There’s been a building site across the road from my apartment for about eight months now. Eight months. As far as I can tell, the whole operation is one guy who drills at 7am sharp, one guy who sits in a van eating breakfast burritos, and a third guy whose only job seems to be pointing at things. The building hasn’t grown an inch. I’ve started saying good morning to them.
So when I saw Concrete Cowboys slot, I thought “Hell, why not a bit more banging?”. Four cowboys, one skyscraper and a manager called Karen who did not sign up for any of this. Grab a hard hat, because I’m giving you the tour.
Meet the Crew on Site
Right, so the studio behind this one is ELK Studios, and they’ve built it the same way I put together flat-pack furniture. Start small, add bits as you go, hope it holds. You get a 5×5 grid, but it doesn’t stay that way for long, since the grid can expand and symbols can upgrade while you play.
There are no paylines here. It runs on ELK’s CollectR system, so wins come from four Collectors – the cowboys themselves – moving around the grid and scooping up gems. Gotta love a guy who sticks to his job description. Each one only collects gems in his own color, plus any feature symbols that wander into his path.
Stats-wise, the Concrete Cowboys slot has an RTP of 94%, Medium/High volatility and a max win of $200,000, which works out to 10,000x on max bet.
Overtime on Every Floor
The Collectors aren’t the only ones pulling shifts, though. There are three mini games built into this thing, and each one kicks off in its own way.
Employee of the Month is my favorite, mostly because of the name. Clear every payout symbol off the grid and it triggers, bringing out ladders so the Collectors can climb the building and grab coin wins on the way up. A promotion, basically.
Building Time starts when you collect its feature symbol. From there, you complete rows to push the multiplier higher.
And then there’s Heaven. Wipe out all the Collectors – yes, really – and the game sends you to an 8×8 grid where every payout symbol gets upgraded to max. Dark? A little. Am I complaining about a grid that big? Not even slightly!
Payday at the Top
Okay, the bit I actually came for. Collect 3 Bonus symbols and the Bonus Game starts, giving you 5 bonus drops at whatever size the grid has grown to by then. So all that expanding you did earlier carries straight over, which I love.
Get a Super Bonus among those three symbols and you skip ahead to the Super Bonus instead. Nice.
Oh, and if waiting around isn’t your thing, there’s X-iter, which is ELK’s version of a Bonus Buy. You get 5 different modes to pick from, starting at 2.5x your bet and going all the way up to 250x your bet for the Super Bonus.
Clock In, Cowboy
So that’s the crew. Four cowboys, a manager with opinions, a building that keeps getting taller and three mini games tucked in between the floors. I went in expecting a gimmick and came out weirdly attached to these guys, which I did not plan for.
If you want in on the job, the Concrete Cowboys slot is live at BitStarz right now. Quick heads up, it’s FIAT only, so no crypto on this one. Clock in, get those Collectors moving and see how high that building can go. Karen’s watching, though.
