Demon Beats Review (2026) – NetEnt | 10,000x, The x1024 Demon Ladder & The Battle Feature

Tour was going pretty well until the band found out the next venue was a demon-infested temple, and nobody told the demons they were playing. Demon Beats by NetEnt is a 5-reel, 4-row Avalanche slot across 178 lines, where every win clears the board, drops in new symbols, and climbs a multiplier ladder under the reels: x1, x2, x4, x8, x16, x32 in the base game, and a far more dangerous x1, x4, x16, x64, x256, x1024 in the bonus. 2x2 Colossal symbols blow up every matching symbol on the grid, expanding Wilds stack multipliers up to x10, and a Battle feature floods the board with Colossals and Wilds after a dead spin. The max win is 10,000x, RTP tops out at 96.08%, Free Spins land about 1 in 254 spins, and volatility is rated High. The moment we entered the game, our first thought was: this is Esqueleto Explosivo. And if you know us, you know we’ve been playing that game for years and have put quite a few spins into it. It isn’t Esqueleto. It’s even better.

Visuals & Theme: A Graphical Masterpiece, and a Streak

Graphics Score: 9.70/10

Graphically, Demon Beats is a masterpiece. A crumbling jungle temple, carved stone walls overgrown with vines, and a rogues’ gallery of demon masks as symbols: a pink-horned beast, a coiled serpent, a snarling tiger, and a stone-faced guardian, each rendered with real weight and texture. The multiplier ladder sits in big, chunky numerals beneath the reels, so you always know exactly where you are on the climb. The rock-tour framing gives the whole thing a tongue-in-cheek energy: a band shredding riffs and cracking skulls while trying to find the exit, with a drummer who might be possessed.

At this point, we’re no longer surprised. This is the fourth game in a row from NetEnt to score over 8 with us, and it’s becoming a streak, just like the one Shady Lady has built: slots that are fun and graphically exquisite, release after release. The 9.70/10 reflects a presentation that’s polished down to every animation and confidently in the top tier of this catalogue.

Technical Deep Dive: A Better RTP, an Excellent Entry Buy

RTP: 96.08% / 94.04% / 92.07% (buy feature disabled) | 96.01% / 94.01% / 92.01% (buy feature enabled) | Volatility: High | Max Win: 10,000x | Free Spins Frequency: 1 in 254 | Grid: 5x4, 178 lines, Avalanche | Bet Range: €0.20–€50

The 96.08% top RTP clears the competitive threshold, and it’s a better RTP than Esqueleto Explosivo offers. Operators running the version with the buy feature enabled use a fractionally lower 96.01%. The 10,000x ceiling sits on the line between average and competitive for the 2026 market. Free Spins arrive roughly once every 254 spins, a fair pace for a High volatility game.

Confirmed Elevate Feature menu (charged on every spin while active):

• Bonus Hunt — 2x bet, a 2x chance to trigger Free Spins or Super Free Spins

• Bonus Hunt Extreme — 10x bet, a 7x chance to trigger Free Spins or Super Free Spins

• Multiplier Upgrade — 25x bet, a spin with the upgraded x1–x1024 multiplier ladder guaranteed

• Battle Feature — 50x bet, a Battle symbol guaranteed on the first spin

• Free Spins — 100x bet, direct entry into Free Spins

• Super Free Spins — 300x bet, direct entry into Super Free Spins

Running the ratios against the 10,000x ceiling, the 100x Free Spins buy gives an excellent 100x return. The 300x Super Free Spins buy works out to 33.3x, below the comfortable 40–80x band on paper, but that number undersells it: Super Free Spins is the only mode where the multiplier ladder never resets, which changes everything about how the round plays (more on that below). The mid-menu options are genuinely interesting, too. Paying 25x to play a spin on the bonus ladder, or 50x for a guaranteed Battle, gives players cheap, specific ways to chase the moments they enjoy most.

Mechanics: Esqueleto’s Soul, With More Toys

Innovation Score: 7.20/10

Mechanically, Demon Beats keeps everything we liked about Esqueleto Explosivo: the rising multiplier on every connection, the cascading board, the same vibes. On top of that, it adds features that give both the base game and Free Spins more action. The 7.20/10 reflects exactly that balance: a familiar core, meaningfully expanded rather than reinvented.

Avalanche Wins

Any win starts an Avalanche. Symbols in winning combinations disappear, new symbols fall into the empty positions, and the board is evaluated again. Avalanches keep running until no more wins form.

The Multiplier Ladder

The heart of the game sits beneath the reels. In the base game, the ladder runs x1, x2, x4, x8, x16, x32. Every spin starts at x1 and jumps one step higher with each win or each exploding Colossal symbol. If a spin produces no win and there are no Colossal or Battle symbols on the reels, the multiplier drops back to x1.

Inside the bonus, the ladder changes to x1, x4, x16, x64, x256, x1024. Each step quadruples the one before it, so a few connected Avalanches take you from modest to enormous very quickly.

Multiplier Upgrade

At random, after the first spin of the base game, the Multiplier Upgrade can switch the base game ladder to the bonus values for a spin, turning a standard x32 climb into an x1024 one. It can also be bought directly for 25x.

Colossal Symbols

Colossal symbols are 2x2 and can land anywhere on the reels, except on reels already holding a Bonus, Super Bonus, Battle, or another Colossal symbol. When a Colossal is part of a win, it explodes, taking every matching symbol anywhere on the grid with it. If the surface beneath a Colossal is uneven, it crushes the symbols below until it’s level. And if a spin ends with no win, every Colossal and its matching symbols explode anyway; Colossal Wilds disappear, but regular Wilds stay on the reels, along with whichever symbol appears most. Every Colossal explosion also pushes the multiplier ladder up a step, which is why Colossals are such a nice addition: they bring more action to both the base game and Free Spins.

Wild Symbols

Wilds expand to cover their entire reel the moment they land. If there’s a Colossal symbol on that reel, it becomes a Colossal Wild. When a new Wild expands over a reel that already holds an expanded Wild, the existing Wild reveals a multiplier of x2 to x10, stacking on top of whatever the ladder is already doing.

The Battle Feature

The Battle feature can activate in the base game, Free Spins, and Super Free Spins. When a Battle symbol lands at the end of a spin that produced no win, with no Colossal symbols on the reels, the battle begins: Colossal and Wild symbols keep landing on the reels until the Battle symbol is completely covered. It turns what would have been a dead spin into a burst of Colossals and Wilds, and since Battle symbols also stop the multiplier from resetting, it can keep a climb alive.

Expert Insight: The real story of Demon Beats is how much the two bonus modes differ, despite sharing the same x1 to x1024 ladder. In regular Free Spins, the ladder can reset to x1 after any spin without a win, so every climb is fragile: you need a long chain of connections in a single run, and one dead spin sends you back to the bottom. In Super Free Spins, the multiplier never resets. A single connection permanently eliminates the lower multipliers from the rest of the round, so every win locks in progress that can’t be taken away. That’s why the 300x Super Free Spins buy is worth far more than its 33.3x ratio suggests. You’re not just buying a bigger number; you’re buying the only version of the bonus where the climb to x1024 compounds instead of starting over.

Free Spins and Super Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, 5, or 6 Bonus symbols in the base game awards 8, 10, 12, or 14 Free Spins. If at least one of those Bonus symbols is a Super Bonus, the round becomes Super Free Spins instead. Colossals, Wilds, and Battle symbols can all land at any time in both modes, and landing 3, 4, 5, or 6 Bonus symbols during the round adds 3, 4, 5, or 6 extra spins.

⚠ Regular Free Spins have no checkpoints for the multiplier. Any spin without a win drops the ladder back to x1, so nothing you build carries forward. It’s one small minus for Entertainment, and it’s the clearest example of missing persistence in this game. Super Free Spins, on the other hand, give you insane potential: the multiplier never resets, and a single connection is enough to eliminate the lower multipliers for good. Just be aware of the trade-off in both modes. Most of your Free Spins will usually be dead, and in regular Free Spins, the climb will often fail to connect right as you reach that juicy x1024.

Potential & Entertainment: A New Favourite in the Making

Potential Score: 7.70/10 | Entertainment Score: 8.20/10

Potential lands at 7.70. The 96.08% RTP is competitive and better than Esqueleto Explosivo’s, the 100x Free Spins buy is excellent at a 100x ratio, and the Super Free Spins ladder reaching x1024 without ever resetting is genuinely insane potential, especially with expanded Wild multipliers up to x10 stacking on top. What holds Potential back is the 10,000x ceiling, which sits on the line between average and competitive. With a ladder that can hit x1024 and Wild multipliers on top, the multipliers have far more firepower than the cap leaves room for.

Entertainment sits at 8.20. The base game is lively: the multiplier ladder climbs with every Avalanche, Colossals blow up whole symbol types at once, and the Battle feature rescues dead spins with a flood of Colossals and Wilds. Super Free Spins are the highlight, because every connection permanently pushes you higher. The one small minus is regular Free Spins: with no checkpoints, too many rounds end up as a run of dead spins, or a climb that collapses back to x1 just as x1024 comes into view. That’s the price of the volatility, and it’s worth knowing before you buy.

Final Verdict: Esqueleto’s Successor, and Maybe Ours Too

Demon Beats feels like Esqueleto Explosivo from the very first spin, and then it keeps going. The rising multiplier on every connection, the cascading board, and the same vibes are all here, but with Colossal symbols, expanding Wilds with stacking multipliers, a Battle feature, and a bonus ladder that runs all the way to x1024. Graphically it’s a masterpiece, and it extends NetEnt’s run to four games in a row scoring over 8 with us, a streak that’s starting to look a lot like Shady Lady’s.

The honest limitations are the 10,000x ceiling and regular Free Spins. With no checkpoints, most regular bonus spins end up dead, and climbs often fail just as x1024 arrives. Super Free Spins fix exactly that problem by never resetting the multiplier, and that’s where this game’s insane potential really lives.

A better RTP than Esqueleto, better mechanics, and a better look. After years with an old nostalgic favourite, we might just be switching it up for a new one.