Some time ago, I wrote a bit about the Lightning Link Hold and Spin bonus, and ways you can tell your chances of landing the grand on the game and its derivatives, which include Dragon Link and Dollar Storm.
Video evidence of how a Grand jackpot comes about had been scant, but YouTuber Ross Slots had captured two bonuses that helped answer one part of the question – does seeing balls spinning in all remaining spaces mean that you’re guaranteed the Grand jackpot? The answer to that is no – he had one where he got it, but one where he did not. My previous post I analyze how his bonuses evolve, and what we can derive from it.
Let’s review the two bonuses again. First, full video evidence of a Grand landed at 10:56:
And the other example of balls spinning in the remaining spaces, but without a Grand:
But most of us don’t end up seeing either of those scenarios. We’ll have one empty space that never seems to have a ball in it, that moves around the board throughout the course of the bonus. So how do you get to the point of having all the remaining spaces with a ball to begin with, and can you land that 15th ball if it appears empty?
My hypothesis was that the ball is in there, just with a very rare chance of coming by, and even more rare chance of it landing. And in a video recently released by Brian Christopher, we have video evidence of this being the case. Watch starting at 24:27 and watch the space carefully:
During his second attempt in the last spin, a ball zips by. Theoretically, if it came by at the point the reel was supposed to stop, he would have landed it, and the Grand would have been won.
This confirmed my hypothesis that the way the game makes a Grand mathematically difficult, but not impossible, is by holding one space to a very, very difficult standard to land, and if you get it, it greatly improves your chances of winning the Grand jackpot (or, if it happens on the 15th space, you actually get it).
I’m convinced now based on the design of this bonus this is not a predetermined bonus – this is a mathematically balanced approach and therefore when you hit the button impacts the bonus.
Now, you don’t know if you’re hitting it to success or failure, and the odds are stacked against you on the grand (as it should be when it’s a five-figure progressive) but this does appear to complete the picture on how a Grand can come to be:
- You have to land the ball on the “difficult” space, which is one of the 15 on the board.
- You still have to land the other 14 as you normally would, which doesn’t happen every hold and spin bonus to begin with.
And that’s basically it – there’s a clear mathmetical way to #landthegrand in the Hold and Spin bonus. Of course, there’s also the random Grand feature, but that’s a separate story.
I hope this helps those of you who are big fans of Lightning Link, Dragon Link and Dollar Storm understand how a Grand jackpot can be achieved, and takes some of the mystery out of the game!
