Santa’s Stack Slot Review

Santa's Stack review

Santa's Stack hits that sweet spot for me between cosy Christmas slot and savage grid game. Relax Gaming has gone for an 8x8 cluster pays layout where wins land from groups of five or more matching symbols. The maths is no joke, with high volatility, a default RTP of 96.27 percent, rising to 97 percent if you buy the bonus, and stakes from 10p up to 50 quid per spin.

I like how simple the feature list is on paper, yet how brutal the game can feel in practice. You have cascading clusters, the Secret Santa mystery respins, a free spins bonus with growing stacks of wilds, and a bonus buy in some markets. Under that cute pixel art, the slot carries a max win of 20,000 times stake, so the potential is there if the grid lines up.

How I tested Santa's Stack

When I sit down with a slot like Santa's Stack, I always start in demo to get a feel for the swings. I check the paytable, cluster values, and how often the Secret Santa feature shows up in the base game. Then I run batches of spins with fixed stakes, noting hit rate, size of mystery symbol chains, and how many bonuses it takes on average to see anything near the bigger wins.

Santa's Stack Symbols & Payouts

The symbol set in Santa's Stack sticks to the Christmas cast, and it pays far harder than it looks. Blue, green and red lightbulbs sit at the low end, with 60 of a kind paying up to 1,250 times stake. Above them you have Rudolph, the Elf, Mrs Claus and Santa, where a full cluster of 60 Santas shells out a huge 10,000 times your bet.

The wild is a bright W tile, standing in for all regular pay symbols to help connect clusters, while the Christmas tree scatter is your ticket into the bonus round. During Secret Santa, those winning symbols turn into wrapped gifts that act as mystery symbols. I like how the paytable is tilted towards big clusters, so small wins feel token, but when the grid fills, the numbers finally make sense.

Symbols and Paytable

Symbol	Quantity	Payout
	60+	x10000
	50+	x1000
	40+	x300
	30+	x100
	20+	x40
	15+	x30
	12+	x13
	10+	x9
	9	x6
	8	x4
	7	x3
	6	x2
	5	x1
	60+	x4000
	50+	x550
	40+	x180
	30+	x65
	20+	x27
	15+	x15
	12+	x8
	10+	x4.5
	9	x3.5
	8	x2.5
	7	x1.7
	6	x1
	5	x0.5
	60+	x3000
	50+	x500
	40+	x170
	30+	x60
	20+	x25
	15+	x15
	12+	x8
	10+	x4.5
	9	x3.5
	8	x2.5
	7	x1.7
	6	x1
	5	x0.5
	60+	x2000
	50+	x450
	40+	x160
	30+	x55
	20+	x23
	15+	x15
	12+	x8
	10+	x4.5
	9	x3.5
	8	x2.5
	7	x1.7
	6	x1
	5	x0.5
	60+	x1250
	50+	x160
	40+	x55
	30+	x23
	20+	x14
	15+	x9
	12+	x6
	10+	x3
	9	x2
	8	x1.2
	7	x0.8
	6	x0.5
	5	x0.2
	60+	x1000
	50+	x150
	40+	x50
	30+	x20
	20+	x13
	15+	x9
	12+	x6
	10+	x3
	9	x2
	8	x1.2
	7	x0.8
	6	x0.5
	5	x0.2
	60+	x750
	50+	x140
	40+	x45
	30+	x17
	20+	x12
	15+	x9
	12+	x6
	10+	x3
	9	x2
	8	x1.2
	7	x0.8
	6	x0.5
	5	x0.2
	Scatter
	Wild

Game Features in Santa's Stack

In the base game, Santa's Stack plays out as a pure cluster slot with cascades. Land a win of five or more matching symbols, they pay, drop away, and new symbols fall in. On paper the hit rate sits around twenty four percent, which matches my sessions quite well. You get plenty of small clusters, but the grid can go quiet for long spells when the volatility decides to bite.

Everything in this slot orbits the wild symbol, since any win involving a W kicks off the Secret Santa respins. That means base game results can feel streaky. I have had sets of spins where the feature barely shows, then suddenly one wild connects and the whole screen starts filling with gifts. The real excitement, though, comes when the same mechanic carries into free spins with guaranteed wilds.

Santa's Stack slot features

Secret Santa respins trigger whenever a wild helps form a winning cluster. The whole winning group turns into sticky mystery presents, the rest of the grid respins, and any new win that touches that cluster also converts to gifts. This can repeat several times. When the run ends, every mystery tile reveals the same symbol, which is where those 60 symbol clusters and monster payouts can appear from nowhere.

Free spins arrive when three or more Christmas tree scatters land, giving five spins for the first three and one extra for each extra scatter. During the bonus, wilds are guaranteed on every spin, starting at one and climbing by one each time. Secret Santa is always active here, so those forced wilds keep trying to kick it off, and extra trees can add another spin, a win multiplier, or both at once.

Where allowed, you can buy straight into the bonus for one hundred times your stake, and that pushes the RTP up to about ninety seven percent. In my experience, though, that option is not a golden ticket. I have had runs of bought bonuses that barely got going, with Secret Santa whiffing and returns under stake. Then you hit one monster round and see why the cap sits at 20,000 times.

Santa's Stack Graphics & Sound

Visually, Santa's Stack leans hard into chunky 8 bit style, with a quiet winter town in the background and the grid framed by tinsel. I rate the presentation highly. The falling snow, blocky characters and those little lighting touches on winning clusters give it a proper retro video game feel. The soundtrack has that arcade hum with festive notes, which works well without getting on my nerves during longer sessions.

Verdict on Santa's Stack

As someone who has spun more Christmas reskins than I care to count, Santa's Stack feels like a breath of fresh air. The cluster maths, huge symbol values and that Secret Santa engine make it more than a holiday throwaway. I like that Relax Gaming has nailed a nostalgic look yet kept the gameplay sharp, with proper hit or miss potential rather than fluffy low risk entertainment.

On the flip side, this is not the sort of festive slot I would hand to a casual mate with a tenner. The volatility can be ruthless, base game can feel dead, and bonus buys can shred a balance when the grid refuses to co operate. If you enjoy high risk grid slots and can stomach cold runs for a shot at 20,000 times stake, Santa's Stack delivers that ride.

Screenshots