In short: Sweet Bonanza is the 2019 candy slot whose pays-anywhere tumbles Pragmatic has since reused across many of its biggest games. Any eight matching symbols on a 6x5 grid win, and the free spins add multiplier bombs that are summed and applied to a whole tumble sequence. One feature does nearly all the work, which suits players who like a rule they can learn in a minute and can sit through quiet spells while waiting for it.
Eight anywhere, then tumble
Pragmatic Play released Sweet Bonanza on 25 June 2019. There are no paylines: eight or more of the same fruit or sweet anywhere on the six-by-five grid make a win, and groups of 8 to 12 or more pay up to 50x the bet. Winning symbols vanish, the rest drop down, new ones fall in from above, and the process repeats with no limit on how many tumbles a spin can chain.
Lollipops are the scatters. Four, five or six of them pay up to 100x on their own and start the free spins. Default stakes run from 0.20 to 240.
Free spins and the bombs
The round opens with 10 free spins, and three or more lollipops during it add five more, so it can run well past ten. Multiplier bombs appear only in this round. Each one takes a value of 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x, 8x, 10x, 12x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x or 100x and stays on screen until the tumble sequence ends.
At that point every bomb on screen is added together and the total multiplies the whole sequence's win. Bombs of 2x, 10x and 25x make 37x, applied to everything that tumble chain paid. The catch is the reverse case: a 100x bomb on a sequence that paid almost nothing has almost nothing to multiply, so the best outcomes need a big bomb and a long chain on the same spin.
Ante bet or buy, not both
Two optional modes change the stake. The ante raises each bet by 25% and doubles the chance of triggering free spins naturally by adding scatters, but it switches the buy off. Without the ante, the feature can be bought for 100x the bet where the casino allows it. Neither option changes how the bombs work.
RTP, ceiling and an unsettled volatility rating
Pragmatic quotes a default RTP of 96.48%, while the game's own data reports 96.49% and a second configuration at 96.60%. One Ontario-regulated casino shows the range 96.49% to 96.6%, which suggests Ontario players may see either; the figure in the game's information screen is the one that applies, and why the same slot can have different RTP explains why.
The maximum win is 21,175x the bet, the figure Pragmatic announced at launch; the game's intro screen rounds it down to 21,100x. Ontario stake limits can be lower than the default: one regulated casino caps the game at $100 a spin.
The volatility is genuinely disputed. Pragmatic launched Sweet Bonanza as a high-volatility game, yet the volatility meter in the current version rates it low. A 21,175x ceiling that depends on stacked bombs inside one feature points to large swings, so expect long dry stretches between big results whichever label you meet.
Against Sweet Bonanza 1000
Sweet Bonanza 1000 keeps the same grid, scatters and five-spin retrigger but pushes bombs to 1,000x, raises the cap to 25,000x and adds a 500x Super Free Spins buy in which every bomb is worth at least 20x. The original has the smaller multipliers and the lower ceiling, and for many players that makes its free spins easier to read.
In the free demo above, the useful thing to watch is how often a free spins round lands a bomb on a tumble chain that is already paying, since that combination produces nearly every large result.
