Stockholm Syndrome Slot (Nolimit City)

The Stockholm Syndrome slot has 5 reels and 432 ways to win. With a 3x4x3x4x3 reel layout, winning combinations are created when 3, 4, 5 or 6 matching symbols appear on successive reels, in any position and beginning from the leftmost reel. Only the highest win per bet way is paid.

Bets-wise, you can spin away from as little as 20p a spin to as much as £100 per spin. Changing your bet or stake is simple with the max bet limited at some UK sites to £5 per spin. Use the Coins button to see all available options. Outside the UK, there are 2 gameplay options. Autoplay allows up to 1,000 auto spins with optional balance and single win limits whilst Turbo Mode sees the reels spin a lot quicker.

The Stockholm Syndrome RTP rate is 96.08%. Above the 96% average for UK online slot games, 65.37% forms part of the base game and 30.71% is reserved for the bonus features. You might come across 94% and 92.06% RTP alternative settings at some casinos or slot sites. To verify the rate you’re playing, open the Paytable at your chosen site.

In the extreme bracket in terms of volatility (10/10), this is the norm for the majority of Nolimit City slot games. The hit frequency rate is 17.37% meaning a winning combination will land, on average, every 5.76 spins. Playing the free spins will take approximately 281 spins (again, on average).

When it comes to win potential, the Stockholm Syndrome slot can dish out 28,873 times your total bet. Known as Hit the Road, the max win probability (or chance to win the max win) is 1 in 2.2 million spins. Winning 100 times your total bet or higher will happen every 728 spins on average.

Chris Taylor

The king of slots

Chris Taylor is an industry veteran originally from Gibraltar. Having worked in the online gambling industry since 2004, Chris loves slots and has reviewed over 10,000 online slot games. Running a slots-focused website for 13 years, Chris is the go-to guy for everything slots-related.

The Stockholm Syndrome slot is based on a proposed psychological response where a captive develops a bond or feelings with their captors. The condition can occur in hostage-taking, kidnapping or abusive relationships.

Nolimit City has taken inspiration from the Norrmalmstorg robbery where criminal Jan-Erik Olsson held up the Kreditbanken bank in Stockholm, Sweden all the way back in August 1973. He took 4 hostages and was covered on live TV. The hostages bonded with the captor and refused to cooperate with the police. This led to the Stockholm Syndrome term being coined. The event inspired films and TV series including Clark (2022) and Money Heist (2017).

The game’s setting takes you high on top of a building overlooking Norrmalmstorg Square where snipers watch the Kreditbanken bank. Visually, it has dark and grey tones to perhaps depict the seriousness of the situation at hand. The soundtrack is rather generic.

On the reels, you will see P, O, L, I and S low-value symbols (spelling POLIS or police). The higher-value symbols include 4 hostage characters and 1 captor (Jan-Erik Olsson). The captor symbol is the best paying awarding 7.5 times your total bet for 6 in combination. 6-of-a-kind wins can be formed during the Syndrome Spins feature (more details below).

With a Dynamite Wild that substitutes for all paying symbols above, Stockholm Syndrome comes with several special symbols. They include Con Man Wilds, xBomb Wilds and Bonus Scatters. All described in the Bonus Features section, below is a list of all symbol payouts and functions:

• S: 3, 4, 5 or 6 = 0.15, 0.3, 0.5 or 1.5 x bet
• I: 3, 4, 5 or 6 = 0.15, 0.4, 0.55 or 1.65 x bet
• L: 3, 4, 5 or 6 =  0.15, 0.3, 0.6 or 1.8 x bet
• O: 3, 4, 5 or 6 = 0.2, 0.4, 0.65 or 1.95 x bet
• P: 3, 4, 5 or 6 = 0.2, 0.4, 0.75 or 2.25 x bet
• Hostage 1: 3, 4, 5 or 6 = 0.3, 0.5, 0.9 or 2.7 x bet
• Hostage 2: 3, 4, 5 or 6 = 0.3, 0.5, 1 or 3 x bet
• Hostage 3: 3, 4, 5 or 6 = 0.35, 0.6, 1.25 or 3.75 x bet
• Hostage 4: 3, 4, 5 or 6 = 0.4, 0.65, 1.5 or 4.5 x bet
• Captor: 3, 4, 5 or 6 = 0.5, 0.75, 2.5 or 7.5 x bet
• Dynamite Wild: Substitutes for all paying symbols
• Con Man Wild: Expands to award wild reel + random hostage character turns wild
• xBomb Wild: Removes adjacent symbols + increases win multiplier
• Bonus Scatter: 2+ triggers a bonus feature

Stockholm Syndrome Mobile

HTML5 technology is used to produce all Nolimit City slots. This means that Stockholm Syndrome will detect whatever device you play on including laptops, PCs, mobiles and tablets. Smartphone player? There is a Portrait Mode available for iOS and Android mobiles.

Stockholm Syndrome has 11 bonus features. Wins lead to collapses and character multipliers whilst Con Man Wilds transforms hostage symbol instances into wilds. With xBomb Wilds and various extras in the base game, there are 2 free spins features. The Hostage Spins see the hostage symbol transform into the captor symbol and the Syndrome Spins can see the 4 middle reels affected by various xMechanics.

Collapses & Character Multipliers

When a winning combination lands, winning symbols will explode and are removed from the reels. New symbols fall into place which can result in additional wins (also known as Cascades or Avalanches). To help you win more, a randomly chosen character symbol will get a win multiplier of 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x or 10x.

Con Man Wild

When the Con Man Wild symbol lands fully on reel 3 (i.e. the middle reel), the bottom position on reel 3 is unlocked and becomes part of the Con Wild Man (i.e. a wild reel).

Then a randomly chosen hostage character is chosen will instances transforming into wilds. When a Con Man Wild lands partly from the top, it is not removed with cascades occurring.

xBomb Wild

the xBomb Wild symbol substitutes for all paying symbols. In the base game, an exploding xBomb Wild removes adjacent symbols except for scatters or wilds. It also increases the win multiplier by 1 for the next collapse.

With all xBomb Wilds exploding before the next collapse, xBomb Wilds only increases the win multiplier during the bonus features.

POLIS

The POLIS feature is triggered by landing the P, O, L, I and S symbols on the same row sequentially during a base game spin. The first 4 positions will benefit from locked coin values with random multipliers (5, 10, 25, 100, 250, 1,000 or 5,000 times bet or a Max Win symbol).

The 5^th position can get up to 3 keys with each key opening one of the locked coin value or max win values. All unlocked coin values will be combined and awarded.

SOS

Landing the S, O and S symbols on the same row sequentially in the base game will activate the SOS feature. This can only occur in case of no win and no collapse/avalanche. The O symbol transforms into an xBomb Wild. In the bonus features, it always triggers.

PISS

The PISS feature is triggered when P, I, S and S symbols land on the same row sequentially. All transforming into xBomb Wilds, it can activate in the base game when no win or avalanche occurs. Like with the SOS feature, it always triggers during the main bonus features.

Respin

When 2 Bonus Scatter symbols land with no collapse/avalanche, the Respin feature is triggered with the bottom position of reel 3 respinning. This can reveal a 3^rd Bonus Scatter.

Hostage Spins

The Hostage Spins feature is triggered when you see 3 Bonus Scatter symbols during a base game spin. With 7 free spins awarded, the bottom position on reel 3 is unlocked.

When a Con Man Wild lands fully, it increases the Con Man Wild win multiplier by 1 and upgrades a hostage character symbol to the highest-paying captor symbol for the remainder of the feature. It also rewards you with 1 extra free spin. xBomb Wilds are sticky during the feature and each Bonus Satter will award 1 additional free spin each time.

Syndrome Spins

The Stockholm Syndrome slot game comes with a Syndrome Spins feature. It’s triggered when you land 4 Bonus Scatters during a base game spin. With 8 free spins awarded, you’ll play with a 3x4x4x4x4x3 reel layout (so 6 reels).

With Con Man Wilds landing on reels 3 and 4, the Con Man Wild will nudge up or down to become fully visible on the reel when part of it lands on the reel(s).

Hostage symbols are collected from the 4 middle reels when Con Man Wilds land. They will be collected twice if 2 Con Man Wilds appear. When all 4 Collect Meters are full (5+), the Syndrome feature is triggered and affects the middle reels in the following way:

• Reel 3 Wild: Reel 3 is covered by a Wild symbol with a win multiplier depending on the collected symbol displayed below reel 3. The starting multiplier will be 2x which increases by 1 for each extra hostage symbol collected beyond 5.
• Reel 4 Infectious xWays: A new position opens up and reveals a random symbol of size 2 and transforms all instances of that symbol to become the same size (and increasing the number of ways to win). The collected symbol below reel 4 increases the xWays size by 1 for each extra collected symbol beyond 5.
• Reel 2 and 5 xReelSplit: Each symbol on the reel is split into 2. The collected symbol below reels 2 and 5 will increase the split size by 1 for each extra collected symbol beyond 5 for their respective reels.

Landing a Con Man Wild fully will reward you with 1 extra free spin. Each Bonus Scatter also gives you an extra free spin. Finally, the xBomb multiplier is sticky throughout the feature.

Nolimit Booster

Like in the Outsourced slot, there is a Nolimit Booster feature. With 2 options, here is what you can expect:

• CAM_BET: Costing 1.5 times your total bet, you are guaranteed a Bonus Scatter on the rightmost reel. The RTP is 96.05% (for the highest RTP setting).
• CON_BET: Costing 10 times your total bet, you are guaranteed a Con Man Wild on reel 1. The RTP is 96.05% (for the highest RTP setting).

Nolimit Bonus 

The Stockholm Syndrome slot comes with a Nolimit Bonus feature for non-UK players. With 4 options, they cost between 60 and 1,300 times your total bet. The RTP rates also differ:

The Lucky Draw 1 option has a 1/3 chance of playing the Syndrome Spins with a 2/3 chance of playing the Hostage Spins. With the Lucky Draw 2 options, it’s a 50/50 chance.

In terms of the POLIS options, you will play with 1, 2 or 3 POLIS feature triggers with up to 3 keys each. In the POLIS-4 option, you get 4 POLIS features with up to 3 keys but the lower values are removed. In the POLIS-5 options, you get 1 POLIS feature with just 1 key. However, the max win of 28,873 times your total bet is guaranteed to be one of the options.

The Stockholm Syndrome slot is an odd game. Visually, the dark and grey undertones remind me of the Jingle Balls and Rock Bottom slots where colour is reserved mainly for the character symbols.

The base game has plenty of extras including collapses, character multipliers, and Con Man Wilds which can award a wild reel as well as extra wilds. xBomb Wilds, which appear in The Border, explode to remove adjacent symbols and increase the win multiplier for the next collapse. All pretty standard so far.

With 3 features awarded by the low-value P, O, L, I and S symbols, the best is the POLIS feature where you can get up to 3 keys to reveal bet multiplier prizes up to 5,000 times your total bet. There is also a Max Win symbol worth 28,873 times your total bet which is highly unlikely to appear let alone be won.

With 2 free spins features, the Hostage Spins sees Con Man Wilds expand to increase the Con Man Wild win multiplier by 1 and upgrade a hostage symbol to the high-paying captor symbol for the rest of the feature.

In Syndrome Spins, you play with 6 reels and at least 2,304 ways to win. Con Man Wilds landing on reels 3 and 4 nudge up or down to award wild reels as well as collecting hostage symbols. When reel meters are full, the reel will be affected. This can lead to wilds with a multiplier, Infectious xWays which increases the number of ways to win and xReel Splits which also give you more ways to win.

To be honest, the action focuses on the Syndrome Spins feature where affecting all 4 middle reels can see huge wins. That said, the extras only apply on that free spin meaning they will reset for the next free spin. It does remind me of the Wolf Pac Spins feature in the Das xBoot slot.

In summary, the Stockholm Syndrome slot is an acquired taste. I quite like the theme and concept but the base game feature will often return little to no wins. The Hostage Spins can see all hostage symbols transform into the highest-paying symbol but big wins will be hard to come by.

The Syndrome Spins feature represents the best winning opportunities but it will feel like you’ve been love-bombed by the captor and left once he flees the scene or heads to prison.

The Stockholm Syndrome slot review was written by Chris Taylor from our OLBG Expert team who has written over 10,000 slot game reviews in an iGaming career spanning over 2 decades. It was then verified/checked by Jenny Mason, our prime Slot reviewer who has 17+ years working in online gambling, top UK brands. 

Jenny Mason

Slots content manager

Jenny Mason has more than 17 years of experience in the online gambling industry and has worked for some of the UK’s top betting brands. She started at OLBG in 2014 and her role involves creating great content and looking after the marketing activity. Jenny is knowledgeable in all areas of online sports betting and has an interest in slots and bingo.