Coin Master is a hodgepodge mix of mobile game mechanics tied together with a slot machine. Earn energy to spin the slots, then use your spins to attack other players' Clash of Clans style, earn money to upgrade your base, and take care of a pet!

Coin Master is a game that’s all about pulling the lever on a virtual slot machine. This doesn’t mean that it’s an expensive game to play – Coin Master gives you a decent amount of free spins, especially if you’re willing to jump through a couple of hoops – but it does mean that it can be. The slot machine is the heart and soul of Coin Master, and you need to use it in order to do just about anything in the game. If you have any doubts about your ability to stave off the urge to gamble, Coin Master is not a game that you want to play.

Beyond the slot machine, Coin Master is unremarkable. It’s a relatively simple game, with a thin veneer of Clash of Clans-style raiding and some buildings you can upgrade in your base. The game starts to fall apart when you realize that all of the players identify themselves by their first names and use stock photos as their avatars. It’s difficult to say for sure that Coin Master doesn’t actually have any multiplayer, but it sure seems like most of the accounts that you encounter while you play the game are fishy.

Coin Master is a very pushy game when it comes to notifications. It will blow up the feed on your phone if you let it, reminding you to come back and play. It’s similarly pushy with microtransactions. You’ll get special sales whenever you run out of resources and frequent reminders to visit the in-game shop to make things easier. The game is quite aggressive with its returning player rewards, however, so you can get a nonzero amount of stuff by simply ignoring the game for a few days and then returning. The game will give you a pile of resources and tell you “not to tell anyone.” Is it as much as you would have acquired by spending energy? Probably not, but it’s still something.

Coin Master is not unique, but it is problematic. There are plenty of other mobile games out there with gambling mechanics. There are other games with microtransactions. Most of those games have much better window dressing than Coin Master, however. They’ll have intricate combat systems, in-game socialization, and things to work towards over time. Coin Master’s versions of these mechanics feel lackluster and half-baked, at best. You’re not trying to upgrade your stuff to get a bunch of dragons or whatever. Instead, you’re just watching numbers go up. It feels like there’s no game, just an ever-present slot machine. That’s probably not a good thing.

Should you play Coin Master? Probably not. If you’re after a base builder or a game with raids on player bases, there are games that have much more interesting mechanics. If you think you like gambling, you definitely should skip Coin Master. It’s not clear whether the game uses real randomness for its slot machine, meaning that hours spent on Coin Master could result in your brain looking for patterns in other forms of gambling. Plus, while it’s easy to rack up lots of free pulls in Coin Master, it’s all too easy to fool your brain into thinking that Coin Master’s loose slots exist in other places. This game should be treated with caution. If you’re an adult, it’s totally fine to give it a try, but be very sure that you don’t apply Coin Master logic anywhere else.

Coin Master has skin-deep reproduction of other games’ systems, which means that much of the same logic applies. The best way to advance quickly in Coin Master is to limit your playtime but play regularly. In other words, play for a few minutes before and after work and you’ll see your account get pretty strong in no time at all.

Coin Master does not seem like a particularly well-maintained game, so a number of glitches pop up frequently. For one, it’s historically been possible to send out dozens of cards per day on Facebook by changing the date on your phone. In some minigames, it’s possible to tap the screen in two places at once to get an extra shot at finding treasure.

Are there more glitches in Coin Master you can take advantage of to get free stuff? Do you disagree with our assessment of the game? What village are you on? Let us know in the comments below!