Game: Fu Ru Dong Hai
Manufacturer: IGT
Advantage play potential: Medium
What Makes it Special: Bubbles are wild, but landing atop an Fu Ru Dong Hai symbol makes a lot more wilds appear. Bubbles hang around until they’ve moved off the screen, even if a player cashes out.
Last week, I talked about an Asian-themed clone of Icy Wilds. This week, I’ve got the Ocean Magic equivalent, Fu Ru Dong Hai. Ocean Magic fans will find a lot to like about this, mainly because it’s the same thing 😉
Understanding the Game
The game is a 50 line, 50 credit base game. But for double the bet, you can activate the Bubble Boost, which provides more bubbles more often.
Bubbles can be added on any spin, and each spin move up one square on its reel. Once it reaches the top of the reel, on the following spin it goes away.
The Bubble Boost can trigger on any spin, and will place one or more bubbles onto the screen, adding to whatever may be already present. On the non Bubble Boost bets, they can float on and off the screen, but are added with less frequency.
Wilds Feature
Bubbles serve as a wild space, adding to their value, but it’s when they overlay a Fu Ru Dong Hai symbol. At that point, all of the spaces around that symbol, including diagonally, fill with a bubble, with bubbles continuing to remain wild.
Depending on the placement and what lines up as a result of it, the pays can be pretty great.
Free Spins Bonus
Three or more bonus symbols trigger the free spins, which works the same as Ocean Magic – you get picks based on the number of symbols landed, and those picks can yield spins or more picks. When you exhaust your picks the free spins will begin.
The same Wilds Feature exists in the bonus round, so if you overlap a bubble with a Fu Ru Dong Hai symbol bubbles will appear all around it.
Understanding the Advantage
You’re looking for left behind bubbles. The more of them, the closer to the bottom of the reel, and the more to the left they are, the better. Bubble Boost will be more likely to have them, given the frequency of bubbles initiated, but with as many as 10 betting options it helps to cycle through and see what’s available.
I just started Advantage Play this April, 2022. Played at AC and Empire City. I do not know if casinos make deliberate changes to certain machines. Both your article and another online article said that Fu Ru Dong Hai is exactly like Ocean Magic. Well, at Empire City, Yonkers, NY, I found the base game not to be the same. Each play generated between 0 and 5 floating spheres. However, they do not come up progressively. They float randomly and settle on a position that becomes wild for that play. They do not stay and move up one spot on the next spin. A new set is generated each spin. Perhaps it is different in the Bonus round but I just came off the machine after realizing that it was not exactly as Ocean Magic. Same comment for Dragon Sphere.
Hi William! In this case the culprit is location. Empire City Casino does not have actual slot machines, but instead games that under the hood operate like scratchers. Because of that, the games operate differently than they would in AC. If you found an Ocean Magic at Empire City it would operate the same way as those other two games at Empire City did, because of the way those games work.
Other Advantage Play games like Scarab have similar limitations and therefore don’t operate identically to their Vegas-style equivalents. You’ll need to play where Vegas-style slots are located, like Atlantic City, to take advantage of things. Hope this helps!
Thanks. I really appreciate your prompt response. I am aware that the New York State Lottery controls the racinos and I did check the videopoker machines. I would throw away good hands just to find when I draw I still will get hands that either pay the same as those I threw away, or better. Also, most of the machines had a small notice that skill does not determine the outcome . Was aware of scratch off scenario but did not know it extended to all the slots too. No wonder in Advantage playing the Scarab machines I found that on the 10th spin all of the accumulated wilds did not stay put but floated around resulting in non-pays many times, although they all stayed ‘put’ in spins up to the 9th. Seems only the electronic table games are not scratch off. Again, truly appreciate as it is our favorite Friday night place as only 25 mins away. Now I will stick to the Triple Double Diamond Legend of Phoenix as the meters run true, and leave the slots to Lady Luck.