Joe Blow Diamonds: Similar Potential to its Sister Aristocrat Game

Game: Joe Blow Diamonds
Manufacturer: Aristocrat
Advantage play potential: Medium-Low
What Makes it Special: Wild reels with three dynamites captured in a reel; getting another reel with three dynamites with wild active resets the count for existing active wild reels; persistent state reels for each bet

A couple of months back I wrote up the Aristocrat persistent reels game Joe Blow Gold, and mentioned the companion game Joe Blow Diamond came out at the same time.

Today I’ll review the Diamonds version, and talk about the key differences between the two. The same persistent state mechanic exists, but the bonus round is where the key differences come out.

Understanding the Game

Like Joe Blow Gold, the Diamonds version is a 5×3 reel set. The bet levels are in 60 credit increments. 30 lines are evaluated. The line pays are on the anemic side unless you can get a premium symbol at 4 (or really, 5) of a kind.

The Persistent Wilds feature drives most of the value, offering the ability to get wild reels for multiple spins. And there’s a free spins game that differs from the Gold version.

Persistent Wilds Feature

The Persistent Wilds Feature works as it did on Joe Blow Gold. There’s dynamite indicators above each reel. On any reel you can land 1, 2, or 3 sticks of dynamite.

When the three spaces up top are filled, that will turn the respective reels wild for three spins. Depending on how many and where the reels are placed, this can be lucrative. You have to buy each of the three spins, just like on other persistent state games with a wild reel scenario, such as Golden Egypt.

Where this model differs from the varieties of IGT games out there today is the ability to reset the clock. If you get three sticks of dynamite above a reel while at least one wild reel is active from the same feature, two things happen.

First, you get the reels wild that filled their dynamite meters to three spins. Second, the meters for existing wild reels reset to three, so you keep them all for the next three spins.

You can keep doing this until/unless you run out of spins, or you fill all five reels with wilds. If that happens, you’ll receive 6000 credits times the line multiplier (effectively a 100x payout of your bet), the counters will all reset to 0, and you’re done.

Understanding the Advantage

Because it relates to the same Persistent Wilds Feature as Joe Blow Gold, I’m going to clone my information from there, in terms of how this differs from the IGT Golden Egypt model in understanding how to play these:

• You can get more than one dynamite symbol collected on a single reel at a time on Joe Blow, whereas with Golden Egypt you collect one coin at a time.
• You get three wild spins when you trigger on Joe Blow, vs. two on Golden Egypt (although you collect four symbols, and get four spins, on Golden Jungle, for instance).
• The practical outcome of this is wilds are easier to get, and stay around a bit longer, than Golden Egypt.
• The line pays are more anemic on Joe Blow accordingly – you need the wilds to really make something happen. As such, dead spins without dynamites can be painful. And this is Aristocrat, so it’s possible.
• Joe Blow also features stacked symbols, which can make spins with wilds even better… and spins without them harder to convert into anything special.

So it tends to be a bit more of a feast or famine game – usually it either it converts easily, thanks to wilds present or a quick landing of dynamite, or it sucks your money away quickly when it doesn’t cooperate. I haven’t really encountered much in between.

Free Spins Bonus

I’ve yet to get a bonus on either version, but three or more of those JB symbols like seen in the image of above will get you a free spins bonus. You get more spins for more symbols, starting at 10 spins for 3, up to 20 spins for 5.

Any dynamites locked in above the reels when the free spins are triggered follow you into the free spins. Similarly, any dynamite above the reels at the conclusion of the free spins follow you back out to the base game.

Like Joe Blow Gold, a dynamite counter is introduced. Each time you get a dynamite (or more) on a reel, it will add to the counter. In this version the counter persists throughout the entire free spins bonus. Based on the number of dynamite you’ve collected, your wins will be multiplied. The progression is as follows:

• 0-4 dynamite: 1x
• 5-9 dynamite: 2x
• 10-19 dynamite: 3x
• 20-29 dynamite: 5x
• 30 or more dynamite: 10x

One you reach 10x the counter continues to be important, as there’s a Grand prize on the Diamonds version that’s awarded when the dynamite meter reaches a certain number. Interestingly, that number gets easier as your bet multiplier goes up:

• 50 dynamite at 1x multiplier
• 46 dynamite at 2x multiplier
• 43 dynamite at 3x multiplier
• 41 dynamite at 4x multiplier
• 40 dynamite at 5x multplier

This may make the game one of those “must max bet” scenarios given the ability to hit an over $1,000 grand potentially 20 percent easier by betting max over minimum. I would presume the odds also improve significantly if you’re one of the lucky ones to land 5 bonus symbols. The jackpot does not change amounts based on wager

You can also retrigger with two bonus symbols during the bonus, with that combination yielding 5 more spins. 3 or more yield what they do upon triggering.

Watch and Learn

We previously shared this video from SlowPokeSlots, which features both games so you can compare:

Here is TheBigPayback‘s video on just the Diamonds version of the game – he has a great run: