Crab Trap Slot Review

The Crab Trap Slot Game

Crab Trap from NetEnt drops you onto a sunny harbour jetty with a hut built around the reels, a dangling fish and bright, cartoony graphics. The gameboard uses 6 reels and 4 rows, running a scatter pays mechanic rather than lines or ways. You play on desktop or mobile with the same layout, and the upbeat banjo led soundtrack keeps the pace light while the boats and traps do their work.

Betting starts at 0.10 a spin and goes right up to 400, which is high for a medium volatility slot with a capped win of 1,191 times your stake. There are no wilds to simplify the grid, instead the game hangs everything on trap frames, Red and Blue Boats, respins and a short free spins round. As a package it feels like laid back crab fishing rather than high risk deep sea work.

Symbols and Payouts in Crab Trap

In the base game of Crab Trap most hits come from the eight regular symbols. Lows are wooden J, Q, K and A icons painted in different colours. Mediums are the red starfish and yellow bucket, while premiums are the green buoy and blue boot. You do not need the symbols on lines; any time enough matching icons land anywhere on the 6x4 grid the scatter pays system awards a win.

Seven low symbols in view pay 1x the bet, rising to 8x for ten or more. Medium symbols follow the same pattern, paying 1x for six of a kind and 8x for nine plus. High symbols are a little different, starting at 0.4x for five and reaching 10x for nine or more. It means regular icons all sit quite close in value, so the grid feels very even during standard spins.

Scatters come as lifebuoy symbols that trigger free spins, while the Red and Blue Boats have no direct payout and instead place or trigger traps. Single Crab symbols show bet multipliers of 1, 2, 5 or 10, with 2x2 Crabs carrying 10x to 100x and 3x3 Crabs carrying 100x to 1,000x. These values only pay when the Crabs land inside active trap frames during the respin feature.

Symbols and Paytable

Symbol	Quantity	Payout
	9+	x1
	8	x0.5
	7	x0.25
	6	x0.1
	5	x0.04
	9+	x1
	8	x0.5
	7	x0.25
	6	x0.1
	5	x0.04
	9+	x0.8
	8	x0.4
	7	x0.2
	6	x0.1
	9+	x0.8
	8	x0.4
	7	x0.2
	6	x0.1
	10+	x0.8
	9	x0.4
	8	x0.2
	7	x0.1
	10+	x0.8
	9	x0.4
	8	x0.2
	7	x0.1
	10+	x0.8
	9	x0.4
	8	x0.2
	7	x0.1
	10+	x0.8
	9	x0.4
	8	x0.2
	7	x0.1
	Special
	Respin
	Respin
	Scatter

Crab Trap Slot Bonus Features

In Crab Trap the engine really wakes up once Blue and Red Boats start working together. Blue Boats can land anywhere and add a trap frame where they sit, then throw 1 to 5 extra frames at random empty positions. When enough frames are out there a Red Boat can appear on its reel and trigger a respin, freezing any Crabs that land inside frames and granting more respins while new trapped Crabs keep arriving.

Colossal 2x2 and 3x3 Crabs can also land, paying their full values when fully trapped or splitting into smaller Crabs when only partly framed. When the respin chain ends all caught Crabs pay together, frames containing wins clear and empty frames stay. Free spins from 3 to 6 scatters, carry over traps, award extra spins for collected scatters and guarantee that any Red Boat in the round gives another respin.

If you do not fancy waiting for scatters you can buy into 6 free spins for 50x your stake. The RTP stays the same and any trap frames from the main game are stored. Ten fresh frames drop in at the start of the bought round and once free spins finish your original pattern of traps reappears on the grid, which makes the feature feel nicely connected to base play.

How to Win at Crab Trap Slot

Winning in Crab Trap revolves around the scatter pays mechanic and getting value from the trap frames. In the base game you mostly collect returns from clusters of regular symbols, while keeping an eye on how many traps the Blue Boats have thrown out. For me the better sessions came when a decent spread of frames was already on the board before a Red Boat landed and crabs locked in for several respins.

Crab Trap Slot RTP & Volatility

On paper Crab Trap runs a medium volatility model with a default RTP of 96.07 percent, though some casinos offer a reduced 94.06 version. The hit rate feels fair for this style of collection game, with plenty of small scatter wins and short dead patches. The headline figure of 1,191x the bet as a maximum win is modest by current standards, which shaped my staking quite a bit during testing.

Being able to wager from 0.10 up to 400 a spin means Crab Trap can sit in almost any bankroll plan, though the limited top end pushes it towards players who prefer steadier sessions. I treated it as a grinder, aiming for strings of boat features and free spins rather than one life changing hit. The Bonus Buy at 50x is tempting, yet I found it best used sparingly as a situational punt.

The Final Thoughts on Crab Trap

Overall Crab Trap felt like a pleasant seaside slot with a neat trap concept rather than a high adrenaline fishing expedition. Once you get a feel for how Blue and Red Boats interact the gameplay is straightforward, and the mix of persistent frames in free spins gives you something to build towards. If you want relaxed sessions, colourful art and the odd flurry of crab respins, this NetEnt title does the job nicely.

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