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Release the Kraken — Slotester Lab test cover
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10,000 SPINS 50 BUYS DEMO SERVER

Pragmatic Play · 2019 · tested 2026-10-28

Release the Kraken

Prize chests opened before Release the Kraken free spins add one, two or three spins apiece, and on the first test run of the demo COLLECT closed all 67 pick screens between 7 and 10 spins.

In numbers: measured RTP 83.4% against 96.5% declared over 10,000 logged rounds; 21.4% of rounds paid; a natural bonus landed once per 588 rounds (17 in total) and a bonus round paid a median 77.3x the stake, mean 87.8x, trigger spin included; 50 bonus buys at 100x returned 1.09x of their price on average, 60% of them below the price; the biggest round paid 173.3x; the longest dry run was 32 spins.

Test card

10,000 spins · USD 2.00 bet · every request logged
Spins10,000
BetUSD 2.00
RTP declared96.50%
RTP measured83.35% (approximate 95% CI 72.4–94.3)
Hit frequency21% · every 4.67
Dead streak max / avg32 / 4.73
Median hit1.00x
Max win (no bonus round)122.8x · round 4464
Free spins, natural17 · 1.7 bHz · every 588.2 spins · mean bonus round payout 87.8x stake
Balance start → end100,000 → 96,670
Balance in bets over the base series
Win distribution, x bet
test logs · 1 run · every request loggedtest record ↓
  1. 012026-10-2810,000 rounds · 50 buysfiles & checksums ↓83.35%RTP5 files · SHA-256 ↓

each run keeps its own spin log, CSV and raw server journal with checksums; the figures on this card combine all runs

Play Release the Kraken demo

PRAGMATIC PLAY · official demo · same math as real play
Best offer for players from United States Release the Kraken available at Cafe Casino
Play for real money
Release the Kraken demo game field
Exclusive bonus at Cafe Casino · for players from the United States 300% up to $2,000 + 150 FS
Get bonus
Free demo · no registration · plays on the provider's official server · 18+ Responsible gambling

Bonus buy lab

50 buys × 100x · USD 200 each
Results, x price (amber = below price)
  1. buy 010.79x
  2. buy 020.41x
  3. buy 031.85x
  4. buy 041.05x
  5. buy 050.50x
  6. buy 060.46x
  7. buy 071.70x
  8. buy 080.49x
  9. buy 091.47x
  10. buy 101.08x
  11. buy 110.44x
  12. buy 121.21x
  13. buy 130.76x
  14. buy 140.55x
  15. buy 150.71x
  16. buy 160.40x
  17. buy 170.98x
  18. buy 181.61x
  19. buy 190.51x
  20. buy 201.38x
  21. buy 210.55x
  22. buy 221.38x
  23. buy 231.39x
  24. buy 241.79x
  25. buy 250.30x
  26. buy 262.19x
  27. buy 270.69x
  28. buy 280.92x
  29. buy 291.06x
  30. buy 301.46x
  31. buy 310.64x
  32. buy 320.52x
  33. buy 330.17x
  34. buy 340.68x
  35. buy 351.54x
  36. buy 360.52x
  37. buy 370.28x
  38. buy 381.40x
  39. buy 390.35x
  40. buy 401.07x
  41. buy 410.97x
  42. buy 423.35x
  43. buy 430.78x
  44. buy 440.89x
  45. buy 450.23x
  46. buy 463.03x
  47. buy 470.17x
  48. buy 486.72x
  49. buy 490.82x
  50. buy 500.49x

mean 1.09x · median 0.805× price (USD 161.00) · 30 of 50 below price · best 6.72x · worst 0.17x

Free spins anatomy · 50 purchases
Spins per bonus (avg / min–max)8.3 / 7–10
Extended0.0%
Multiplier total (avg / max)4 / 5
Bonuses that paid nothing0%

Roaming Kraken Free Spins cannot be retriggered: the chest pick fixes the number of spins before the first one is played, +1, +2 or +3 per chest until COLLECT. None of the 67 rounds in the test changed its count after the spins had started, so no extensions were counted.

The USD 200 purchase opens a chest screen at a USD 2.00 bet: +2, +1, +3 and +1 spins, then COLLECT, for 7 free spins. Kraken Wilds stay on the reels and push the multiplier from x1 to x4, and the last spin's USD 64 brings the win box to USD 67.00 · Recorded in a separate browser session, outside the statistical samples.
Buy ledger
Spent
USD 10,00050 × USD 200
Returned
USD 10,934.50109.35% · approximate 95% CI 81–138%
Net
+USD 934.50+4.7 buys
Break-even or better
20 / 5040%
Paid 2× price or more
4 / 508%
Price in base spins
100natural trigger every ~588 spins

One ticket equals 100 ordinary stakes. Natural bonuses occurred once per 588 ordinary rounds in this sample. Stakes multiplied by this interval measure gross wagering, not the net cost of obtaining a bonus. Purchase returns above include the complete purchased round and are divided by the ticket price.

Risk profile

how much bankroll this run needed
1,956xmax drawdown, in bets (by spin 10000)
-1,665xlowest point vs start
32longest dead streak, spins
Bankroll survival in this run
50 betsbust at spin 59
100 betsbust at spin 4012
200 betsbust at spin 5039

One run, one bet size. A different session can bust earlier or never; treat this as a measured example, not a rule.

How it plays

7 rules screens from the game
RULES · FROM THE GAME
Release the Kraken rules, page 1
Release the Kraken rules, page 2
Release the Kraken rules, page 3
Release the Kraken rules, page 4
Release the Kraken rules, page 5
Release the Kraken rules, page 6
Release the Kraken rules, page 7
screen 01 / 07 Release the Kraken rules, page 1

Pragmatic Play's 2019 original runs on five reels of four rows with 20 fixed paylines that count wins from the leftmost reel onward, and it is rated low volatility at a 96.5% theoretical RTP. In multiples of the stake, five anchor logos pay 25x, five sharks 12.5x, turtles 10x, blue pufferfish 7.5x and yellow tropical fish 5x, while A and K reach 4x and Q and J 2x. The bubble Wild lands on every reel, pays like the logo and replaces everything except the three bonus symbols. No symbols tumble after a win, and outside Kraken Locking Wilds a spin pays once and stops.

A choice of three tentacles can appear on any base spin, and the one picked reveals a random feature. Kraken Locking Wilds keeps the reels turning while chests hand out more Wilds, extra turns or a collect, which can also bring more Wilds or an all-wins x2, and pays everything at the end; Colossal Kraken Wilds drops a 3x4 Wild block onto the reels; Infectious Kraken Wilds guarantees at least one Wild that turns its neighbours Wild.

Both bonus games need a BONUS ship on reels 1 and 3. A CHEST BONUS on reel 5 alongside them starts the Sunken Treasure Bonus, where chests pay money prizes until COLLECT turns up. The FREE SPINS wheel on reel 5 starts Roaming Kraken Free Spins instead: chests add +1, +2 or +3 spins, up to 12, until COLLECT, and the spins then run on 40 paylines with special reels.

When the spins begin the multiplier stands at 1x, and every Wild that hits raises it by 1x, up to 10x, for all remaining spins; each Wild that has landed stays on the reels and jumps to a new position every spin. No retrigger is possible during the round. The bet menu spans USD 0.20 to USD 240.00, and a purchase of the round costs 100x, which is USD 200 at a USD 2.00 stake.

Mechanics5 from the rules screens
  • Wild symbol
  • Multiplier
  • Free spins
  • Bonus game
  • Bonus buy
Paytable
x total bet · bar = top payout on a log scale
symbol 345+
Wild 2.5x 10x 25x
Release the Kraken logo 2.5x 10x 25x
Shark 2x 5x 12.5x
Turtle 2x 4x 10x
Blue pufferfish 1x 3x 7.5x
Yellow tropical fish 1x 3x 5x
A 0.5x 1x 4x
K 0.5x 1x 4x
Q 0.25x 0.5x 2x
J 0.25x 0.5x 2x

Bet range USD 0.20 – 240 per spin · payouts read from the game's paytable at bet USD 2.00

Verdict

Short of both printed ceilings

The 67 pick screens of the test, 17 after natural triggers and 50 after purchases, opened 380 prize chests, and 245 of them held +1, 100 held +2 and only 35 held +3. COLLECT never surfaced while fewer than seven spins were banked, and on 47 of the 67 screens the picking went on past the first total of seven or eight. Among the tickets, the 21 that drew nine spins averaged 1.3289x their USD 200 price and the 20 that drew eight averaged 0.9424x.

The multiplier crate closed all 67 rounds at x3, x4 or x5, never above half of the 10x the rules allow. The four natural bonuses that closed at x5 averaged 144.56x the stake and the six left at x3 averaged 40.04x, and spins already at x3 or higher earned 91.67% of the natural free spins money. The nine natural spins still played at x1 brought USD 1.50 between them.

Outside the free spins the three tentacle features fired in 84 base rounds and paid 20.25% of all ordinary-series payouts, against 17.91% for the 17 natural free spins rounds; Infectious Kraken Wilds produced the best base round, 122.75x in round 4464. Fifty USD 200 purchases returned 109.345% of their cost, and ticket 48 holds the largest single free spin recorded: its fourth spin, at x3, paid USD 1,080, while the whole ticket came to USD 1,344.

Measured upsides
  • All 67 bonuses ended with the multiplier at x3 or higher
  • Natural spins played at x4 or x5 came up empty once in 33
  • Tentacle features paid USD 3,375.50 across 84 base rounds
  • Ticket 48 paid back 6.72x its price
Measured downsides
  • Thirteen of the 15 tickets that stopped at x3 came back under USD 200
  • The Sunken Treasure Bonus topped out at 33x the stake in 28 rounds
  • Base spins with no feature at all paid back only 47.43% of what they cost

Test record

10,000 rounds · 50 buys · open data · closed rig

One test run so far: a single session of the base game plus a separate series of bonus purchases on the official demo server, every request and response logged. When the game is tested again, the new run is added here and the figures on this page combine all runs into one sample.

result of this run2026-10-28
Measured return 83.35% 95% band 72.4–94.3% · declared 96.50%
  • 10,000rounds logged
  • 21%rounds that paid
  • 173xbiggest round
  • 1 / 588natural bonus rate
  • 1.09xmean of 50 buys
  • 32longest dry streak
return of this run with its 95% banddeclared 96.50%
Run 1 · 2026-10-2810,000 rounds
83.35%95% band 72.4–94.3%
65%75%85%95%declared 96.50%
dot = measured return · whisker = approximate 95% band for that mean, given this many rounds
how the return settled, round by round10,000 rounds
83.35% after 10,000 roundsdeclared 96.50%
line = return measured up to that round · the line swings early and calms as rounds pile up
bonus purchases, run by run50 buys
Run 1 · 2026-10-28mean 1.09x · median 0.81x · 30/50 below price
bar = one purchase, what it returned as a multiple of its price · dashed line = the price · square-root scale
The run · tap to open
01run Run 012026-10-28 10,000 rounds at USD 2.00 · 50 buys · rig 0.9.8 · RTP profile 96.50% measured return83.35%-13.2 pts vs declared 95% band72.4–94.3% natural bonuses17 · 1 / 588 bonus buys, mean1.09x
95% band
72.4–94.3%
rounds that paid
21%
biggest round
173x · round 3,179
longest dry streak
32
natural bonuses
17 · one per 588 rounds
bonus buys
mean 1.09x · median 0.805x · 60% below price
balance start → end
100,000 → 96,670
deepest drawdown
1,956x
Download this run · the square button copies the file’s SHA-256, so you can confirm the download is unchanged

10,000 ordinary rounds, including naturally triggered features, at a fixed USD 2 bet; 50 bonus buys at USD 200 each (100x); recorded on the official Pragmatic Play demo server (jurisdiction 99, RTP profile 96.5%); every request and response logged; test run 2026-10-28.

The test rig plays the official demo build over the network and records every server round: bet, win, intermediate steps (cascades, respins), free spins, collect. Screenshots and video were captured in a separate browser session and are not part of the statistical samples. The text was read against the log by an editor before publication. How we test →

CLOSED RIG OPEN DATA

FAQ

4 questions · answered from the log
What range of free spins do the Release the Kraken chests give?
Lab answer

No fewer than 7 and no more than 10 in this test, although the rules allow up to 12. Each chest opened before the round adds +1, +2 or +3 spins until COLLECT appears, and across 67 pick screens the count stopped at 7 fifteen times, at 8 and at 9 twenty-five times each, and at 10 twice.

On a USD 200 bonus buy, what did the typical Release the Kraken ticket return?
Lab answer

USD 161.00 at the median, 0.805x the price, and 30 of the 50 tickets returned less than they cost. The fifty together paid USD 10,934.50, or 109.345%, because ticket 48 alone returned USD 1,344; without it the other 49 averaged 0.9786x their price.

What does an 83.35% demo result say about Release the Kraken's 96.5% RTP?
Lab answer

It is one sample of 10,000 spins at USD 2.00, and its approximate 95% confidence interval for the mean, 72.4% to 94.3%, ends below the listed 96.5%. Natural free spins came once per 588.2 spins and brought 17.91% of all ordinary-series payouts, and the longest stretch without them ran 1,892 rounds, between the triggers in rounds 7147 and 9040.

Is this the same game as Release the Kraken 2 or Release the Kraken Megaways?
Lab answer

No. This is the 2019 original, code vs20kraken, with 20 paylines on a 5x4 grid, chest picks worth +1 to +3 free spins and a Wild multiplier that can climb to 10x. Release the Kraken 2 and Release the Kraken Megaways use their own bonus rules and are reviewed separately on the site.

Field notes

0 notes
Slotester Labmeasured run · every request logged measured
  • spins10,000
  • bet2.00
  • result-1,665x
  • RTP measured83.4%
  • bonuses17
  • max win, no bonus122.8x

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