Rune Beasts! Deep Trenches Demo & review

Every one of our 10 VS FeatureSpins in Rune Beasts! Deep Trenches paid, but only three covered the $50 price. JINX Gaming releases this 7x7 cluster game in November 2026, and we played the pre-release build free from its own game page. Runes damage beasts that sit beside the grid, VS symbols make two of them fight over a 3x3 square, and three separate bonuses can be bought. It is for anyone who needs a reason to watch the board even when the reels pay little.

How Rune Beasts! Deep Trenches works

A cluster of seven or more matching runes pays, and winning clusters clear so new symbols can fall in. Wilds stand in for any paying rune, can land on any reel and can arrive during cascades. The paytable lists the same figures for every rune group.

Pays are multiples of the bet. We read them from the rules text and did not compare the seven printed tables on screen.

The 7x7 base board before the first spin, with a beast waiting beside the grid. FluxPlays demo test, 10 November 2026.

Beasts and VS battles: what stays and what resets

Beside the grid sits a beast with a health bar, and rune clusters wear it down. A cluster does 1 damage, or 3 if the beast is weak to that element. Fire is weak to water, Water to grass, Grass to fire, Electric to earth, Earth to air and Air to electric, while Special beasts have no weakness.

Defeating a beast reveals a multiplier applied to the round win. One that survives escapes when the round ends, so nothing carries into the next spin of the base game.

VS symbols are the reason to play this game. Only reels 2 to 6 and rows 2 to 6 can hold one, and it expands to 3x3 and reveals two random beasts, each holding a multiplier of up to 100x. The winner's rune fills all nine spaces, matching symbols that touch join in, and the winner's multiplier applies to the whole cluster. Nine matching symbols is already past the seven a cluster needs, so a VS square pays by itself.

On spin 23 a VS battle completed a 14-symbol cluster worth $0.80. The winner's 5x turned that into $4.00. The round finished at $9.20.

A 3x3 VS square with two beasts battling, on the seventh VS FeatureSpin. FluxPlays demo test, 10 November 2026.

How the bonuses trigger

Scatters land on every reel, and how many land on the same spin picks the bonus.

1. Three scatters start the Beast Master Bonus.
2. Four start the Mythical Beast Bonus.
3. Five start the Mystery Pack Bonus.

The two 8-spin bonuses carry the feature side of the game, and the Mystery Pack is a side game built around one card.

Beast Master Bonus

You face up to three beasts of one type, weakest first, across eight spins. Each one defeated adds its multiplier to a meter that applies to all wins, and both health and the meter persist between spins. Three scatters inside the round add four more. Getting through the first beast early is what makes the later spins matter.

Mythical Beast Bonus

One Mythical Beast with 25 health stands against you for eight spins. It may attack on any round, adding 1x to 20x to the meter for that round only. Defeat it and a multiplier of 50x to 250x stays for the rest of the bonus. Four scatters inside add four more.

Mystery Pack Bonus

This is a 1x1 bonus that opens a pack of six cards in a fixed order, and every value shown is paid. The set has 34 cards.

The board settled after the bought Mystery Pack, with 87.20 credited. FluxPlays demo test, 10 November 2026.

Bonus buy and FeatureSpins: prices and what you get

A bonus buy pays for one round. FeatureSpins charge on every spin until you press DISABLE.

Every paid option sits within a tenth of a point of the others on RTP, so the choice is about how a round plays rather than what it is rated to return. BonusHunt makes each spin five times more likely to reach a bonus. VS FeatureSpins guarantees a VS symbol and stops scatters landing, so it can never start a bonus. Bet levels stop at 2,000 and feature buys can pass that limit.

The top of the Bonus Buy menu, with both FeatureSpins modes. FluxPlays demo test, 10 November 2026.

RTP, volatility and max win

The base game carries 96.29%, from a simulation of 10 billion rounds. JINX Gaming's page still shows the RTP as to be confirmed, so the game's own figure is the one to use. JINX Gaming rates the game Medium, and the buy menu marks every paid option High. The maximum win is 5,000x in all four game modes and the round ends the moment it is reached. A secret rare card alone is worth the maximum.

Our Rune Beasts! Deep Trenches demo test

VS FeatureSpins was the only part of the session that came out ahead, and it took its time: each spin ran 25 to 40 seconds, against 1 to 3 seconds for a base spin. One spin paying $336.00 was the difference between profit and loss. Base wins came in small pieces.

The Mystery Pack shows how much its last card decides. The first five cards came to $7.20, and the rare card added $80.00. Beast Master defeated just one of its three beasts, and the meter stayed low for the later spins.

None of the three scatter bonuses reached us through the base reels; each came from a buy, plus one Mythical Beast inside BonusHunt mode. Numbers this small describe how the rounds play and say nothing about what they return.

The bought Beast Master Bonus settled at 69.10 in 8 spins, with one of three beasts defeated. FluxPlays demo test, 10 November 2026.

336.00 on the sixth VS FeatureSpin, shown at reduced size. FluxPlays demo test, 10 November 2026.

Which beast round should you pay for?

VS FeatureSpins first, because it puts the game's best idea on every spin and a VS square always pays something. BonusHunt is the cheap route if you want the bonuses themselves, and Mythical Beast is the bought round to pick if one large multiplier is what you are after. We would leave the Mystery Pack to players who enjoy opening packs, since a single card decides the whole price.

Duel at Dawn uses a VS reveal too, as wild reels on a 19-line grid. Pick it for the 15,000x ceiling. Pick Rune Beasts! Deep Trenches if you prefer clusters and a beast to wear down.

In the demo, start with VS FeatureSpins. A few spins show the battle, the 3x3 square and the multiplier better than any base run.