Coin Grid Keeps Coming: Four Bingo-Board Slots Compared
Coin Grid, which Microgaming introduced as an all-new feature in Bolts of Zeus in July, has moved through Maxxi Labs and continues to Wrathfire in December. We look at how it keeps coins on a 5×5 board next to the reels to fill lines, and what the four games changed on the same framework.
Key Takeaways
- Coin Grid is a feature that keeps Cash Coins and Jackpot Coins on a 5×5 board next to the reels and pays a prize when five spots are filled horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
- The earliest confirmed game is Microgaming’s Bolts of Zeus Coin Grid, released on July 15, 2026. Official sources do not say who devised the feature.
- Skulls and Souls Bonanza followed on September 30 and Rats vs Ravens (Stake exclusive) on October 14, both from Maxxi Labs, and Wrathfire is set to launch on December 2.
- Side by side, the game rules share 40 lines, four jackpot tiers and even the same bonus buy prices; the feature names and max wins differ.
A single feature name tacked onto game titles and carried on like a series is nothing new in the slot industry. Megaways did it, and many provider-specific mechanics have taken the same path. In the second half of 2026, “Coin Grid” has joined that trend. From July to December, four games with Coin Grid in the title have been confirmed, and three of them can be played as demos on AI Slot. This article is based on the official site descriptions and the rules screens built into each game.
What Exactly Is Coin Grid
Open the demos of Skulls and Souls Bonanza and Wrathfire and there are two boards. On the right is a regular 5×5 reel set, and on the left sits a coin board of the same size. The in-game rules describe how it works as follows.
- When a Coin Grid Cash Coin or Jackpot Coin lands on the reels in the base game or free spins, that coin fills the matching spot on the coin board.
- When all five spots in a horizontal, vertical or corner-to-corner diagonal line are filled, a set is completed and a prize is paid. Up to 4 sets can be completed on a single spin.
- Only the coins that formed a set are removed from the board; the rest stay for the next spin.
- If another Cash Coin lands on a spot that already holds a coin, that spot’s value goes up. Cash Coin values range from 0.5x to 12x the bet.
- Jackpot Coins are Mini 15x, Minor 50x, Major 500x and Grand 5,000x, and only one of each type can sit on the board at a time.
The key point is that, unlike regular slots where the board resets every spin, the result of one spin carries over to the next. It feels close to filling a bingo card one square at a time. Maxxi Labs explained that the approach gives players a continuing goal instead of a reset every spin.
July to December: How It Appeared and Spread
July 15 · Bolts of Zeus Coin Grid
It started with Microgaming. Introducing Bolts of Zeus Coin Grid, the official site wrote that the “all-new COIN GRID” turns every spin into a chance to collect coins. In the in-game rules, feature names such as COIN GRID and ULTRA Link&Win carry a trademark sign (™). It is the earliest of the four games we checked. However, official sources do not confirm who designed the feature or whether any earlier game used the same name.
September 30 · Skulls and Souls Bonanza Coin Grid
The second title came from Maxxi Labs, a collective of six studios. It is Skulls and Souls Bonanza Coin Grid, themed on Mexico’s Day of the Dead. The official Maxxi Labs description calls the board a “mirrored Coin Grid” and says completing rows, columns and diagonals unlocks prizes and jackpot opportunities.
October 14 · Rats vs Ravens Coin Grid
Two weeks later, Maxxi Labs released Rats vs Ravens Coin Grid, made by its studio Slotty. It is a lifetime exclusive built only for Stake. Maxxi Labs said Slotty combined an urban setting with Coin Grid to give the game a character of its own. The details are covered in our Rats vs Ravens launch article.
December 2 · Wrathfire Coin Grid
Coin Grid then returns to Microgaming. Listed for December 2 on the upcoming releases of Microgaming’s official site, Wrathfire Coin Grid features a warrior wreathed in flames. It has not launched yet, but the demo is already open.
In short, four games came out from two brands in five months, in a flow that started at Microgaming, passed through two Maxxi Labs titles and returned to Microgaming. The start screens of the three games are identical down to the wording and the example coin layout.
The Framework That Stays the Same
Put the in-game rules of the three games with open demos side by side, and even the sentence structure is nearly the same. Only the names differ; the following items are identical in all three.
- Fixed 40 lines, with line wins paying from the leftmost reel
- 6 or more coins start a Hold and Spin style bonus with 3 respins, and the respins reset to 3 whenever a new coin lands
- 4 or 5 coins raise a bonus meter, and depending on the meter level you enter Max, Multiplier or Collect mode. All three modes start with 3 extra rows unlocked
- Booster coins are Cash Collect, 2x multiplier, Unlock to open rows, and Extra Chance for 1 more respin
- 3 or more scatters award 10 free spins, with wilds or coins stacked across the reels on every spin
- Four bonus buy options at 50x, 95x, 120x and 200x
We could not check a demo of Rats vs Ravens, but its published description, with 3 starting respins, a board that grows as rows unlock, Power Mode in the base game, Super Stacks and 10 free spins, overlaps with the same framework.
What Each Game Changed
| Type | Bolts of Zeus | Skulls and Souls Bonanza | Rats vs Ravens | Wrathfire |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provider | Microgaming | Maxxi Labs | Maxxi Labs (Slotty) | Microgaming |
| Release | 2026.07.15 | 2026.09.30 | 2026.10.14 (Stake exclusive) | 2026.12.02 (upcoming) |
| Theme | Zeus and Olympus | Day of the Dead | Rats and ravens in a neon city | Warrior of flames |
| Bonus name | ULTRA Link&Win | Hold&Win | Hold&Win | Hold&Win |
| Lowers coin requirement | Shock Mode | Power Mode | Power Mode | Inferno Rising |
| Symbol stacking | Power Stacks | Super Stacks | Super Stacks | Wrath Stack |
| RTP | 96.00% | 96.00% | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Volatility | Very high | Very high | Very high | Not disclosed |
| Max win | 13,282x | 5,000x | 13,283x | 10,000x |
As the table shows, what changed is names and numbers. Only Bolts of Zeus calls its bonus “ULTRA Link&Win”, while the two Maxxi Labs titles share the same names: Hold&Win, Power Mode and Super Stacks. Wrathfire keeps Hold&Win as the bonus name but gives its coin-requirement feature and stacking feature theme-specific names, Inferno Rising and Wrath Stack. All three of those features work the same way: they hand out one free coin in advance and reduce by one the number of coins needed to trigger the bonus or raise the meter.
The number that differs most is the max win. On the same framework, the caps range from 5,000x to 13,283x. The 5,000x of Skulls and Souls Bonanza is the same figure as the Grand jackpot. Bet ranges also differ: $0.20 – $20.00 for Bolts of Zeus and €0.2 – €8 for Skulls and Souls Bonanza.
What to Check in the Demos
Identical rules also mean that a feel you build in one game carries straight over to the others. When playing the demos, watching the following makes the differences easy to see.
- Where coins remain. After a spin ends, check whether any line on the coin board has four spots filled. In Coin Grid, that state carries over to the next spin.
- Spots that grow when stacked. Check how much a value rises when another Cash Coin lands on the same spot, and which set an intersecting coin is added to.
- Where the Jackpot Coins sit. There is only one Jackpot Coin of each type, so whether the line containing it gets completed is the path to a big win.
- Meter and modes. Watch at which level the bonus meter, raised by 4 or 5 coins, switches to Max, Multiplier or Collect mode.
- Same-priced bonus buys. The four buy prices are the same in every game, so it is easy to open the same mode in several games and compare the results.
All three games can be opened as demos on AI Slot right away with no sign-up. Wrathfire is a pre-release demo, so its RTP and volatility have not been published yet.
Rats vs Ravens Coin Grid is a Stake exclusive, so there is no demo on AI Slot. Other games from the two providers are on Microgaming free slots and Maxxi Labs free slots.
Source: Microgaming official site (microgaming.io), Maxxi Labs official site (maxxilabs.io), in-game rules and demo screens of each game, iGaming Business, AI Slot game data