Cubes slot

What is the Cubes slot?

Cubes is one of the early releases from Hacksaw Gaming, launched in 2020, less than two years after the studio itself started in September 2018. It drops the familiar fruit, gems and card symbols entirely. The screen shows a square of plain coloured blocks, and you win by landing groups of the same colour touching each other: the cluster pays system, rather than paylines or ways.

What makes Cubes unusual among cluster games is the expanding playfield. After a win the grid grows outward by one ring of cubes, giving more space for bigger clusters on the next step. It is a minimalist design, and a useful one for understanding how grid slot machines work. You’ll find it alongside other titles in our slots hub.

How the Cubes slot machine grid grows

According to published game guides, each consecutive win in a round adds one layer of cubes around the outside. The cubes already in place stay where they are, and new ones fill the outer ring. A losing step ends the round and the grid returns to its starting size.

Nearly five times as many cubes at full size means many more ways for colours to connect, which is where the larger clusters come from. Compare the idea with expanding reels on line-based games, which grow height rather than area.

How a round of Cubes plays out

1. Set your stake (up to £5 a spin if you’re 25 or over, £2 if you’re 18–24).
2. Spin. The random number generator fixes every step of the round at once; each UK spin lasts at least 2.5 seconds.
3. Groups of five or more connected cubes of one colour pay as clusters.
4. If there is a win, the grid expands by one ring and the new cubes are revealed.
5. Each new colour that wins fills the next letter of CUBES above the grid.
6. The round ends at the first step without a win, or carries on to free spins if all five letters are lit.

Cluster pays on Cubes: what counts as a win

A win needs at least five cubes of the same colour connected together. There are six colours, and the pay rises with the size of the cluster: published guides put the smallest clusters at a fraction of the stake and the largest bracket, 25 cubes or more, at many times the stake. The exact pay brackets are in the paytable and scale with your bet.

The centre-cube multiplier

A white × marks the centre of the grid. Published guides describe it as a multiplier that grows when a cluster wins in the colour under the ×: the multiplier jumps to the number of cubes in that cluster, and the cluster stays put and can grow as the grid expands. Because the multiplier is tied to one spot and one colour, it rewards rounds that keep expanding, and it resets when the round ends.

Cubes free spins: spelling C-U-B-E-S

Cubes has no scatter symbols. Instead, the word CUBES sits above the grid and each letter lights up when a cluster wins in a colour you haven’t yet used in that round. Five winning clusters in five different colours, all in one round, complete the word. Here’s a worked illustration:

Every win must keep the round alive, and repeated colours don’t count, which is why completing the word is rare. There is no build-up between rounds: each starts from zero, as explained in what triggers a bonus round.

Inside the Cubes free spins: sticky colour and Color Blast

Once CUBES is spelled, you pick one of six mystery cubes. Published guides say the pick awards up to 10 free spins and one featured colour. During the round, wins in the featured colour become sticky, and the grid doesn’t shrink back after a losing spin, so the playfield keeps its size. Building a cluster of 70 cubes in the featured colour triggers Color Blast, which guides list as a fixed prize of 2,500× the stake.

Cubes RTP and the cost of play

The Cubes RTP is 96.35%, so the house edge is 3.65%. The table converts that into average costs for 100 spins. Remember that the averages describe millions of rounds, not your next session.

Check the RTP in the game’s help screen at your casino, as described in our guide to finding a slot’s RTP.

Cubes max win and volatility

Published sources quote different max win figures for Cubes, and some disagree on its volatility, so we don’t state either. The game rules at your casino list the maximum payout, and our max win caps page explains how caps are applied. What you can say from the design is that most rounds end after one or two steps, and the larger results depend on long expansions and the free spins.

Cubes and the rise of cluster pays slots

Cubes arrived after cluster pays had already been tried by larger studios: NetEnt’s Aloha! Cluster Pays dates from 2016, and Play’n GO’s Reactoonz uses clusters on a 7 × 7 grid. Cubes, from 2020, strips it back to colour alone and adds the growing grid. Our history of cluster pays puts these games in sequence.

There is no direct land-based equivalent. UK fruit machines are reel-based and the gaming machine categories cap their prizes, so a mechanic built on an expanding grid is very much an online slot idea.

UK rules that apply to the Cubes slot

• No autoplay: banned on UK online slots since 31 October 2021.
• Minimum 2.5 seconds per game cycle, no turbo or quick spin.
• Returns equal to or below your stake aren’t presented as wins (losses disguised as wins rule).
• No bonus buy in versions supplied to Great Britain.
• Stake limits: £5 a spin (25 and over, from 9 April 2025) and £2 (18–24, from 21 May 2025).

The Gambling Commission’s Remote gambling and software technical standards (opens in a new tab) hold the design rules, and its online slots stake limit guidance (opens in a new tab) explains the caps.

Cubes demo and help screen

The Cubes demo is available at many casinos as free demo play, after age verification, which UK rules have required since May 2019. Try it to see how quickly rounds usually end and how the CUBES word fills. Then read the game rules for the RTP, the cluster pay brackets and the free spins details before playing for real. Our demo slots guide has more on getting value from demos.

Myths about the Cubes slot machine

• “Four letters lit means free spins are close next time.” The word resets every round.
• “Some mystery cubes are better than others.” The outcome is set before you pick.
• “A bigger grid means the game is about to pay.” The grid grows because of wins already decided; it says nothing about future rounds.
• “Playing faster gives more rounds per £.” UK rules fix a 2.5-second minimum, and speed never changes the odds.

Slots like Cubes

• Le Bandit: a later Hacksaw cluster-pays game on a 6 × 5 grid.
• Reactoonz: a 7 × 7 cluster game with charging features.
• Aloha! Cluster Pays: NetEnt’s 2016 cluster game on a 6 × 5 grid.
• Sweet Bonanza: a pays-anywhere alternative with tumbling symbols.

Where to play Cubes in the UK

Game lobbies change, so search for Cubes at any casino before you join; we don’t claim our partners stock it. Partner offers below are for adults aged 18+ and terms apply. Coral gives new players who deposit and bet £10 on slots 100 free spins at 10p on selected games, no wagering, valid 7 days. Ladbrokes gives up to 500 free spins at 10p over 10 days, 50 a day, for playing £10 on slots, no wagering. PlayOJO gives 80 no-wagering spins on Big Bass Bonanza for a first deposit of £10 or more. Because Coral and Ladbrokes share an operator, check the terms before opening both.

18+. Gambling should be entertainment that costs money, not a way to make it. Decide a budget before you play: plan a slot budget. Free, confidential help: National Gambling Helpline 0808 8020 133.