Pink Elephants, Thunderkick's dreamlike savannah

Pink Elephants in detail

Pink Elephants is a Thunderkick slot published on 24 October 2017. This is the first instalment of the series: its sequel, Pink Elephants 2, arrived in 2020 and is a separate game with its own return rate and its own win ceiling. This page covers the 2017 original exclusively, and every figure below belongs to it rather than to the follow-up.

The artwork mixes African savannah with dream imagery — a nocturnal palette, stylised pink elephants and a floating soundtrack that did a great deal for the game's reputation. The studio applies its usual signature here: few elements on screen, a readable grid, and animation reserved for the moments that matter.

The grid is wide: 6 reels and 4 rows, for 4,096 ways to win. Any run of identical symbols placed left to right on adjacent reels pays, whatever height each one sits at. Stakes cover a range of €0.10 to €100 a spin. The RTP quoted by Thunderkick is 96.1% and maximum exposure is set at 8,200 times the stake. The studio rates the game high volatility.

The first mechanic is called Mystery Scatter. In the base game, one or more mystery symbols can land on the grid and then reveal themselves as scatter symbols, one to five at a time. It is the main lever for reaching the bonus, because it lets you hit the scatter threshold without those scatters having to be drawn directly on the reels.

Three scatter symbols or more open the free spins. The number awarded depends on how many scatters came together: 7, 11, 15 or 19 spins for three, four, five or six scatters respectively. On a six-reel grid, assembling five or six scatters remains an uncommon event, which makes the Mystery Scatter all the more decisive.

This is where the game's signature arrives: the elephant orbs. Orbs collected during the free spins fill transformation meters. When a meter completes, a low-value symbol — the goat — is replaced across the whole grid by a higher-value pink elephant. Each transformation permanently improves the structure of the remaining spins, and scatters obtained during the phase add further spins, which gives the transformations time to stack up.

Pink Elephants offers no bonus buy: the free spins trigger through scatters only, whether drawn directly or revealed by the mystery symbols. That is worth knowing before you sit down, because it means the pace of a session is set by the draw and not by your budget, and the base game gives you no counter to watch in the meantime. The game is HTML5 and runs identically on desktop, tablet and phone, with no dedicated build and no feature stripped out on mobile.

• Provider: Thunderkick
• Grid: 6 reels x 4 rows, 4,096 ways
• RTP: 96.1%
• Maximum win: 8,200x the stake
• Volatility: high

How Pink Elephants works

• ▸A grid of six reels across four rows offering 4,096 ways to win.
• ▸Combinations pay left to right on adjacent reels, with no line to speak of.
• ▸Mystery Scatter: mystery symbols reveal themselves as one to five scatters at a time.
• ▸That mechanic lets you reach the trigger threshold without drawing the scatters directly.
• ▸Three scatters or more open the free spins phase of the game.
• ▸The number of spins depends on the scatters assembled: 7, 11, 15 or 19.
• ▸Elephant orbs collected during the free spins fill transformation meters.
• ▸A completed meter replaces the goat symbol with a higher-value pink elephant.
• ▸Scatters obtained inside the bonus add further free spins to the phase.
• ▸Stakes from €0.10 to €100 a spin, HTML5 on every device.