Diamonds Up

Diamonds Up Review

The classic-looking fruit slot design never goes out of style, and Red Tiger adds another one to the pile with Diamonds Up. However, this is no ordinary retro-style nostalgia trip, as the game boasts a 5x3 grid and modern features. The visuals are as simple as can be, with the symbol upgrade ladder towering on the right-hand side. You can look forward to plenty of symbol upgrade action in the Diamonds Up slot, but let’s cover the basics first.

You start by choosing your preferred bet level between €0.20 and €4 per spin, which is a somewhat narrow bet range that at least caters to penny punters if not high rollers. Diamonds Up slot comes with 25 paylines, and wins are generated when at least 3 matching symbols appear on a payline starting from the leftmost reel towards the right. The premium symbols, consisting of 7s, bells, horseshoes, and BARs, award 40x to 4x your stake for 5 of a kind, while the fruit symbols all pay 2x your stake for the same.

Diamonds Up Slot - Reels Screen

What makes Diamonds Up stand out is the 30-spin cycle of symbol upgrades. Diamond wild symbols not only substitute for regular pay symbols to help complete wins, but they are also collected in the symbol upgrade ladder seen on the right. Every 3rd wild collected upgrades the lowest remaining symbol to the next tier, until potentially all symbols are upgraded to the top-tier lucky number 7 symbol. This can lead to back-to-back full-screen wins of up to 1,000x your stake.

To help you out in this regard, the bonus round comes in handy. The spin counter does not increase for the duration of the free spins feature. However, your achieved symbol upgrades are carried over to the base game as the bonus ends. Diamonds Up boasts a top-tier RTP of 95.69 %, which is around the industry average, and you need to brace yourself for high volatility gameplay. If luck is on your side, you can take home up to 20,000x your stake, and eligible players can purchase different bonus round tiers via the bonus buy menu.

Diamonds Up Features

A lot hangs on how far up the symbol upgrade ladder you manage to climb in each spin cycle, and this feature steals the show in Diamonds Up Red Tiger. The bonus round can be of great help, as we shall see below, so without further ado, let’s dive in!

Symbol Upgrade Ladder

The counter above the Upgrade Ladder keeps track of the number of spins per 30-spin cycle, and all Diamond Wilds that appear are collected in this ladder. All pay symbols are represented on this ladder, from the lowest value plum at the bottom to the highest value lucky number 7 at the top. Each symbol requires 3 collected diamonds to be upgraded to the next symbol in the value hierarchy, and reaching the top means all pay symbols that appear are the lucky number 7. After 30 spins, the Upgrade Ladder resets, and you start all over again.

Diamonds Up Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols on the same base game spin triggers the Bonus Round, awarding 9, 12, or 20 free spins, respectively. This also awards a scatter payout of 5x, 20x, or 100x your stake, respectively. The symbol upgrade feature continues uninterrupted in the bonus round, but the spin cycle counter is not affected. When you return to the base game, the upgrade ladder is carried over, and the spin cycle counter continues where it left off. You can retrigger the bonus round by landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters on the same free spin, awarding +9, +12, or +20 free spins, respectively.

Diamonds Up Slot - Free Spins

Diamonds Up Bonus Buy (not UK)

Eligible players will find the bonus buy button to the left of the turbo button below the grid, and it comes with plenty of options in the Diamonds Up slot:

• Pay 20x your stake to start the FS round with the orange symbol upgrade meter filled.
• Pay 120x your stake to start the FS round with the grapes symbol upgrade meter filled.
• Pay 200x your stake to start the FS round with the watermelon symbol upgrade meter filled.
• Pay 800x your stake to start the FS round with the BAR symbol upgrade meter filled.

Keep in mind that the symbol upgrade meter returns to its original state after purchasing the bonus round, meaning the achieved state from the bonus round is not carried over to the base game.

Theme & Graphics

The Diamonds Up game presents classic slot visuals with a retro look and feel. Set against a blue backdrop with blinking dots, you’ll spin the reels accompanied by a cheerful, jazzy soundtrack. With fruits, BARs, and lucky number 7s filling the grid, the diamond wild takes center stage as the symbol to look out for, together with scatters. Overall, the stylish design is simple and straightforward, evoking nostalgia with every spin.

Pros and Cons of Diamonds Up

Our Verdict

Diamonds Up is the kind of game that’s easy to judge by its cover, and admittedly, I thought I was in for a regular fruit slot of the cute and simple kind. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find that the symbol upgrade mechanic and spin cycle system make this game stand out in a positive way. I’ve played my fair share of spin cycle slots over the years, but usually, you get 10-spin cycles where a bunch of wilds are released at the end of each cycle.

Not so in Diamonds Up slot, which is a refreshing change. The 30-spin cycle is just long enough to offer hope that you can climb to a decent level on the symbol upgrade meter, but in my experience, you’ll most likely need the bonus round to get to the top. Sure, it’s theoretically possible to land and collect 24 wild symbols within 30 spins, converting all symbols into the top-tier lucky number 7. However, most of the time, you’ll struggle to get past the watermelon threshold without a bonus round to catapult you up there.

The more free spins you get, the better your chances are of advancing significantly up the ladder, prolonging the 30-spin cycle accordingly. In many cases, the most lucrative spins will be the remaining spins of the base game cycle after the bonus round is over, which is an interesting twist. However, keep in mind that even a full screen of the lucky number 7 symbol awards “only” 1,000x your stake. A decent sum for sure, but still a far cry from the 20,000x win cap.

The absolute best case scenario in Diamonds Up is to get to the top of the symbol upgrade ladder as the bonus round starts, giving you plenty of spins with nothing but the top-tier symbol, scatters, and wilds. With 20+ free spins like that, it’s possible to crack the 20,000x max win, but I don’t see any other scenarios that come close. All in all, I had a decent time testing Diamonds Up, and I appreciate the original take on the spin cycle concept. However, I don’t see a massive hit here, but a curiosity worth checking out nonetheless.