Pragmatic Play6 December 2022Medium volatility
Starlight Christmas slot
Snow on the gems, a Santa hat on the cat and a red dress for the princess. Under the decorations, the 2021 game. What's new in this edition:
- Winter art and music: snow-capped symbols, garlands, and the winged cat in a Santa hat as the scatter.
- Everything else is the original: the same paytable, hearts, free spins, 96.50% RTP and 5,000x cap.
- Pragmatic's own page speaks of clusters of 12 and 20 paylines. The game pays 8 or more symbols anywhere, like the original.
Free demo
Pragmatic Play's own demo with play money. It loads only when you press play.
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The change that matters: none, under the snow
We compared Starlight Christmas with Starlight Princess three ways: the numbers its game server sends when it starts, the rules text built into the game, and the rules screens themselves. All three match the original:
- the same paytable for all nine symbols and the same scatter pays: 3x, 5x and 100x for four, five and six or more;
- the same 15 heart values, 2x to 500x, added together in the base game and collected into a total multiplier in free spins;
- 15 free spins for four scatters and 5 more for three during the round;
- a 96.50% RTP for plain spins, the ante bet and the buy, medium volatility, and a 5,000x cap with the same 1 in 697,350 chance;
- a 25% ante that doubles the scatter chance and a 100x buy.
The only change in the rules is a typo on the intro screen, "random multiliers up to 500x". So picking Christmas over the original is purely a question of taste and of season.
What Pragmatic's page gets wrong
The description on pragmaticplay.com says symbols pay "in clusters of at least 12" and calls it a "20-payline winter version" on a 6×5 grid. Neither matches the game. There are no clusters and no paylines: as in the original, eight or more matching symbols pay wherever they are. The "20" is the bet multiplier, the number the rules use to turn your bet into coins, not a count of lines.
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Replay: the best of our ten buys
Small hearts all the way, from 2x to 4x, but they kept landing on winning spins: the total multiplier reached 31x, and the round paid 267.5x the bet.
The whole round, spin by spin
| Spin | Hearts on screen | Total multiplier | Spin win (x bet) | Round total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trigger | – | – | 3x | 3x |
| Free spin 1 | – | – | 0x | 3x |
| Free spin 2 | 2x, 4x | 6x | 34.2x | 37.2x |
| Free spin 3 | – | 6x | 0x | 37.2x |
| Free spin 4 | 3x | 6x | 0x | 37.2x |
| Free spin 5 | 2x ×2, 3x ×2 | 16x | 69.6x | 106.8x |
| Free spin 6 | 3x ×2 | 22x | 55x | 161.8x |
| Free spin 7 | – | 22x | 0x | 161.8x |
| Free spin 8 | 2x | 24x | 96x | 257.8x |
| Free spin 9 | 2x | 24x | 0x | 257.8x |
| Free spin 10 | 3x | 24x | 0x | 257.8x |
| Free spin 11 | – | 24x | 1.2x | 259x |
| Free spin 12 | – | 24x | 0.75x | 259.75x |
| Free spin 13 | 2x | 24x | 0x | 259.75x |
| Free spin 14 | 3x, 4x | 31x | 7.75x | 267.5x |
| Free spin 15 | 2x | 31x | 0x | 267.5x |
Paytable
| Symbol | 8–9 | 10–11 | 12–30 |
|---|---|---|---|
 | 10x | 25x | 50x |
 | 2.5x | 10x | 25x |
 | 2x | 5x | 15x |
 | 1.5x | 2x | 12x |
 | 1x | 1.5x | 10x |
 | 0.8x | 1.2x | 8x |
 | 0.5x | 1x | 5x |
 | 0.4x | 0.9x | 4x |
 | 0.25x | 0.75x | 2x |
 | 4: 3x | 5: 5x | 6: 100x |
Our test: 1,000 spins and ten buys
At the minimum $0.20 bet in the official demo. A tiny sample for a game with a 5,000x ceiling, so the numbers swing.
- 27.7%of 1,000 base spins paid something
- 39spins where a heart landed
- 1,654xbest round of the 1,000 (free spins included)
- 32.73xmedian of 10 bought rounds (price 100x)
One base-game spin made this whole session. On spin 36 a 500x heart and a 25x heart landed in the same tumble chain. The chain's wins came to only 3.15x the bet, but in the base game hearts are added together and multiply the chain, so 525x turned it into 1,653.75x. That single spin is why our 1,000 Christmas spins returned 229% of their cost; without it they would have returned far less than the RTP.
The bought rounds went the other way: a median of 32.7x, and 69% of the cost back over ten buys, two of which were extended to 20 free spins. Free spins also came naturally three times in the 1,000 spins, on spins 58, 120 and 540.
On a phone
Verdict
Play it in December if you like the original and want the decorations. Outside the season there is no reason to prefer it, and no reason to avoid it either: it is the same game.
Love it if
- You like the original and want a festive version for December.
- You want the 96.50% RTP in every mode, as in the 2021 game.
- You like the winged cat: here it is the scatter, wearing a Santa hat.
Skip it if
- You expect new features: apart from the art and music, it is the original game.
- You find snow, lights and garlands distracting on a busy 6×5 grid.
- You want a bigger ceiling: it stays at 5,000x.
Like what you see? Play Starlight Christmas for real
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Questions
Is Starlight Christmas the same as Starlight Princess?
In everything but the looks, yes. The paytable, the multiplier hearts, the free spins rules, the 96.50% RTP, the 5,000x cap and its 1 in 697,350 chance are identical. The art, music and the scatter (a winged cat in a Santa hat) are new.
Does Starlight Christmas pay in clusters or on paylines?
Neither. Despite what Pragmatic Play's page says about clusters of 12 and 20 paylines, the game pays for eight or more matching symbols anywhere on the 6×5 grid, like the original.
What is the RTP of Starlight Christmas?
96.50% for plain spins, with the ante bet and for the bonus buy, according to the rules screen of the official demo.
What is the max win?
5,000 times the bet. The round ends as soon as it gets there.
When did Starlight Christmas come out?
Pragmatic Play released it on 6 December 2022, a little over a year after the original Starlight Princess.
