Nine To Five features a gaming grid housed in an old-school computer monitor, with 5 reels, 4 rows, and 1,024 ways to win. The game has high volatility, offering a default RTP of 96.03% for bets ranging from 20 cents to $/€280 per spin. Utilizing the xBet feature increases the RTP to 96.1%, more than doubling the chance of triggering Middle Management or Ivory Tower Spins. The xBet option comes with a 10% increase to the bet, and the fifth reel is locked when activated.
To secure wins, players need at least 3 identical symbols landing on adjacent reels from the leftmost edge of the grid. The low-paying symbols include a fax machine, a rancid food box, a cup with ‘I heart EVO,’ and a stapler. The high-paying symbols consist of four Mike Judge-esque character symbols. Achieving a 5-symbol low-paying win awards 0.6 to 0.8 times the bet, while a 5-symbol premium symbol win grants 1.25 to 4 times the bet. Wild symbols, appearing on reels 2-5, can transform into either a Green Wild with a random symbol multiplier of 1x to 5x or a Red Wild, which is a non-active symbol.
Nine To Five: Slot Features
xNudge Wild & xWays
The game features xNudge Wild symbols that land on reels 2 to 5. When a xNudge Wild lands, it always nudges to become fully stacked, and each nudge increases the win multiplier by +1. Once it covers the entire reel, it nudges an additional 0 to 9 steps. If more than one xNudge Wild multiplier is present, their multipliers multiply for a total xNudge multiplier. Additionally, there are xWays symbols that reveal 2 to 4 symbols of the same type. If more than one xWays symbol is present, they all reveal the same symbol.
Middle Management Spins
During the Middle Management Free Spins feature, which is triggered by landing 3 scatters and awards 10 spins, Layoff and Lawsuit symbols may land. Each Layoff symbol increases the win multiplier by +1, while the Lawsuit symbol decreases it by -1. The multiplier can never go below 1 or above 9,999, and it’s applied at the very end of the round, not multiplying any wins from the base game. Landing an Overtime symbol awards +1 free spin, and if you land 2 Overtime symbols on the same spin, the round is upgraded to Ivory Tower Spins.
Ivory Tower Spins
During the Ivory Tower Free Spins feature, triggered by landing 4 scatters and awarding 12 spins, Tech Layoff and Ctrl-Alt-Del symbols replace the Layoff or Lawsuit symbols. The Tech Layoff symbol adds a win multiplier, and then the value of the next Tech Layoff multiplier is doubled. The starting and minimum value is 1, while the maximum is 9,999. Similar to the Middle Management Free Spins, the win multiplier is applied at the end of the round, not multiplying any wins from the base game. The Ctrl-Alt-Del symbol divides the value of the Tech Layoff by 4, rounding down, and landing an Overtime symbol awards +1 free spin.
Big Win Not Found
The “Big Win Not Found” feature is associated with the game’s max win, which is awarded in the base game if a Mega symbol lands fully stacked on the reels.
Nolimit Bonus
The Nolimit Bonus allows players to purchase different features:
- 10 Middle Management Spins for 75x the bet (RTP 96.45%)
- 12 Ivory Tower Spins for 200x the bet (RTP 96.17%)
- Lucky Draw for 125x the bet (RTP 96.22%)
For those feeling heroic, there’s an option to pay 1,370x the bet for a base game spin that may or may not land a full grid Mega symbol (RTP 96.09%).
Nine To Five: Slot Verdict
If your manager asked you to come to work 10 minutes earlier for a meeting, over the course of a year (assuming 48 working weeks), this equates to a whole week of unpaid work. An extra 20 minutes would be two weeks of unpaid work. Forget that, or bite the bullet and go? If being bossed around, working extra hours for no extra pay sounds wack, then Nine To Five might not suit. The reason why is this is a game that can really make you work for results. Nolimit City has a formidable reputation for crafting merciless slots, and Nine To Five can count itself as one of those. It proved difficult to get ahead, like the rat race perhaps, or like a boss who cancels your holidays the day before you’re due to jet off to Ibiza for your best friend’s wedding. Or a manager who calls you into the office for a training session which ends up not materialising. Point is, Nine To Five can be tough.
But that’s to be expected by now, and to be fair, Nine To Five has stuff which is fairly ‘generous’ for want of a better word, for an NLC slot, too. One is the xBet, which, at a 10% increase in price for more than double the chance of triggering free spins, feels like a bargain, though the fifth reel is locked. Don’t expect free spins to rain down riches when they trigger, either, and dead/low-value spins fell a-plenty. Bonus buys are a mixed bag as well. Middle Management and Ivory Tower free spins are pretty standard fare, but God Mode… damn, there are no words. One solitary spin for 1,370x the bet? Remember when 3,000x for an entire bonus round in Tombstone RIP was considered one of the acmes of gambling? Sheesh. Hitting the game’s max win of 9,217x the bet (which actually happened on the very first attempt for us trying the game!) wouldn’t even cover 7 God Mode bonus buys. We’d say tread with care, but it kind of goes without saying in this instance.
What’s also clear is how giveth and taketh away Nine To Five is in a number of areas – wilds that may or may not work, or multipliers that can be axed as well as increased, for example. When it goes your way, great; when it doesn’t, well, life’s not fair, as they say. On an encouraging note, max win has a hit frequency of 1 in 148,000 spins.
Nine To Five offers room for outrageous heroics for sure, but there is ample space for crushing disappointment as well. Just as in real life, some go on to achieve rat race glory, clawing their way to the top of the ladder, becoming the big dog who gets to swing their weight around an army of obsequious flunkies. Others may feel crushed by the wheels of the machine, losing a piece of their soul each day in a tiny cubicle, where repeated denials of advancement, timed toilet breaks, endless, pointless meetings, and relentless micromanagement have them pining for a return to the hunter-gather days before tick like managers were invented. Or searching for another job.