Fire in the Hole 2 is Nolimit City's sequel to its mining slot, released on 20 February 2024. It keeps the mine, the dwarf and the soundtrack of the original, but adds more reels, bigger ways to win and a higher ceiling. If you want to know how to play Fire in the Hole 2 slot without wading through a dozen conflicting reviews, this walkthrough takes you through a single round, explains the features in plain terms and sorts out where the sources disagree.
Setting your stake and reading the grid
The betting range runs from €0.20 to €100 per spin. Set your stake first, because two of the game's features add a percentage on top of it, and you want to know your baseline before you touch them.
The grid starts as 6 reels with 3 active rows. The layout is written as 6×3-6, which means the rows can grow from 3 up to 6 as the round plays out. With no dirt in the way, you have 729 ways to win. As the grid expands to its full 6×6 size, the ways to win climb to 46,656.
Dirt blockers
Dirt is the key thing to understand before your first spin. Those blocked positions sit on the grid and reduce the number of active ways to win. When you land a winning combination, the symbols disappear and new ones cascade down from above. Each win also clears dirt and pushes the grid taller — this is the Collapsing Mine mechanic. So a single win can open up the board, add rows and lift the ways to win on the very next cascade. A dead-looking grid with lots of dirt can come alive in a few drops.
RTP and volatility, with the labels sorted out
The default RTP is 96.07%. Nolimit City also supplies lower alternative settings that operators can choose: 94.08%, 92.07% and 87.05%. One review lists these slightly differently as 94.01%, 92.11% and 87.01% — the figures don't quite match across sources, but the message is the same: the RTP you get depends on where you play, and it can be well below the headline 96.07%.
Of that 96.07% return, OLBG reports 61.23% comes from the base game and 34.84% from the bonus features. In other words, a big chunk of the theoretical payback is locked inside the bonus round you may not often reach.
On volatility, Nolimit City rates the game the full 10 out of 10 on its own scale and calls it extreme. Some review sites label it "high", and at least a couple (SpinVerdict, Gamesville) call it "medium". Treat the "medium" tag as an outlier — this is a game that can run flat for long stretches and then deliver everything at once. The hit frequency is 25.09%, so on average a winning combination lands every 3.98 spins, but plenty of those wins are small.
The maximum win and how rare it is
The top payout is 65,000x your base bet, called the El Beerado payout. That beats the original game's 60,000x ceiling. It is extremely rare: it arrives at roughly 1 in 17 million rounds, and the moment your total win reaches that figure the round ends on the spot.
A more realistic marker to keep in mind: at the highest RTP setting, the chance of winning 100 times your total bet or more is about 1 in 789 spins.
Triggering Lucky Wagon Spins
The bonus round is called Lucky Wagon Spins. You trigger it by landing Bonus (Scatter) symbols:
- 3 Scatters — 2 rows active
- 4 Scatters — 3 rows active
- 5 Scatters — 4 rows active
Once inside, you get 3 respins. Here is the part that matters: the respin counter resets to 3 every time a coin is scored on the grid. As long as coins keep landing, the feature keeps going.
The bonus also brings an Upgrade feature. A 7th reel appears on which only Upgrade (diamond) symbols can land. When a diamond lands, it affects every icon on its row for that spin, upgrading them. In standard play, free spins trigger on average once every 211 spins — so without any help, the bonus is a long wait.
xBomb and xSplit explained
Two features do the heavy lifting in this game.
xBomb is the wild multiplier. It carries a multiplier between 0.2x and 7.5x per line. Note that it can be below 1x, so it doesn't always boost a win — but at the top end it multiplies a line win by 7.5. The xBomb also clears symbols as it detonates, feeding the cascade.
xSplit is the one that turns a quiet round around. It can sit buried under dirt, and when a collapse uncovers it, it splits symbols and expands the grid, which can start a chain reaction. This is why patience matters: the base game can run flat for long stretches, then a single buried xSplit under a collapse turns a dead grid into a chain. The game suits players with a bankroll built for those quiet stretches — and that means setting a limit you're comfortable with before you start, and sticking to it.
What xBet does and whether it's worth it
xBet is a toggle that costs an extra 150% of your stake, so each spin becomes 2.5 times your base bet. In return it:
- guarantees at least 1 Bonus symbol on the last inactive row every spin, and
- removes all dirt from the reels.
The payoff is in how much more often you reach the bonus. With xBet on, free spins frequency improves from 1 in 211 spins to about 1 in 49 spins. RTP shifts only slightly — 96.07% standard versus 96.09% with xBet active, according to Fruityslots.
So is it worth it? xBet doesn't meaningfully change your long-run return; it changes the shape of play. You pay 2.5x per spin to hit the bonus roughly four times as often. If you're playing to reach Lucky Wagon Spins and can afford the faster burn, it does what it says. If you're stretching a modest bankroll, the flat stake lasts longer.
Bonus buys and which has the best RTP
If you'd rather skip straight to a feature, the bonus buys are:
| Buy | Cost (x bet) | RTP |
|---|---|---|
| Lucky Wagon Spins — 3 Scatters | 70x | 96.10% |
| Lucky Wagon Spins — 4 Scatters | 200x | 96.34% |
| Lucky Wagon Spins — 5 Scatters | 600x | 96.33% |
| 5 Scatters + Guaranteed Dwarf | 3,600x | 96.42% |
| Lucky Draw | 175x | 96.12% |
The Lucky Draw at 175x gives you a 50% / 40% / 10% chance between the first three modes, in that order — so most of the time it lands you the cheaper outcomes. On RTP alone, the 5 Scatters with Guaranteed Dwarf buy at 3,600x is the highest at 96.42%, but that's an enormous outlay per round. The 4-Scatter buy at 200x returns 96.34% for far less. Higher-cost buys here edge out the standard RTP, but a buy is still a single volatile round — you can spend 200x and walk away with little.
How it compares to the original
Fire in the Hole 2 is a direct sequel to Nolimit City's mining hit. It keeps the theme, the dwarf and the music, but the structure is bigger: the original's grid and win ways are expanded here to 6×3-6 and up to 46,656 ways, and the top win is lifted from 60,000x to 65,000x. If you played the first game, the feel is familiar but the ceiling and the grid behaviour are larger.
Minimum and maximum bets, and the free demo
Stakes run from €0.20 to €100 per spin. A free demo (free play) version is available online, and the slot runs on desktop and mobile browsers, so you can trial it on a phone, tablet or computer without staking money.
The demo is the sensible place to learn the mechanics. Spin it in free play and watch one specific thing: how dirt clears, how the grid grows and how a buried xSplit changes a round. Once you've seen a cascade chain happen, the rest of the game — xBomb multipliers, Scatter counts, the respin reset in Lucky Wagon Spins — slots into place.