Pirots 4 is the outer-space chapter. The four collector birds, the crew ELK calls the "birdonauts" in this one, blast off after a runaway called the Space Bandit, and the whole thing rides the same CollectR collection engine that has powered the franchise since 2023. It kept the 6x6 base grid that expands during features, the fixed 10,000x ceiling, and the 94% top RTP that had been the series standard for four straight games. When Pirots 5 arrived a year later, that 94% ceiling was the one big thing it finally changed. Everything else about the fourth game reads like a studio at the top of its craft: crisp art, a tight collection loop and a theme with more personality than most grid slots bother with. The birdonauts chasing a thief across the stars is a sillier hook than a cursed Egyptian temple, and I mean that as a compliment.
Pirots 5 (ELK Studios)Pirots 4 is the 2025 outer-space entry in the series - the crew chase a Space Bandit across a 6x6 CollectR grid, 94% top RTP, 10,000x max win. It\'s the game Pirots 5 picks up from. Here\'s the review and how the two compare.
A 94% top RTP, a 6x6 grid, and a 10,000x max win: that's Pirots 4, the ELK Studios slot that landed on 24 July 2025 with four colour-coded birds chasing a traitor across outer space, setting up everything the Egyptian sequel does now. I played the free demo in August 2026 to see how the fourth game holds up a year on, and here's the short version. It's a sharp, good-looking CollectR title with a 94% top RTP and a base hit rate around 25%, which puts it a notch below Pirots 5 on the numbers but still comfortably ahead of most grid slots I test.
My rating for Pirots 4 sits at 7.5/10. It earned strong reviews on release, and it plays like the series at full stride. If you're weighing it against the newer game, this page is the honest comparison. For the current release, my full Pirots 5 review covers the Egyptian re-theme in detail.
How I tested it: I loaded the free Pirots 4 demo across several sessions in August 2026, on desktop and on Android, and watched how the collection loop behaved rather than betting real money. Everything I quote for hard numbers (the 94% ceiling, the 10,000x cap, the roughly 25% base hit rate) comes from ELK's own spec and the launch reviews, not from a lucky screenshot. Every session here was tested by Ryan Cole. Published: 11 August 2026. Updated: 11 August 2026.
This is an independent review. We use affiliate links; that never changes what I write.
Where Pirots 4 sits in the family
How the space feature suite actually plays
The loop is pure Pirots. Four birds sit at the edges of the grid, each one eats gems in its own colour, and every symbol they clear drops fresh ones in from above through a cascade. Meters fill. The grid grows. Gems level up through tiers. If you've played any game in the series you'll pick it up in one spin, which is both the charm and, honestly, the limitation.
What sets the fourth game apart is the space dressing. There's a black-hole "Lost In Space" coin game where symbols get pulled off the board, and a time-based evolution countdown that ELK promoted heavily at launch - a meter that ticks the collected creatures up a stage. In my demo runs the birds moved in payout order and the board refilled cleanly, and the bonuses arrived on a slow drip, which is what you'd expect from a game reviewers scored as high volatility. Beyond that, ELK doesn't publish trigger frequencies or the full paytable bands, so I won't pretend to a number I can't see.
The core pieces
- Base grid 6x6, expanding toward 8x8 while features run.
- Four colour-matched collector birds and cascading gem refills.
- A black-hole coin feature and a time-based evolution countdown.
- A fixed 10,000x max win, feature-driven, not progressive.
Pirots 4 vs Pirots 5, side by side
I lined the two games up on the specs that matter for a real-money decision. The shape is nearly identical; the differences are RTP, theme and the feature set built on top.
| Spec | Pirots 4 | Pirots 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Release year | 24 Jul 2025 | 23 Jul 2026 |
| Theme | Outer space (birdonauts vs the Space Bandit) | Ancient Egypt (temple and catacombs) |
| Grid | 6x6, expands to 8x8 | 6x6, expands to 8x8 |
| Top RTP | 94% | 96% (models down to 87%) |
| Max win | 10,000x | 10,000x |
| Standout feature | Lost In Space black-hole coin game | Cursed Temple coin game plus Captain Blackfeather takeover |
Read the wider lineage on the Pirots series page, or drop back one more step to the Wild West entry in my Pirots 3 review.
One row is worth pausing on. The grid, the max win and even the release window (both games shipped in the last week of July, a year apart) match almost exactly. That's the whole point of the franchise: ELK re-skins one proven engine every year rather than reinventing it. So the choice between the two rarely comes down to how they play. It comes down to the RTP line and whether the theme lands for you.
What the newer game fixed
The single upgrade that matters is the RTP. For four games the mainline series capped at 94%, and that number was the running complaint in nearly every review I read. Pirots 5 is the first to reach a 96% default model, which is a meaningful two points in your favour before you even spin - though I'd flag the same caveat I always do. Operators can dial Pirots 5 down through 94, 92, 90 and even 87 percent, so the RTP you actually get depends on the casino, not the game.
Beyond the maths, the fifth game swaps space for an Egyptian temple, brings in the series' first named villain in Captain Blackfeather, and adds a trap-heavy feature suite: a Cursed Temple coin game on the 8x8 board, a Secret Door that rotates the grid, mummy-battle Catacombs and a five-tier X-iter feature buy. Pirots 4 has none of that. It's the leaner, older design. Whether the extra layers are worth it comes down to taste and, frankly, to which RTP model your operator runs.
Downsides worth knowing before you play
Two things hold Pirots 4 back for a real-money session in 2026.
First, the 94% top RTP. It was fine at launch, but with Pirots 5 now offering a 96% default it's simply the weaker deal on paper, and operator models can push the fourth game lower still. If you're picking between the two purely on value, the newer release wins that line.
Second, it's iterative. The CollectR loop and the 6x6-to-8x8 grid are the same machinery the series has run since Pirots 2, so if the collection mechanic already left you cold, the space paint won't change your mind. High volatility is the other watch-out - bonuses were slow to land in my demo runs, and that pattern burns a bankroll fast when you're chasing the 10,000x. I can't give you a trigger frequency, because ELK hasn't published one.
Playing it for real money
Availability varies by region and operator; search the lobby for ELK Studios titles rather than assuming a given casino carries this one. If you want to run Pirots 4 or its sequel with a deposit, the one offer I recommend on this site is 1Win, with its 500% welcome bonus up to $2,800; our full 1Win review breaks down the terms. Deposits and withdrawals cover Visa and Mastercard, e-wallets like Skrill and Neteller, plus crypto in BTC, USDT and TON; timing varies by operator. As always, try the free demo first before you commit a cent.
Should you play Pirots 4 or skip to the sequel?
Here's how I'd call it. Play Pirots 4 if the outer-space theme genuinely appeals, if you enjoyed the black-hole coin game in clips, or if the operator you use happens to run it at a better model than its Pirots 5 config. Nostalgia counts for something, and the fourth game is a clean, confident build that reviewers rated well when it dropped.
For most players, though, the newer title is the smarter money. Same grid, same 10,000x, same collection loop, but a 96% default RTP instead of 94% and a deeper feature set on top. Those two points of RTP compound over a long session in a way the theme never will. My advice is simple: run both free demos back to back, feel the difference in pace, and let your bankroll pick the RTP. There's no download and no cost to trying, so you lose nothing by comparing before you deposit.
Sources
- ELK Studios' official Pirots 4 game page for spec, theme and release framing.
- BigWinBoard's Pirots 4 slot review for the reviewer reception and RTP model detail.