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Thread: IGT’s Hexbreaker 3 ... nice bonus game.

  1. #1
    Generally speaking, most bonus games are either milestone based or you have to hit a certain outcome (e.g. a RF in Video Poker). Hex 3 is a typical milestone game of collecting enough milestones to get that particular award. In milestone games, it’s a cost benefit analysis: you compare the value of the prize (or award) to cost per milestone (and total costs based on milestones needed).

    The “base” game is a 5 column by 3 row game and above each column is a different prize, respectively. The middle column prize is the progressive (based on each respective wager amount) and the prizes for the other columns are monetary awards or a bonus (round). You can also win the progressive prize in the bonus round.

    I played it to get an understanding of the game to see how the game was designed, e.g. my group focuses on the math as well as design exploits. The “milestones” come at different rates: fastest for column 2 & 3 and slowest for column 3 (progressive award) such that the rate for columns 1 & 5 are between the fastest and slowest rates, respectively.

    Once you get a milestone (in a particular column), it increases the row for that column. For example, if your first milestone is column 2, then columns 1, 3, 4 & 5 remaining at 3 rows but column 2 is now at 4 rows. Get to row #9 and you win that prize for that column. Because your rows are increasing over time, the number of ways to win (or winning paylines increases), respectively.

    Your “equity” is the number of paylines as well as how many rows above the baseline of 3 rows for each respective column. Other things being equal, you want to chase the bonus on columns 2 & 4 rather than on columns 1 & 5.

    The math is very challenging as your average cost per milestone is dynamic and decreases as the rows increase for that particular column. Basically, the average cost per milestone is not static like typical milestone based bonus games.

    Nice tweet by a guy who won over $5K in credits by playing without a W2G event: https://mobile.twitter.com/MoshiMosh...18176179982336 (and in the photo, the guy is one milestone away from the $40 prize on column 4).

    Here’s another tweet showing the game has been out since December of last year:
    https://mobile.twitter.com/PokerBrad...03981096845312

    Folks, lots of people have been tweeting about this game. Good luck.

  2. #2
    Addendum

    1. It’s reels, not columns

    2. It’s expanding reels, not more rows in a column.

    3. It’s “ways” not paylines. You start with 243 ways to win and can expand to over 17,000+ ways to win.

    4. Bonus symbol only on reels 2, 3 & 4 (need all three to get bonus round)

    5. Wild symbols only on reels 2, 3 & 4

    6. Black Cat in base game & White Cat in bonus game.

    7. Getting the White Cat is very difficult; lots of situations where player is one milestone from White Cat or progressive and then gets the Skull & Bones symbol to end bonus round.

    Two important observations:
    - you get a lot of coin in per play vs GE, OM, Wild Pirates or Joe Blow
    - you need to look at bottom left side of the screen to see “ways” to win & “ways” to win ON NEXT SPIN.

  3. #3
    I found one of these today. I decided to play just to get a feel for it and didn't do a good job recording info. It definitely went through coin in quickly, but the bonus round had a decent payoff. 250/spin with reel 5 2 spots away from hitting the bonus. I was down about $120 and the bonus round paid $195.

  4. #4
    Making good money on this game. I see hustlers chasing Bonuses or low hanging fruits. Lots of hustlers cannot handicap the equity and walking away from not so obvious strong plays.

    The milestone can move two spaces at a time. This was unexpected and help me get credits awards a lot faster.

    I continue to get lots of coin in from my plays. I am usually the guy that puts in $300 coin in and walk out with $600 to $900 in my pocket. So getting coin in is nice.

  5. #5
    How are you figuring out what's a play?

  6. #6
    Originally Posted by APStewardess View Post
    How are you figuring out what's a play?
    The general rule is to talk about general aspects of the game.

    Giving a “number” is plain silly. Someone mentioned “25” was a number for FarmVille. The problem with giving a number is the game comes in a number of paybacks or RTP’s. “25” will NOT WORK IN THE SACRAMENTO MARKET.

    For example Jolly 8’s has 5 configurations:
    5 Available Pay Tables Between 85.13% - 94.13%

    Source: https://gaming.itsgames.com/games/jolly-8s

    A “number” that works for the 94% RTP is not going to work for the 85% RTP. Most people don’t get this key point. The RTP’s around Sacramento are 85% to 90% while I can find games with 92% to 94% RTP in the Reno / Carson City / Tahoe area.

    So for a “play”, you can either handicap the odds, say I am a 6 to 5 favorite (using fuzzy logic since Hexbreaker 3 requires stochastic calculus) or you can use cost-benefit analysis to size up the “equity” with the cost of getting the “equity” when you have more deterministic values to work with.

    I clearly spelled out the “equity” in the original post.

    Good luck.

  7. #7
    In this post, I gave an example of handicapping an “opportunity” in IGT’s Wild Pirates.

    https://vegascasinotalk.com/forum/sh...g-Wild-Pirates

  8. #8
    Thanks for the extra info. I'm not very good with complicated math and I get overwhelmed trying to figure out which data points I should be collecting.

  9. #9
    Played the game in Oregon last December. Strong play.
    "More importantly, mickey thought 8-4 was two games over .500. Argued about it. C'mon, man. Nothing can top that for math expertise. If GWAE ever has you on again, you can be sure I'll be calling in with that gem.'Nuff said." REDIETZ

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