Shady Lady’s “Love Nest”: a critter burrows toward the crates buried under the garden
A rundown of Shady Lady’s new release Love Nest. 5×5 3,125-ways cascades, a critter and buried crates, multiplier moths and red moths, Bonus and Super Bonus. RTP 96.12%, high volatility, max win 20,000x.
Key takeaways
- Shady Lady released its new game “Love Nest” on October 15.
- A 5×5 grid with 3,125 ways and cascades.
- The critter tunnels toward crates buried below the grid, and multiplier moths appear along its path to grow the total multiplier. Red moths double the multiplier.
- RTP 96.12%, high volatility, hit frequency 19.76%, max win 20,000x.
1983, a suburban neighborhood with neatly trimmed lawns. Something is buried beneath the garden of an ordinary-looking house. “Love Nest,” released by Shady Lady on October 15, turns the story of a woman who lures married men to her home and buries them in the garden into a slot. Even the logo is shaped like a rotting air freshener.
Shady Lady is an independent studio launched in 2024. Since its debut game Devil’s Finger, it has twisted subjects like cults, virus labs, and gym influencers into black comedy. Love Nest goes furthest toward horror of them all. UK review site OLBG named Shady Lady a “new studio to watch” in its Halloween slots feature.
Cascades keep rolling across a 5×5 grid
The grid is 5×5 with 3,125 ways. Matching symbols from the left win, and winning symbols disappear as new ones drop from above in a cascade format. The low-paying symbols are cable ties, tape, a pill bottle, and a hammer, and the four high-paying symbols are body parts. Wilds substitute for all regular symbols.
There is also a Ground Tremor that shakes the grid up and down. It can happen at any stage, collapsing rows from the bottom row upward. Symbols in the collapsed rows disappear except for buried crates and scatters, and the empty spots are filled by a cascade.
The critter digs toward the buried crates
The star of the game is an underground creature called the critter. It appears on any spin or cascade when there are no more wins. If there is a buried crate on the bottom row of the grid, it digs toward it; if not, it digs along any path and then leaves. It swallows regular symbols along its path and tramples over scatters.
Buried crates drop onto the bottom row one at a time, ranging from 1 to 4 cells wide. Sealed crates do not count toward wins. Cells the critter reaches open up and become wilds. The widest crate can only be dug along one path by the critter, so entering from the end opens the whole crate, while entering from the middle opens only one side.
The more moths take flight, the bigger the multiplier
When the critter swallows a high-paying body part symbol, a Meat Eating Vortex appears in its place. The vortex sucks in the symbols above and pulls in 1 to 50 more meat symbols. Each high-paying symbol and meat symbol gathered this way becomes a multiplier moth and adds +1 to the total multiplier. Low-paying symbols add nothing.
In the Vortex, 1 to 3 big red moths can appear. Each red moth doubles the total multiplier. Buried crates usually have up to 10 moths attached as well, and rarely contain 50 moths or red moths. When the critter reaches a crate, those moths are added to the total multiplier too. In the base game, the multiplier starts from scratch on every new spin.
The multiplier never drops in the bonus
| Bonus | Entry | Starting spins |
|---|---|---|
| Bonus | 3 scatters | 3 spins |
| Super bonus | 4 scatters | 5x |
Both bonuses are played while holding one buried crate at the bottom of the grid. When the critter opens the crate, the remaining spins reset to the starting number, and a new crate drops on the next spin. If you fail to open a crate within the given spins, the bonus ends. During this time, the total multiplier is not reset and keeps building. According to review site Bigwinboard, free spins trigger about once every 278 spins.
The shop menu is classic Shady Lady
Shady Lady games come with a shop menu that collects boosts and bonus buy options. Love Nest is no exception.
| Options | Price (relative to bet) | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Bonus Boost | 1.5x | Bonus trigger chance up 237% |
| Big Bonus Boost | 5x | Bonus trigger chance up 1,174% |
| Critter Boost | 10x | Critter appearance guaranteed every spin |
| Bonus Buy | 84x | Instant bonus start |
| Super Bonus Buy | 300x | Instant Super Bonus start |
There are also Bronze, Silver, and Gold tier bonus buys (129x, 347x, 1,596x), a Highlight Reel that buys the best result out of 100-500 spins (79-292x), and four types of loot boxes at 186-950x. The shop lineup may differ by operator.
In short
“Love Nest” is a 5×5, 3,125-ways cascade slot released by Shady Lady on October 15, 2026. A critter tunnels toward buried crates to open wilds, and the multiplier moths and red moths created along its path grow the total multiplier. In the Bonus and Super Bonus, the multiplier carries over. The RTP is 96.12% (94% and 92% versions exist), volatility is high, hit frequency is 19.76%, and the max win is 20,000x. Every game Shady Lady has released so far has had an RTP of 96% or higher and a max win of 20,000x. You can see the full list, including the same studio’s NUUKD and Preach TV, in our Shady Lady free slots collection. The official game sheet has not been released yet, so the figures in this article are based on data published by review sites.
Source: OLBG · Bigwinboard