The water here
At the end of a crooked pier, under a sky the colour of a bruise, two spirits are still arguing about who left whom. Ghost Pier Quarrel is a comic-gothic tale of a once-devoted couple whose feud has outlasted them both. Expect cobwebbed portraits, slammed doors, guttering candles and a great deal of theatrical sulking. It is spooky in the way a pantomime is spooky, with more chuckles than shivers.
Reading a round
The game uses a Megaways grid, so the number of symbols on each reel changes from spin to spin, and so does the count of possible ways, which peaks at 72,030 on a full grid. Matching combinations clear away and new symbols drop into the empty spaces, which means a single spin can play out as a short chain of cascades. Two extra strips run sideways, one above the central reels and one beneath them. Symbols on those strips may hold multipliers, and each one that comes into play adds to a single combined multiplier for that spin. You choose how many fictional credits a spin uses, and the combined figure scales whatever that spin collects.
Below deck: the bonus round
Three to six scatter symbols start the free spins, awarding between ten and twenty-five depending on how many land. During the round, every symbol on the upper and lower strips comes with a multiplier, and the combined figure never drops back between spins, so the round tends to build towards its close. The bigger figures are still only play credits. They have no value, they cannot be cashed out, and they vanish when you close the tab.
Easy does it at the helm
Cascades and climbing multipliers make for a busy screen, and a busy screen can let time slip past unnoticed. Set a gentle limit before you begin, perhaps ten or fifteen minutes. Keep autoplay for the odd moment rather than the whole visit; pressing spin yourself keeps the pace human. Pause after a bonus round instead of diving straight back in, and never play to chase a feeling or to distract yourself from something hard. If you would like to talk to someone about gambling, Gambling Care’s freephone line is 1800 936 725. Ghost Pier Quarrel is a free social game for adults, offered for entertainment and nothing more.
Quay rules for this berth. Ghost Pier Quarrel is free to play, open to over-18s only and here purely for amusement. The credits it hands out are make-believe: nobody can purchase them, collect them as a prize, withdraw them or trade them for money or goods, and no real-money wagering happens anywhere on this quay.