Pixies of the Forest Slot Review: The Complete IGT Family

The studio behind the game is IGT, or International Game Technology, one of the oldest and largest slot makers in the world and the company responsible for Cleopatra, Wheel of Fortune and Wolf Run. IGT built Pixies of the Forest around a deliberately gentle math model. The base game is a clean 5-reel, 3-row grid with 99 fixed paylines, no complicated bet menus and a low-to-medium volatility profile that lets a modest bankroll last. The excitement comes from the free-spins round and from the way the Tumbling Reels can chain several wins out of one paid spin.

Its popularity is easy to explain. The theme is bright and welcoming rather than dark or aggressive, the pixie symbols are memorable, and the tumbling mechanic gives every spin the chance to keep paying without an extra wager. That cascade mechanic is the same idea that later powered a wave of cascading and cluster and cascade style slots, though Pixies itself pays on 99 fixed lines rather than in clusters. The original became a floor favorite and a lobby staple, and IGT eventually gave it a modern sequel with progressive jackpots. Both are covered in full below.

Quick-view table

These headline numbers describe the original Pixies of the Forest, the flagship title and the one most players mean when they search the name. Where the sequel diverges, the details are broken out further down. If a value is not published by IGT, it is marked that way rather than guessed. To understand why the return figure matters before you deposit, our RTP explainer is a useful companion.

Version comparison table

This is the map of the family. Read it first, because the single most useful thing to know about Pixies of the Forest is that the two versions share a theme and a core mechanic but play very differently once the bonus starts. Both are available for real money in the regulated US online market, so neither is stuck on the casino floor. Where IGT does not publish a number, the cell says so.

What Pixies of the Forest is and how it plays

IGT launched the original Pixies of the Forest as a land-based machine around 2011 and brought it online the following year, and by the time regulated online casinos went live across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan and West Virginia it was one of the IGT titles operators wanted on the digital floor early. The layout is a standard 5-reel, 3-row grid, but the line count is unusually high at 99 fixed paylines, which is why the game uses a three-coin-per-line style structure and a minimum stake of 33 coins, translating to a 0.33 minimum bet in most online lobbies. All 99 lines are always active, so there is no line selection to manage and every spin costs the same.

The base game pays left to right on those 99 lines, and the defining feature is the Tumbling Reels mechanic. When a spin lands a win, the symbols that formed it disappear rather than staying in place, and the symbols above tumble down to fill the gaps while fresh symbols drop in from the top. If the new arrangement creates another win, it pays and tumbles again, and this repeats until a drop produces no new win. A single paid spin can therefore chain into several consecutive payouts, which is the main reason the game feels lively even at a low return. Because the volatility sits in the low-to-medium band, wins land often enough to keep a session alive, and the money that makes the game memorable arrives when a bonus trigger lines up with a long tumble. If you want to size a session correctly, read our guide to volatility first.

The atmosphere carries the rest. The reels are framed by mossy woodland art, the pixie characters have a storybook look, and the soundtrack chimes softly as tumbles chain together. The payout ceiling on the original is 2,000x the bet, modest by modern standards but consistent with a game built for long, low-variance sessions rather than one big hit. That balance is why IGT kept the brand alive and eventually reworked it into a jackpot sequel rather than retiring it. To browse the deposit options across the regulated market, our real money slots hub lists the operators by state.

Symbols

The pay table on the original splits into three fairy high-pays, a set of card ranks for the low-pays, and the two special symbols that drive the bonus. Values below are quoted for a five-of-a-kind line win as a multiple of the line bet on the standard build.

High-pay symbols

• Pixies of the Forest logo: the top regular symbol, paying 2,000x for five on a line.
• Purple fairy: the highest of the three pixie characters, paying 1,000x for five.
• Brunette fairy: paying 400x for five.
• Blond fairy: paying 150x for five.

Low-pay symbols

• Ace: paying 40x for five on a line.
• King: paying 30x for five.
• Queen: paying 25x for five.
• Jack and Ten: the smallest values on the reels, filling space between the fairy hits.

Wild and bonus

• Wild: substitutes for every symbol except the Bonus symbol to help complete winning lines, and any symbols it helps pay still tumble away for another drop.
• Bonus pixie symbol: the trigger for the free-spins round. Unlike a true scatter that pays from anywhere, the original requires the Bonus symbols to land on an active payline to count toward the trigger.

Bonus-symbol cross-check

Here is the consistency check that trips up players who assume the two versions work the same way. They do not use the same bonus symbol. On the original Pixies of the Forest, the free-spins trigger is a generic Bonus pixie symbol that has to land on an active payline. On Pixies of the Forest II, the bonus symbol is the Pixie Queen, a specific character who lands on reels 1, 2 and 3 to open the free-spins round and who also hands out random gifts once the bonus is running. So the answer to whether every version uses the same scatter or bonus symbol is no. The original uses a payline-based Bonus pixie, while the sequel uses the Pixie Queen on the first three reels, and the sequel additionally carries jackpot symbols on reels 3 through 5 that the original does not have at all.

How to trigger the bonus

On the original Pixies of the Forest, the free-spins round is opened by landing three or more Bonus pixie symbols on an active payline. Because the trigger is payline-based rather than a scatter from anywhere, it fires a little less often than on a standard scatter game, which is part of why the base game feels calm. When it does hit, the game awards a random number of free spins between 5 and 11. If you are new to the difference between a payline trigger and a scatter trigger, our how to play guide walks through it.

On Pixies of the Forest II, the trigger changes with the symbol. The Pixie Queen bonus symbols land on reels 1, 2 and 3, and collecting them there opens the Pixie Queen free-spins bonus, again awarding a starting batch of 5 to 11 free spins. The sequel also carries a separate jackpot trigger: symbols landing across reels 3, 4 and 5 launch the Pixie Progressive Picker, a second-screen game that is independent of the free spins and awards the game’s three jackpot tiers. So the sequel effectively has two ways into a feature, one for the free spins and one for the jackpots.

How the bonus works

This is a required look at what actually happens once a bonus starts, because the two versions play very differently from here. On the original Pixies of the Forest, the free-spins round is straightforward. You receive your 5 to 11 spins, and the Tumbling Reels stay active throughout, so each free spin can chain into multiple tumbles the same way the base game does. There is no wheel to spin and no pick screen on the classic title. The value of the round comes entirely from whether the wilds and fairy symbols line up during the tumbles, and the round can retrigger if more Bonus symbols land on a payline, extending the free games. It is a calm, cascade-driven bonus that fits the game’s low-to-medium variance.

Pixies of the Forest II layers three separate systems on top of that cascade. The first is the Spirit Meter, a gauge that climbs by one for every consecutive winning tumble within a single spin sequence, up to a maximum of 5. Reach level 3 or higher and the game awards Feature Wild spins. The second system is the Feature Wilds themselves: when the meter triggers them, the game randomly selects one of three wild patterns to enhance the spins, either Wild Reels, which turn full reels wild, Random Wilds, which scatter extra wilds across the grid, or Countdown Sticky Wilds, which lock wilds in place for a set number of spins. The third system is the Pixie Queen free-spins bonus, 5 to 11 spins during which the Pixie Queen can hand out random gifts such as extra wilds or multipliers, with retriggers able to push the total as high as 180 free spins in a long run.

On top of all of that sits the jackpot layer. The Pixie Progressive Picker is a second screen showing three jackpots along the top and a field of 16 pixies to choose from. You pick pixies to fill the four orbs of a jackpot meter, and filling a meter awards that jackpot. The Bronze and Silver tiers are fixed at 9x and 27x the bet, while the Gold jackpot is a localized progressive fed by 0.3 percent of all bets, so it grows until it is won. None of this exists on the original, which is the clearest illustration of how far the sequel departs from its parent once you get past the shared woodland art.

Version by version

This is the section that matters most, because a player who loves the original can open a game called Pixies of the Forest II and find something built on a much busier feature set. Each version below gets its release history, what changed, how the bonus plays, its published specs and, crucially for a US player, whether it is offered online in the legal market. Both of the versions covered here are available online in the regulated states, so there is no land-based-only entry to flag in this family. If you are weighing which one to play, our guide to choosing a slot pairs well with these breakdowns.

Pixies of the Forest

The original Pixies of the Forest debuted as a land-based IGT cabinet around 2011 and reached online play by 2012, making it the foundation the sequel is built on. It is a 5-reel, 3-row slot with 99 fixed paylines, a variable RTP that operators build between 93.00 percent and 94.90 percent, and a low-to-medium volatility profile. Its maximum win is 2,000x the bet, delivered by five logo symbols on a line, and its signature is the Tumbling Reels mechanic that lets one paid spin chain into several wins. The Wild substitutes for all symbols except the Bonus, and three or more Bonus pixie symbols on an active payline award a random 5 to 11 free spins with the tumbles still running. There is no bonus buy, so the free spins can only be reached through natural triggers.

What defines the original is restraint. It has no jackpot, no meter and no pick screen, just a clean cascade engine wrapped in fairy-tale art, and that simplicity is exactly why it aged well and why so many operators kept it in their lobbies. In the regulated US online market it is one of the more widely available IGT titles, appearing at BetMGM, DraftKings and Caesars among others, and it remains on casino floors nationwide as a cabinet. If you want a low-pressure session where the fun comes from watching tumbles chain rather than chasing a life-changing jackpot, this is the version to play, and its modest 2,000x ceiling is honest about what it is.

Pixies of the Forest II

Pixies of the Forest II arrived in 2018 as a full modern reinvention rather than a light refresh. It keeps the 5-reel, 3-row frame and the 99 paylines of the original, and it keeps the Tumbling Reels at the center of play, but almost everything around that core is new. The published RTP is 96.57 percent on the standard build and rises as high as 98.83 percent depending on the progressive jackpot seed an operator selects, which is a meaningfully higher return than the original offered. Volatility moves up to medium, the bet range runs from 0.33 to 33 per spin, and IGT does not publish a single fixed maximum-win cap for the sequel because the progressive jackpots have no set ceiling, though standard base play can exceed 1,000x the stake.

What changed is the entire feature architecture. Where the original had one plain free-spins round, the sequel adds the Spirit Meter that builds through consecutive tumbles, the three random Feature Wild patterns of Wild Reels, Random Wilds and Countdown Sticky Wilds, the Pixie Queen free-spins bonus with its random gifts and a ceiling as high as 180 spins, and a three-tier jackpot reached through the Pixie Progressive Picker second screen. The Bronze and Silver jackpots pay a fixed 9x and 27x the bet, while the Gold is a localized progressive fed by 0.3 percent of wagers. The bonus symbol also changed, from the generic payline Bonus of the original to the Pixie Queen who lands on reels 1 through 3. Pixies of the Forest II is available online in the regulated US market, including on Caesars-family lobbies and other IGT-powered sites, and it also runs as a land-based cabinet. It is the version to choose if you want the jackpot chase and the deeper feature set, at the cost of the original’s simplicity.

Pixies of the Forest II specs

Max win and RTP across the family

Maximum win is where the two versions separate most clearly. The original caps at a clean 2,000x the bet, which suits its low-to-medium variance and its cascade-driven, session-friendly design. Pixies of the Forest II does not carry a single published maximum-win figure, because its three progressive jackpots have no fixed ceiling and its top prize depends on how high the localized Gold meter has climbed when it is hit. Rather than invent a number, this review states that the sequel’s standard play can exceed 1,000x while its true top outcome is a progressive jackpot event. In both games, the top of the range is a rare feature outcome, not a base-game result.

Return figures also favor the sequel. The original is built between 93.00 percent and 94.90 percent depending on the operator’s chosen build, which is on the lower side for a modern slot and reflects its age. Pixies of the Forest II starts at 96.57 percent and rises toward 98.83 percent as the jackpot seed grows, a genuinely strong return that is unusual for a jackpot game. Because both figures vary by operator and, on the sequel, by jackpot seed, reading the posted RTP in your specific lobby is worthwhile before you deposit.

Betting, bankroll and a worked tumble example

Bet ranges are gentle on both titles. The original runs from a 0.33 minimum, a consequence of its 99-line, three-coin structure, up to a ceiling that varies by operator and commonly reaches into the hundreds per spin. Pixies of the Forest II runs from 0.33 to 33 per spin. Neither game offers a bonus buy, so the free spins and, on the sequel, the jackpots can only be reached through natural triggers, which rewards patient, steady play rather than aggressive stakes.

To see why the Tumbling Reels matter, walk through a single spin on the original. Say you bet 1.00 and the reels land three blond fairies on a payline for a small win. Those fairies disappear, the symbols above tumble down, and fresh symbols drop into the empty spaces. If that new arrangement lands four aces on another line, that win pays too, and the aces tumble away for a third drop. A single 1.00 spin can therefore pay two or three times before the tumbling stops, all without any additional wager. That chaining is the entire appeal of the game, and on Pixies of the Forest II each of those consecutive tumbles also advances the Spirit Meter, which is how a good tumble sequence in the sequel can build toward the Feature Wild spins on top of the cash it already paid.

Mobile play

Both Pixies of the Forest titles run in the browser on iOS and Android without a separate download. The 99-line grid scales cleanly to a portrait phone screen, the tumbling animations play identically to desktop, and touch controls cover bet selection, spin and autoplay. On Pixies of the Forest II the Spirit Meter, the Pixie Progressive Picker second screen and the Feature Wild spins all fit a phone display, so nothing about the deeper feature set is lost on a smaller device. For a broader look at how IGT titles handle small screens, see our mobile slots guide.

Where to play

Because IGT distributes Pixies of the Forest state by state, the fastest way to find a live version is to start from the regulated operators serving your state rather than from the game itself. Our legal sites directory lists the licensed real money casinos by jurisdiction, so you can see which lobby carries the original and which carries Pixies of the Forest II. Confirm the specific version in the lobby before depositing, since availability shifts as operators rotate their catalogs.

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