Regal Riches is an IGT video slot, with a twin called Prosperity Pearl, built around “progressive wilds”: four meters that collect wild symbols and must award them before they reach a stated cap. One meter pays out in the base game; the other three fill up the free games. Because those meters stay on screen between players, the Regal Riches slot is one of the best-known must-hit-by games in advantage play.
Here’s how each meter works, what “must hit by” means on this game, and how to approach it.
What is the Regal Riches slot?
According to Global Gaming Business, IGT released Regal Riches in 2020 on its CrystalCurve cabinet and billed it as the industry’s first “progressive wilds” game. It’s a five-reel, 30-line video slot on a 5×4 grid, and GGB lists it at penny to dime denominations.
Prosperity Pearl is the same game with a different look. The Wizard of Odds describes the two as identical apart from name and symbols: Regal Riches uses gems, Prosperity Pearl uses pearls. Everything in this guide applies to both.
The gems come in four colours, and each colour feeds its own meter:
| Meter | Colour | When it pays | Must hit by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base-game wilds | Blue | On a random base-game spin | 50 |
| Minor free games | Purple | During 10 free games | 75 |
| Major free games | Green | During 10 free games | 100 |
| Mega free games | Yellow | During 10 free games | 125 |
Caps as reported by Know Your Slots and the Wizard of Odds.
How the Regal Riches must hit by wilds work
Every meter follows the same cycle. It starts from a reset value, climbs as matching gems land, and has to pay out before it reaches its cap. When it pays, it drops back to its reset value and starts again. That’s what “must hit by” means here: the number on the meter is the number of wilds you’ll get when it pays, and the cap guarantees it can’t grow forever.
The blue meter: base-game wilds
The blue counter sits above the middle reel. Blue gems (or blue pearls on Prosperity Pearl) can land on any reel, and each one adds to the count.
On a random base-game spin, the blue feature fires: all the wilds stored in the counter are scattered across the screen before the reels stop, and then the counter resets. If more than one wild lands on the same position, that spot gets a multiplier, which can build up to 5x. Know Your Slots notes that the chance of the blue feature triggering rises as the counter climbs, and the feature must fire before the counter reaches 50.
The purple, green and yellow meters: free-games wilds
The other three meters grow when purple, green or yellow gems land on reel 5 without triggering free games. They don’t pay in the base game. Instead, each one is a bank of wilds waiting for a free-games feature.
Free games can start in two ways:
- Normal trigger: free-game symbols on reels 1 to 4 plus a coloured progressive wilds symbol on reel 5, whose colour decides which meter’s feature you get.
- Must-hit-by trigger: a meter reaches its cap, which forces its free games.
Either way, you get 10 free games, and every wild stored in that meter is spent across them. The feature can’t be retriggered. As in the base game, wilds that stack on the same position build multipliers. When it’s over, that meter goes back to its starting value.
Why meter size matters
The size of each feature depends directly on how many wilds are in its meter. A Mega feature with a meter near its cap drops far more wilds into those 10 spins than one that just reset. The same is true of the blue feature in the base game.
That’s the whole reason the game has value for advantage players. A player who walks away leaves those wilds behind, and whoever plays next inherits them. When enough is stored, the next spins can be worth more than they cost. Most of the time, though, the meters are nowhere near that point, and Regal Riches is an ordinary slot with a house edge.
Two more details make it harder than it looks:
- Every bet level has its own meters. Know Your Slots reports that each bet level keeps its own persistent set of all four meters, and they stay put even after a player cashes out. The screen you see belongs to the bet you’re on.
- The meters interact. A machine might have one meter well along and the others low, or several meters partly built up. Judging all four together, at your bet and the game’s likely payback setting, is a calculation, not a glance.
Regal Riches must hit by: when is each meter a play?
Here are the meter levels where each Regal Riches meter becomes worth playing, assuming the machine is set to 87% payback, a common working assumption among advantage players:
| Meter | Resets at | Must hit by | Worth playing from (87% payback) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue (base game) | 5 | 50 | 8 wilds |
| Purple (minor) | 30 | 75 | 61 wilds |
| Green (major) | 40 | 100 | 84 wilds |
| Yellow (mega) | 50 | 125 | 112 wilds |
Reset values as listed by the Wizard of Odds. Play levels are Slot Hustlers figures at an assumed 87% payback.
A few things to know before you use them:
- The blue meter rarely climbs far. Its trigger chance rises as the count grows, so you’ll seldom see it much above its reset. When it is at or above the play level, it’s worth a look.
- Check every bet level. Each bet has its own four meters, so the play might be on a bet you’re not sitting on.
- Published numbers differ. The Wizard of Odds, for example, lists slightly lower figures based on a survey of experienced players, and says plainly that they are estimates. Different assumptions about the payback setting move the line.
Why 87% is only a starting point
The casino, not the manufacturer, picks which payback version a machine runs, and players can’t see it on the screen (see What Is RTP in Slots?). On a looser machine, the play levels drop; on a tighter one, they rise. A fixed table has to pick one setting and hope.
That’s the gap Slot Hustlers closes. Send a photo of the machine in Discord, and the bot reads all four meters and checks the play across the full range of likely payback settings, rather than assuming 87%. You see which settings make it a play and which don’t.
Why Regal Riches is a popular advantage play game
- The state is visible. The meters are displayed on the game, so what a previous player left behind can be seen.
- The caps are guaranteed. Unlike a free-games feature with no trigger point, every meter has to pay before it hits its number.
- It’s a low-denomination game. GGB lists it at penny to dime denominations, so the cost per spin is modest compared with high-limit must-hit-by games.
- Two themes, same maths. Knowing Regal Riches means you know Prosperity Pearl too.
Its cousin Regal Link: Lion / Raven uses a similar idea with five coloured free-games meters. Both appear in our list of advantage play slot machines, and the general theory is covered in Must Hit By Slot Machines.
Regal Riches slot tips
- Read all four meters, not just the blue one. The free-games meters can hold most of the value on a given machine.
- Check the meters at your bet level. Changing the bet changes which set of meters you’re playing into.
- Use the play levels as a guide, not a guarantee. The 87% table above is a starting point; the real line depends on the machine’s payback setting.
- Plan for the swings. A meter can take many spins to reach its cap, and the free games can still pay small if the wilds land badly.
- Stop when the value is gone. Once the feature you were after has paid, that meter is back at its reset and the machine is an ordinary slot again.
- Card in. Rewards are the only certain return on every spin.
For a broader look at choosing machines, see Best Slot Machines to Play at the Casino.
FAQ
At what meter is Regal Riches a play?
At an assumed 87% payback, Slot Hustlers puts the play levels at 8 blue wilds, 61 purple, 84 green and 112 yellow. The right number moves with the machine’s actual payback setting, which players can’t see, so treat these as a starting point.
Who makes the Regal Riches slot machine?
IGT. Global Gaming Business lists it as a 2020 IGT release on the CrystalCurve cabinet, and Prosperity Pearl is its twin with a pearl theme.
What does “must hit by” mean on Regal Riches?
Each of the four wild meters has a must-hit-by cap: 50 for blue, 75 for purple, 100 for green and 125 for yellow. The meter has to award its wilds before it reaches that number, then resets.
How many free spins do you get on Regal Riches?
The free-games feature always awards 10 free games, and it can’t be retriggered. The wilds stored in the triggering meter are spent over those 10 games.
What is the difference between Regal Riches and Prosperity Pearl?
Only the theme and symbols. The Wizard of Odds describes them as identical games, and the meters, caps and features work the same way on both.
Is Regal Riches a good slot to play?
Most of the time it’s an ordinary slot with a house edge. It becomes interesting only when a previous player has left enough wilds stored in its meters, at the bet level you’re playing, to outweigh that edge.
For players 21+. Slots have a house edge; expected value is a long-run average, and any session can lose. If gambling stops being fun, call 1-800-GAMBLER.