering additional Diamond symbols starts Lock ‘N Spin on larger reel layouts: 6 Diamond symbols trigger it on a 5×3 grid, 7 Diamond symbols trigger a 5×4 grid, and 8 Diamond symbols trigger a 5×5 grid. You receive 3 respins, and any newly landed symbols lock into place while also resetting the respin counter. Step ‘N Win can also trigger during Lock ‘N Spin. If the grid is completely filled with symbols, Step ‘N Win awards a full 5 steps. All Diamond values on screen step 5 times, boosting every value on each step.

Cash Pot Diamonds

Cash pot Diamonds may appear on any respin during the Lock ‘N Spin feature, and they can also be upgraded. Cash pot Diamonds only show up in Lock ‘N Spin and do not step during the Step ‘N Win feature.

• The Mini cash pot Diamond begins at 20x and rises by 2x up to 90x.
• The Minor cash pot Diamond begins at 50x and rises by 5x up to 200x.
• The Major cash pot Diamond begins at 100x and rises by 10x up to 350x.
• The Grand cash pot Diamond begins at 500x and rises by 50x up to 1,500x.

Stepping Diamonds: Slot Verdict

Stepping Diamonds didn’t make a strong impression at first glance, and that feeling stayed much the same through to the end of the session. Considering how familiar the building blocks are that Play’n GO used here (local jackpots, a straightforward hold ‘n win, and fruit symbols), it was always going to be difficult for Stepping Diamonds to feel truly distinctive. Still, the Step ‘N Reel does bring a bit of variation to what is otherwise fairly standard gameplay. It’s not a game-changer, but it is something. In practice, stepping up didn’t seem to dramatically boost Diamond symbol values, although Cash pot Diamonds can be upgraded too. That could appeal to players who enjoy local jackpot-style slots. Even so, the jackpots themselves don’t feel especially tempting, even once upgraded to their maximum levels. The overall sense was that, even at their peak, cash pot Diamonds don’t deliver truly massive, life-changing returns.

So, the excitement in Stepping Diamonds wasn’t exactly electric. That said, it clearly targets a particular audience, and fruit-slot fans with a Vegas leaning may well like what Play’n GO has put together. The max win fits the game at 4,000x the bet, so with any luck, players chasing the top payout will see a few upgraded cash pot Diamonds drop their way. They’ll also need a hefty supply of luck and patience, since the maximum exposure has odds of less than 1 in a billion. That’s the bottom line: Stepping Diamonds is a fairly forgettable fruit slot with a couple of small twists—fine for killing time, but not a must-see release.