Pirots 5: The Birds Return From Space and Head for a Cursed Temple
A rundown of ELK Studios’ new release Pirots 5. The core is a 6×6 collector board with Captain Blackfeather, the Secret Door, the Catacombs, and the Cursed Temple coin game. RTP up to 96%, max win 10,000x, volatility 7/10.
Key takeaways
- ELK Studios released the fifth game in the Pirots series on July 23.
- The collector mechanic, where birds walk across the board gathering symbols, stays the same.
- Captain Blackfeather, the Secret Door, the Catacombs, and the Cursed Temple coin game are new additions.
- Hit frequency is 25.1%, volatility is 7/10, and max win is 10,000x.
The birds that conquered space have come home. The landing Skipper crashed into an amusement park map, and the map caught fire. When the smoke cleared, the location of a lost golden city and the traitor Captain Blackfeather appeared on the burned map. This is how Pirots 5, unveiled by ELK Studios on July 23, begins.
At the temple entrance, a single voice warns of the Captain’s curse and the mummy. The birds do not back down. They walk into a temple where arrows and boulders fly and the floor moves. It is a story structure that fans who have followed the series will welcome.
The teaser video of just over 40 seconds that ELK released alongside it starts with the captain’s past. With a caption reading “Long ago,” the captain appears on a pirate ship’s deck hugging a treasure chest, and a giant tentacle rises over a pile of gold coins. The ship falls apart in a stormy sea, and the captain becomes a blue ghost. When the scene shifts to “Now,” birds study a burned map in front of an amusement park in the desert.
The official game page’s resource section lists, besides the Cursed Temple brief, separate briefs and asset packs named Kraken and Golden City. This release news covers only the Cursed Temple side.
Pirots is a game where birds eat symbols
The board in the Pirots series works differently from a typical slot. Instead of lining up paylines, birds on the board walk along same-colored symbols and collect them one by one. ELK calls this mechanic CollectR™. The spot where a bird passed is left empty, and new symbols drop into the gaps.
Pirots 5’s board is 6×6. The board grows as symbols gather, and symbols sometimes turn into other symbols. If you’ve played Pirots 2 or Pirots 4, the basic flow will feel familiar right away. What’s changed is what happens on the board.
The Captain turns birds into ghosts
The villain this time is Captain Blackfeather. The Captain turns 1 to 4 birds into ghosts and swaps the symbols those birds were handling for Blackfeather gems. Depending on how many birds become ghosts, the look of the board changes quite a bit.
The temple has traps in every corner. If a bird collects a symbol sitting on a Catacomb corner, you enter the Catacombs. Win the fight against the mummy inside and you receive a feature symbol. It is a moment where the mummy from the story becomes an actual game feature.
The Secret Door spins the board
The most eye-catching new device is the Secret Door. When the door opens, the entire board rotates. Symbols and birds turn together. The board also has crossing floor tiles, and with these tiles a bird can pass across spots it has already collected.
If you clear every symbol off the board while the Secret Door is active, the Cursed Temple coin game opens. Since the board has to be emptied first, it is not a scene you will see easily. It is also the most dramatic moment in this game.
In the bonus, board size and progress carry over
When the birds collect 3 bonus symbols, the bonus game begins. If one of them is a Super Bonus symbol, you enter the Super Bonus. Inside the bonus, the board size, collection meter progress, and gem upgrades all carry over. A board that has been expanded never shrinks, so it keeps growing the further you go.
It also matters that gem upgrades are kept. In the base game, even if the board grows and gems level up, it tends to reset once the spin ends. In the bonus, that progress is carried into the next spin. This accumulating structure is why series fans look forward to the Pirots bonus.
ELK games come with X-iter™, which lets you buy a bonus directly. It offers more choices than a typical bonus buy, and Pirots 5 has five modes.
| X-iter mode | Price | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Bonus hunt | 3x bet | 4x or higher bonus chance |
| Mega Hunt | 10x bet | Details not disclosed |
| The Cursed Temple | 50x bet | Instant coin game entry |
| Bonus | 100x bet | Instant bonus entry |
| Super bonus | 250x bet | Instant Super Bonus entry |
The brief doesn’t spell out the exact effect of Mega Hunt. Among the five modes, the 50x mode that goes straight into the coin game stands out. It’s an option that pays to skip a scene that normally requires clearing the board.
Pirots 5 by the numbers
These figures are from the official product brief.
| Item | Stats |
|---|---|
| RTP | 87.0-96.0% (varies by market and operator) |
| Volatility | 7 out of 10 |
| Max win | 10,000x your bet |
| Hit frequency | 25.1% |
| Bet range | €0.20-100 |
| Max payout limit | €1 million |
A hit frequency of 25.1% means roughly one win every four spins. Volatility is 7 out of 10, so the series’ big swings continue. The RTP is set by the operator anywhere from 87% to 96%, so it’s best to check the game info screen where you actually play.
The max payout limit of 1 million euros also adds up. Multiply the top bet of 100 euros by the max win of 10,000x and you get exactly 1 million euros. The numbers are set so that even a max win at the top bet does not hit the cap.
The Super Bonus value has been cut in half
Looking back through the series makes the place of Pirots 5 clear. The first game, released in March 2023, started on a 5×5 board and introduced the collector mechanic. In October of the same year, the second game grew the board to 6×6 and added a Popcorn symbol that lets you skip over empty cells. The fourth game, in July 2025, went into space with the Space Bandit and black holes, and even added a device that changes the world to Frozen Fury and Inferno as time passes.
Hit frequency stays similar throughout the series: 26.8% in Pirots 1, 25.4% in Pirots 2, 25.0% in Pirots 4, and 25.1% in Pirots 5. The basic rhythm of the birds walking across the board has barely changed, and only the events on the board have been swapped out. Volatility is 7 for every game except Pirots 2, which is 8.
The most noticeable change is the X-iter price list. Looking at our site’s info on Pirots 1, Pirots 2, and Pirots 4, the Super Bonus was 500x the bet in all of them. In Pirots 5 it’s 250x. In that gap, a 50x Cursed Temple coin game mode has been added. It lowers the price of the most expensive option and adds one more mid-priced choice.
Even in the fifth game, the birds never rest
Pirots is ELK’s flagship series. The birds, who started on a pirate ship and traveled all the way to space, now take an ancient temple as their stage. With the Captain’s curse, the mummy, and the rotating board, there are many mechanics, so the screen can look complicated at first. Start with the free demo and watch the Secret Door spin the board, and the flow will click. You can also browse other ELK Studios games.
Source: ELK Studios official news · ELK Studios product sheet · ELK Studios official teaser video