BetSoft released the Fruit Zen online slot in 2015, and the game remains popular in online casinos today. It has an RTP of 95.96% and a 19.28% hit rate across five reels and ten pay lines that pay both ways.
The game’s volatility rates as medium. As a result, players can expect regular wins in the base game and smaller wins in the bonus game. In comparison, high-volatility slots pay less in the base game and reward high multipliers during the bonus round(s). Fruit Zen is also a slot that is part of the BetSoft Gaming SLOTS3 Arcade collection. It comes with excellent 3D graphics and animations complimenting a peaceful theme with fruit symbols rolling on the reels, hence the name Fruit + Zen!
We will cover the features of this online slot in more detail below, but to give you pre-game spoilers, the demo on this page comes with a max win of 2,000x, wild symbols that expand into wild reels and respins.
Symbols
There are seven regular symbols. These symbols need to line up 3, 4 or 5 times on a pay line to trigger a win. As the slot uses the pay-both-ways reel mechanic, you can win when the reels roll in wins from left to right or from right to left.
Paytable Spin Bet Multipliers paid out for 3, 4 and 5 symbol combinations:
- Oranages: 5x, 20x, or 25x
- Lemons: 2.5x, 6x, or 12x
- Grapes: 1x, 2.5x, or 6x
- Melons: 0.8x, 2x, or 0,8x
- Peaches: 0.7x, 1.5x, or 4x
- Strawberries: 0.5x, 1x, or 2.5x
- Cherries: 0.5x, 1x, or 2.5x
The payouts are around average for symbol combination wins. However, bear in mind that this slot pays both ways. As such, we feel that Fruit Zen pays out fair multipliers for its combination wins.
How to Read the Paytable
The pay table is dynamic. That means when you change your bet per spin, the amounts in the pay table reflect the cash win. For example, let’s say that you set your spin bet to 2.00 per spin while playing the Fruit Zen demo slot on this page. If you land 5 Orange symbols, you win 2 x 25 = 50. This is a 25x multiplier of your spin bet as per the pay table example above.
Game Features
The game features in Fruit Zen combine nicely to give you a mixture of big wins during the base game and via its bonus features. The pay-both-ways mechanic keeps your session bankroll close to or in profit, as do expanding wilds. Plus, with the addition of the respins features on top, there is always a chance you will keep your balance in the green or land a big win.
Pay Both Ways Reel Mechanic
The beauty of the pay both-ways slot mechanic is you can line up symbols across reels 1-2-3-4-5 or 5-4-3-2-1. To explain further, the first symbol in each combination must start on reel 1 or reel 5. To help those of you who are unfamiliar with this mechanic, here are a couple of examples.
Left To Right Pay Both Ways Win Examples
- 3-Symbol Win: The same symbol must land on reel 1-2-3
- 4-Symbol Win: The same symbol must land on reels 1-2-3-4
Right to Left Pay Both Ways Win Examples
- 3-Symbol Win: The same symbol must land on reels 3-2-1
- 4-Symbol Win: The same symbol must land on reels 4-3-2-1
Notice that there cannot be any gaps between the symbols. They must run consecutively across adjacent reels for the symbol combination to count as a win.
Fruit Zen Expanding Wild & Respins
The Fruit Zen wild symbol is key to triggering the video slot’s main features. It is easy to spot as the symbol is the game’s logo – FRUIT ZEN.
Here are the wild symbol’s key features:
- Reels: You will find it available in reels 2, 3 and 4, so the three middle reels.
- Wild Reels: Each time the wild symbol lands, it expands to fill the reel, creating a wild reel.
- Substitute: The symbol substitutes as a wildcard for any of the seven regular symbols.
- Respins: Each time the wild expands, the slot pays out winning combinations. The reels then respin at no extra cost to you. The respin gives you the chance to win further combination wins. If more wilds land, they will expand, and the respins will continue.
Our Opinion of the Fruit Zen Online Slot
BetSoft Gaming’s Fruit Zen slot has an attractive theme with excellent graphics and simple gameplay to back it up. It is a slot that will suit beginners thanks to its easy-to-learn features. At the same time, experienced players who enjoy medium-volatility gameplay with regular wins will also enjoy the light-hearted and relaxing fun this video slot has to offer.
The symbol combination payout values are fair, especially considering the pay-both-ways mechanic. Plus, the addition of the wild that substitutes for all regular symbols expands and triggers respins. This is an online video slot with plenty of base game action.
With that being said, we can see why this slot may not appeal to all slot players. The lack of a free spins bonus may put some players off. Furthermore, some players might consider the 95.96% RTP as low. However, in our opinion, it is a fair RTP and only 0.4% below what we here at Casinoplusbonus would call industry standard.
Alternatives to the Fruit Zen Video Slot
We’ve chosen two online slots to compare with BetSoft’s Fruit Zen slot title. Each of these slots also offers the pay both-ways feature.
- Starburst by NetEnt: The gameplay is almost identical to Fruit Zen, giving you 5 reels and 10 paylines that pay both ways, plus expanding wilds that trigger re-spins. Starburst actually comes with a slightly higher RTP of 96.09%, but the margin between these two games’ RTPs is a mere 0.13%, so there’s little difference.
- Twin Spin by NetEnt: We chose Twin Spin because the slot also uses fruit symbols and the pay both-ways feature. However, the key difference with Twin Spin is that this slot has 5 reels and uses pay both ways with the 243 ways to win reel mechanic. Yet, this slot can come with RTPs as low 94.04%.
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