The third expedition and symbol pays

After India and the Aztec ruins, adventurer Rich Wilde heads to ancient Egypt in search of the Book of Dead. The studio ties the story directly to his two earlier outings, Pearls of India and Aztec Idols. The legend this time is that the ancient Egyptians recorded the secrets of the worlds between life and death in the Book, and that treasure lies close to those secrets. The reels sit inside an underground tomb, populated by Egyptian gods, a pharaoh and Rich himself. The studio’s character note calls him a devilishly handsome adventurer who will stop at nothing to find hidden treasure, adding that his exploits grow more daring and dangerous over the years.

Lines are read from the leftmost reel. Card symbols from 10 to Ace need at least three of a kind, while the premiums (a falcon, Anubis, a pharaoh and Rich Wilde himself) pay from two. The hero’s own portrait pays the most.

Line multipliers are converted from line stakes into total stakes with every line active. Scatter pays use the total stake directly. The table’s line figures therefore need rescaling when lines are disabled.

Lines, coins and the Book’s dual role

Stake = active lines (1–10) × coins per line (1–5) × coin value (0.01–2). Lines activate in order. A 0.01 minimum means one coin on one line; all lines at the lowest denomination cost 0.10. The total upper limit is 100. Different coin-count and denomination combinations at the same line stake do not change that line’s pay.

The Book is both Wild and Scatter: it substitutes for other types on a line and pays in any positions. Only the highest combination pays per line, so a Wild does not create two pays on one path. There are no cascades, sticky symbols or separate multipliers.

The special symbol in free spins

Three Book scatters award 10 free spins, and the round then runs like this:

1. Before the first spin, the game draws one regular symbol at random. It stays the expanding symbol for the whole sequence, retriggers included.
2. On each spin, ordinary line wins are paid first.
3. The chosen symbol can then expand to cover all three positions on its reel, but only when that creates extra wins on active lines.
4. Expanded symbols do not need to sit on adjacent reels to form those wins.
5. Three or more Books during the feature add another 10 spins.

A premium needs two expanded reels, while a card needs three. These are different payment thresholds rather than evidence of any particular bonus’s higher frequency: selection and landing weights are absent. Additional expansion pays add to the regular combination paid beforehand.

Rich Wilde — 2 reels: 10x; 3 reels: 100x; 4 reels: 1,000x; 5 reels: 5,000x.

Pharaoh — 2 reels: 5x; 3 reels: 40x; 4 reels: 400x; 5 reels: 2,000x.

Falcon or Anubis — 2 reels: 5x; 3 reels: 30x; 4 reels: 100x; 5 reels: 750x.

A or K — 2 reels: —; 3 reels: 5x; 4 reels: 40x; 5 reels: 150x.

Q, J or 10 — 2 reels: —; 3 reels: 5x; 4 reels: 25x; 5 reels: 100x.

With every line active, expansion pays each one, so its result is the line pay times the line count. Five reels of Rich give the listed maximum for one expanded combination; this establishes neither a sole maximum route nor a cap on the accumulated sum of several free spins.

Gamble, RTP and published frequencies

After a base-game win, optional Gamble lets you guess a card’s colour to double or suit to quadruple. Up to five attempts and 2,500 coins are allowed; a miss loses the amount at risk. At 1/2 and 1/4 odds, the multiplier increase is offset by losing probability rather than raising average pay.

The five RTP builds are 96.21%, 94.25%, 91.25%, 87.25% and 84.18%; they look identical and operators select the configuration. Risk is high, rated 10 on the studio’s rules scale. The main build lists a pay averaging once per 3.26 spins: a pay does not imply a profitable spin. Free-spin frequency is unpublished.

For the 5,000x per-spin maximum, the studio quotes a probability of roughly one in 2.7 million. This is a separate rare outcome, not bonus frequency or a promise of a result after that many spins. Bonus termination on reaching that sum is unestablished.

Successors and the earlier book

The game launched the Dead range and appears among the studio’s land-based favourites. Legacy of Dead arrived in January 2020 with 96.58% RTP, a 5,000x maximum and unlimited retriggers. Cat Wilde and the Doom of Dead (June 2020, 96.29%) uses expanding mummy Wilds in regular play. Amulet of Dead (April 2021, 96.29%, 5,000x) adds stacked Thoth symbols.

Legacy of Dead continues the escaped pharaoh’s story; Amulet of Dead takes Rich to the Temple of Ramses II, where Thoth awards x2, x3 and x5 multipliers even in regular play. Cat Wilde is his daughter. Book of Ra Deluxe by Novomatic from 2008 shows the earlier Wild/Scatter book formula. Play’n GO uses it in its book slots with each release’s own rules.

Lines and the tomb’s two roles

Wins pay on fixed lines from left to right. Premiums need two matches, card symbols need three. These figures are multiples of your total bet for a single line; with the full stake spread across ten lines, each line carries a tenth of it.

One symbol does two jobs. As a Wild, the tomb substitutes for everything else and completes lines. As a scatter, it pays anywhere on screen based on your total bet: 2x for three, 20x for four and 200x for five. Three or more also trigger free spins, so the bigger scatter payouts always arrive together with the bonus.

Three or more tombs give a scatter award alongside free-spin entry, so the previous claim that three or four pay without triggering free spins is wrong. Line coefficients are total-bet multiples: a tomb on reel three after two Mummies makes a 10x three rather than a 1x pair. These values do not establish match frequency.

Eight spins and additional special symbols

The feature begins with eight spins and one randomly selected ordinary symbol, excluding the tomb. Normal lines pay first. The special expands when present on two reels for a premium or three for a card; the reels need not be adjacent. Expansion pays all ten lines additionally. Selection weights for the nine ordinary types are undisclosed: one of nine types does not establish a 1/9 probability.

Three or more tombs in the feature add eight spins and another special symbol while retaining the previous one. Retrigger count is unlimited, but the rule after all nine types have been selected is unspecified. Two retriggers give 8+8+8 = twenty-four spins, three give thirty-two, without establishing those rounds’ probabilities. free spins explains retriggers. Multiple accumulated types do not guarantee an expansion on the next spin.

Counting non-adjacent expansions

Special Anubis on reels one, three and five pays 3x per line × ten = 30x. An ordinary three-Anubis line starting from reel one would pay 3x rather than the incorrect example’s 0.3x. If K and Horus are special, three K reels give 0.5x×10 = 5x and two Horus reels another 5x: 10x together beyond ordinary pays when the layout permits both expansions.

Five expanded reels give 5,000x for Mummy, 1,600x for Anubis, 600x for Tutankhamun/Horus, 120x for A/K and 80x for Q/J/10. These are single-line values × ten. A Mummy screen reaches the ceiling, but that does not prove an exclusive route to a round total: multiple pays, normal lines and scatters cannot be excluded. The exact cap scope and forfeiture of remaining free spins are unspecified in the supplied rules.

Maths, the card gamble and predecessor

RTP versions are 96.58%, 94.51%, 91.51%, 87.56% and 84.55%; volatility is high, rated eight, stakes are 0.01–100 and the stated maximum is 5,000x. The technical sheet lists one cap event per 8,928,571 spins. Hit and bonus frequencies are undisclosed; the free-spin return share cannot be assigned from the mechanic description alone. There is no bonus buy.

Where the operator enables the card gamble, a base-game win can be risked on colour or suit up to five times. A wrong guess loses the entire staked win; correct-answer multipliers and probabilities are unspecified, so assuming a fair deck does not replace build rules. The gamble is unavailable in free spins and adds no specials. Book of Dead of 14 January 2016 has 96.21% RTP, the same cap and ten starting spins, adding ten on retrigger without a new special.

Book of Dead vs Legacy of Dead compares the games. Rise of Dead uses twenty lines, Mega Stacks and medium volatility; Legacy of Egypt develops the Egyptian theme differently. The developer is Play’n GO. These compare rules and configurations rather than promising a stronger result from every long bonus.

Five adjacent symbols and two orbs

A cluster of five or more matching adjacent symbols forms a win. Adjacency runs horizontally and vertically; there are no lines. Symbols in a win are cleared away, replacements fall into place, and the chain goes on for as long as fresh clusters appear. Card ranks are the cheapest symbols, while jewelled Egyptian ornaments pay more.

The grid has thirty cells. Cell count alone does not establish large-group frequency. The complete coefficient table is absent here. Red and blue orbs appear randomly in regular spins: one, both or neither; as Wilds they replace lows and premiums, but not FS. Every winning cluster in the current spin and cascades charges them, and they reset on the next spin.

Both orbs in one cluster multiply their multipliers; separate clusters use only their own orb. Hypothetical groups of six and five, then seven symbols, add eighteen to red and three to blue. These are increments rather than proof of final 18x and 3x readings: starting values and increment timing relative to the current award are unspecified. If the paying group’s calculation uses displayed 18x and 3x values, a nominal 0.5x becomes 0.5×18×3 = 27x.

Underworld: accumulate,then activate

Three scatters trigger Underworld with 10 free spins. Regular paying symbols stay, joined by a green Soul Orb and a multiplier modifier. Each reel has a multiplier under it that starts at zero and grows by the number of winning symbols on that reel. Anubis Skulls multiply these values, with modifiers of x2, x3, x4, x5 or x10.

A multiplier only becomes active once a green Soul Orb lands on its reel, and each activation awards three extra spins. Active multipliers are global: the sum of all switched-on values multiplies every winning cluster, wherever it sits. A single multiplier can reach 9,999 at most.

Green appears only here, and red and blue only in regular play. Reel values persist and grow during the feature. A hypothetical third reel receives three winning symbols and stores three; a 5x modifier makes fifteen. A green orb then activates it and adds three spins. With four already active on reel one, the shared sum 15+4 = nineteen applies to every cluster. An unactivated reel’s value is not yet included. Repeated activation of an already active reel as another +3 source is unestablished.

Judgment: modifiers are not paying blocks

Four scatters open Judgment, a hold-and-win style round without regular symbols that starts with three spins. Special blocks fall onto the grid, and each reel has a multiplier over it that four kinds of modifier can change.

Ice breaks and a block falls from above with that reel’s current value. These blocks stick at the bottom and stack. The final award is the sum of all blocks times the stake rather than the sum of readings above the reels. Initial top readings are unspecified. A Skull changes future blocks; a later modifier does not recalculate values already stored on the field.

The Crusher Block falls through everything to the bottom of the grid and destroys the Multiplier Blocks in its path. At the bottom it becomes a new Multiplier Block worth the sum of those it destroyed. It takes nothing away; it compresses a stack into one cell and frees space for more blocks.

A Multiplier Block, modifier or Crusher resets the counter to three; three spins without useful symbols end the round. Example: a hypothetical top reading of five becomes fifteen under 3x, and ice drops a fifteen block; Epic Skull +10 raises the top to twenty-five, and the next ice drops twenty-five. A Crusher merges them into forty. Other blocks of eight and twelve produce a 60x total. Collected fifteen and twenty-five cannot be added to forty a second time.

Two paid entries and the shared limit

Both features have a bonus buy guide where permitted; the build menu supplies exact prices and RTPs, while the description provides no figures. Underworld pays ordinary clusters using active-value sums; Judgment pays accumulated blocks. Main RTP is 96.24%, and reduced settings exist without a confirmed complete list. Volatility is high; orb, hit and feature frequencies are unspecified.

Stakes are 0.1–100, and the 10,000x ceiling equals 1,000–1,000,000. The rules describe a route using a combined orb multiplier of at least 167x and an eleven-plus cluster of golden ankhs with red gems. This is one described scenario rather than proof of an exclusive route or a full paytable row:10,000/167 cannot establish an exact 60x coefficient. Reaching the limit ends the round immediately and forfeits remaining free spins. The specific build displays odds in 1: N form; N is not supplied here.

Other dark and cluster releases

In spring 2022 Hacksaw was releasing one dark title after another, and this was among the most complex. Three months later the studio switched tone with the comedy Dork Unit. It came back to Egypt in 2024 in a lighter key, with Smokey the raccoon collecting coins under a rainbow in Le Pharaoh, and none of the afterlife gloom survived.

No sequel is identified in the description. Rotten offers a similarly dark mood; the cluster pays explainer explains adjacent groups. Judgment uses retention but calculates blocks rather than ordinary coins.

Sticky re-drops and Golden Riches

The 6×5 grid pays on lines, with Wild replacing paytable symbols. Winning symbols stick for a re-drop. New symbols extending or creating a win stick too; the chain ends and pays when no new wins form. Their positions create Golden Squares. Rainbows and FS landing with a sticky combination stick without creating squares. Sticky symbols clear on the next spin or Golden Riches activation; squares, Rainbows and FS clear on the next spin.

A Rainbow after the chain activates Golden Squares without a pay of its own. The order is reveal, clovers, pots from top to bottom and left to right, then fresh reveals in remaining squares; final coin and pot values add and multiply by the stake. Green Clover affects neighbours, Golden Clover the whole grid. A pot collects coins and other pots and retains the sum; a same-cycle clover cannot be moved after that collection.

Choosing among five bonuses

Three FS offer Luck of the Pharaoh with ten spins or Lost Treasures with three refilling lives. Four offer Super Luck with twelve spins and a clover on every activation, or Super Lost Treasures with an Adding Tablet on spin one. Super Luck raises high-value Coin probability; Super Lost raises high-value Coin and pot probability. Five FS trigger Rainbow over the Pyramids: twelve spins with a Rainbow on each, without a choice.

In spin-based bonuses Golden Squares remain until the end, even after activation. Two FS add two spins and three add four. A new Rainbow reveals accumulated positions again, without square count guaranteeing particular values. Lost Treasures has no regular symbols or FS, only dead symbols, coins, clovers, pots and tablets. A spin consumes one life and a new non-dead symbol refills three; three dead spins or a full grid end the bonus.

Coins and pots stick until collected or until the end. Tablets stick too, and that is the key. An Adding Stone Tablet adds one of 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x, 100x, 250x or 500x to a random coin on every spin. A Multiplying Stone Tablet multiplies a random coin by x2, x3, x4, x5, x10 or x20 each spin. Once the bonus is over, all coin and pot values are added and multiplied by your bet.

Tablets remain and act on subsequent spins, including dead ones; their repeated effect does not replace the requirement for a new symbol to refill lives. Coin and pot values add at the end. An earlier tablet allows more possible activations without establishing round length.

Buys and choice-based return

You Must Choose buys the three-FS tier and …But Choose Wisely the four-FS tier. Rainbow FeatureSpins guarantees at least a Rainbow with a winning combination; BonusHunt increases bonus probability fivefold without guaranteeing entry. The epic bonus cannot be bought. Nominal RTP is 96.18% with medium volatility; rules separately evaluate always choosing spins or lives and every purchase. Exact option returns, prices and activation frequencies are absent, with no established equal value weights.

The 15,000x maximum is available in all modes, including regular play, and reaching it ends the round. Many Golden Squares with a Rainbow illustrate a possible route rather than an exclusive requirement for the maximum. Tier buys enter the bonus immediately, whereas FeatureSpins modifies individual regular spins.

Smokey’s family

Le Bandit arrived on 24 August 2023 with super cascades, 2x–10x clovers, three bonuses, three extra spins for three FS, 96.34% RTP and a 10,000x maximum. Le King adds Jackpot Markers and Le Zeus Mystery symbols. Le Viking’s Raid Spins start with six coins of any kind, using three refilling lives and sticky coins. Le Fisherman uses Buckets instead of pots. Le Cowboy was released in November 2025; Great Game Serengeti collects coin values through Traps in a safari setting.

Twelve blockers and counting ways

Each spin starts with 12 scarab blockers on the grid, so the number of active ways is limited at first. The layout never changes, and it is stored in the game’s settings. The middle cell of reels one and five is open, as are the three central cells of reels two and four and the whole of reel three.

Ways are counted by multiplying open cells per reel, so the opening grid gives 1 × 3 × 5 × 3 × 1 = 45 ways. The shape is a diamond, and the edges are the bottleneck: any win has to pass through the single open cell on reel one.

These are examples of grid states, not a mandatory clearing order. Matching symbols on adjacent reels from the leftmost reel determine a win; row position does not matter. One copy on reel one, two on reel two and three on reel three, without continuation on reel four, pay six three-symbol ways: 1×2×3. Blocked cells do not count. how Megaways works shows the same multiplication principle, although wins open cells here.

Golden scarabs and sequence settlement

Any win triggers a respin: winning symbols release golden scarabs that destroy blockers and expand the play area, increasing the number of ways. The respins go on for as long as each one produces a win. Once a spin misses, the sequence ends, the win is paid and the blockers return.

A blank respin ends the chain if there is no spare life; accumulated pays are credited and stones return. Before a full clear, wins produce golden scarabs that break blockers. There are no separate scatters, bonus buy or boosted-bet mode. More ways describe the grid but do not by themselves establish the next win’s probability or how many stones a sequence usually clears.

Red lives and the blue multiplier

Only after every blocker is destroyed do winning symbols release red and blue scarabs for the statues to collect. Every five red award one life: a blank consumes it and allows another respin. Every five blue raise the multiplier by one. It applies within the current sequence after the increase; its later value does not retroactively reprice earlier pays.

An illustrative counter example: four red and six blue at 1x give 2x with one blue left over. Six more red and nine more blue bring red to ten for two lives and blue to fifteen for a 4x multiplier. Two following blanks consume the lives; a third blank ends the sequence. This illustrates accumulation rather than outcome frequency or payment timing for the winning spin that released the scarabs.

Maths and the sequel

RTP is 96.2%, volatility high, stakes 0.1–100 and the ceiling 5,800x. Full-clear frequency is undisclosed; claims that most runs are short or that there is only one route to the cap are unestablished. The multiplier and lives can extend pays on the open grid without making the result predictable. The entire result is credited after the sequence ends. slot glossary explains respins and ways.

Valley of the Gods 2 launched on 24 September 2020: 240–20,160 ways, 96% RTP and high volatility, adding Wild Reel to turn a whole reel Wild. For comparison, Legacy of Egypt offers an Egyptian theme with free spins, Hades Gigablox a changing grid and multiplier bonus, and Bonanza Megaways variable ways under different rules. The developer is Yggdrasil Gaming.

Sci-fi Egypt instead of dusty tombs

The Swedish studio likes to take a worn theme and turn it inside out, and Egypt had been worn thin by 2021. Rather than another scroll-and-sarcophagus game, you get a future version of the pharaohs’ world where mythical figures meet technology. The High Priestess tops the paytable, an eagle, a crocodile and a hound fill the middle tier, and card ranks from 9 to A cover the low end.

The sun is part of the story as well as the scenery. The scatter is a sun symbol, and in the game’s legend it is the sun’s power that unlocks the pyramid’s riches, which in practice means the bonus. The game uses a 16:9 layout, as other Thunderkick titles of that period do, so the three-row grid sits comfortably on a wide screen, and the sci-fi framing alone separates it from the many tomb-themed slots on any casino shelf.

Paylines and the longest-win rule

Symbols pay when they line up on a payline from the leftmost reel. The lines are fixed, with no option to play fewer. Each line pays only its longest combination, so if a line holds both a three and a four of the same symbol, you get paid for the four.

Line wins for the whole round are added together and shown at the end. No separate scatter payout is mentioned; the sun’s job is to open free spins. Public documents do not list symbol values; the in-game paytable converts them into currency for your chosen stake.

Wild multipliers that double, not add

Outside free spins, the Wild multiplier is the headline act. The Wild substitutes for every symbol except the scatter, and any winning line that includes it gets a multiplier based on how many Wilds sit on it. Each extra Wild doubles the figure:

Try a sample line: Priestess, Wild, Priestess, Wild, Priestess. The Wilds fill the gaps to make five Priestesses, and with two Wilds on the line, the payout for five Priestesses gets a 4x boost. Swap one Priestess for a third Wild and the multiplier jumps to 8x.

One Wild can also serve several lines at once. Picture a Wild in the middle of reel 3 where three winning lines cross: one of eagles, one of hounds and one of aces. Each line gets its own 2x, so the whole spin’s payout doubles. Two Wilds at a crossing point are even stronger, because any line running through both gets 4x. So even without free spins, a real payout does turn up now and then.

Sun scatters and the free spins trigger

Land three or more sun scatters anywhere on the grid outside the feature and free spins begin: three suns award 10 spins, four award 15 and five award 20. Free spins keep the triggering bet, and there is neither a bonus buy nor an ante bet, so regular spins are the only route in.

Inside the bonus, suns work under a different rule. You do not need three on one screen; three collected during a single free spin, counting all its respins, award five more spins. One sun on the main spin and two across later respins count the same as three at once. Longer respin chains therefore raise your chances of an extension, simply by giving the suns more attempts.

How Sticky Respins build a spin

During free spins, any line win triggers a Sticky Respin. The sequence runs like this:

1. Symbols that form part of a line win lock in place.
2. All other positions spin again.
3. Any new winning symbols lock too, and another respin follows.
4. The chain stops when no additional winning symbols lock, or when every position on the grid is locked.

Respins do not use up free spins; they are all part of the same spin. A short line of three eagles can grow to five over a few respins and pick up neighbouring lines along the way. The extreme case is a grid entirely made of locked winning symbols.

Locking also works against the Wilds. The more cells are locked, the fewer free positions remain for Roaming Wilds to move into before a respin. Late in a long chain, a badly placed Wild may have almost nowhere to go. A Wild that is part of a win, by contrast, locks along with the line and keeps multiplying it until the chain ends.

Rules that govern the Roaming Wilds

Any Wild that lands during free spins becomes a Roaming Wild and sticks around until free spins are over. Four rules govern how it moves:

• before each new free spin, every Roaming Wild moves to another position;
• before each respin, a Wild shifts to another unlocked position unless it belongs to a win;
• two Wilds can never share a cell;
• up to five Wilds can be awarded during the bonus.

The second rule is the clever part. A Wild that has already helped form a line stays put with the locked symbols, while one that missed jumps to a free cell and gets another chance to land on a winning line. Combined with 2x to 32x line multipliers, this is where the bonus finds most of its value.

One free spin traced from start to finish

Picture a free spin with two Roaming Wilds already collected. All positions and payouts in it are invented.

1. Before the spin, both Wilds move: one to the middle of reel 2, the other to the top of reel 4.
2. The spin lands crocodile, Wild, crocodile on a line: three symbols with one Wild, 2x. All three positions lock.
3. The second Wild is not in a win, so before the respin it jumps to a free cell on reel 3.
4. The respin adds a crocodile on reel 4 in the same line, which now has four symbols; the crocodile locks.
5. The next respin puts the roaming Wild onto the line’s reel-5 position. Five symbols with two Wilds now sit on the line, for 4x.
6. Another respin adds nothing, the chain ends, and the line pays five crocodiles times four.

The example shows the loop at the heart of the game. Respins give Wilds time to find a line, and a Wild on that line raises both its length and its multiplier.

Two RTP builds and how to tell them apart

Official documents put the standard build at 96.17%. A 90.16% build also exists for markets that require it. Mechanics and the cap are identical; only the average return differs. In the operator packages the main build is coded tk-s1-g45 and the reduced one tk-s1-g45-90, and the rules text is word-for-word identical apart from the RTP line, so reading that line in the game menu is the only reliable way to know which one you opened. Either way, a theoretical return describes the long run and promises nothing about a single session.

The payout cap, the teased 15,000x and the swings

On the cap, the wording is direct: one game round cannot pay more than 10,000 times the total bet. Once a round hits that figure, it ends and nothing further is paid, even if free spins were left. The operator information sheet lists the same maximum exposure.

The pre-release announcement in June 2021 spoke of rewards up to 15,000x. Neither the live rules nor the operator sheet carry that figure, and the cap in the rules is what governs payouts.

Only a bonus in which several Roaming Wilds gather on one or more lines of high-value symbols, while Sticky Respins fill the grid, can get there. It is extremely rare, yet with 16x and 32x line multipliers in play it is less far-fetched than it sounds.

Neither a hit frequency nor a bonus frequency is published. The info sheet does give a volatility figure of 9.63, calculated as the square root of variance, which in plain terms means spin results are widely spread and the base game is often quiet: it pays mostly through small lines and the odd Wild, while big results come almost entirely from a bonus with several Wilds in play.

Thunderkick lineage and similar games

Pyramyth shows how the studio recycles a good idea. Roaming Wilds and big multipliers had already appeared in Beat the Beast: Griffin’s Gold, a mythological slot the studio itself says has a serious cult following. Here the concept gains Sticky Respins and moves to a sci-fi Egyptian setting.

The studio deliberately stepped away from the template: no books, no expanding symbols, no sand-filled tombs. Instead there are line multipliers and a bonus in which the grid gradually freezes into place. Egypt done the traditional way is Legacy of Egypt from Play’n GO, and expanding-symbol games are grouped under book slots. The full Thunderkick lineup has its own studio page.

Priestess, sun and 32x: the verdict

The game’s strength is how its mechanics interlock. Sticky Respins give Wilds time to find a line, Wilds double the multiplier, and three suns within one free spin extend the bonus. Nothing is hidden in the documentation either: it spells out both RTP builds and the payout cap with round termination.

Its weaknesses flow from the same design. Regular spins are plain, bonus results depend heavily on where the Wilds jump, and the teased 15,000x never made it into the final rules. Go in with the right expectations, a long quiet base game, a rare but busy bonus and an honest ceiling, and it holds up well. Just do not expect a classic book rhythm where one expanding symbol decides everything: here the result is built from several mechanics, each adding its share.

Thoth’s trial and line pays

The story is framed as a reckoning. Rich hears the same voice in his dreams every night, calling him to answer for his looting ways. It leads him to the Temple of Ramses II, where an Osiris amulet was found, and now he must be judged, with the Book of Dead revealing all. The tagline: “All must be judged in the eyes of Thoth”.

The studio’s description mentions gold flecks on the backdrop of Thoth’s temple. Thoth himself is the stacked Wild, holding a glowing Book of Dead, and the Eye of Osiris pendant is the scatter. The link to the series is explicit: the developers call it a continuation of both the Rich Wilde collection and the “of Dead” games. Rich’s character page adds that he also appears in other Egyptian adventures and in Rich Wilde and the Shield of Athena, where he teams up with his daughter Cat. Later that year, on 18 November, came Rich Wilde and the Wandering City, with a 10,000x cap.

Lines pay left to right, and you can play anywhere from one to ten of them. Each line takes one to five coins, with coin values from €0.01 to €2. That gives a technical minimum of €0.01, one coin on one line, and a maximum of €100: ten lines, five coins at €2. With all lines active the smallest stake is €0.10.

Pays depend on the active line stake. For example, €0.50 can use ten lines with five €0.01 coins each or one €0.05 coin each: the line stake is identical. Operators may restrict coin sets. Premiums and the pendant pay from two, royals from three; coefficients below retain the rules-sheet scale and are not labelled as total-bet multiples.

The Eye of Osiris and full stacks

The pendant can land on any of the five reels and does two jobs. As a Wild it substitutes for everything except the bonus’s special expanding symbol. As a scatter it pays anywhere, with the amount multiplied by the total bet and added to line wins. When free spins trigger, three pendants pay two total bets, four pay twenty and five pay two hundred.

The Thoth Wild appears on reels 2, 3 and 4 only and can land as a full stack. A multiplier kicks in when a reel is completely covered:

• one full reel: x2;
• two full reels: x3;
• three full reels: x5.

It applies to every win on the spin, scatter wins included, and it works on regular spins and free spins alike. Note the scale: multipliers don’t compound. Two stacks give x3, not x2 × x2 = x4, and three give x5, not x8. A partly covered reel acts as a normal Wild and triggers no multiplier.

A full stack occupies its whole reel and cannot contain a pendant simultaneously. Full stacks on reels two and four can coexist with three pendants on the other reels: their 2x scatter award becomes 6x under the shared 3x multiplier. This is an illustrative layout rather than a frequency estimate.

The special symbol in free spins

At least three scatters open a round of 10 free spins. The round’s special expanding symbol is chosen at random beforehand and stays for the whole bonus; any premium or royal can be picked. Once wins are counted on each spin, it grows to cover its whole reel top to bottom if there are enough of them to form a win, and those reels don’t need to be adjacent. Landing three or more scatters again in the bonus adds another 10 spins. You can’t buy your way into the feature.

There are nine candidates, four premiums and five royals, with undisclosed weights rather than established equal probabilities. The pendant cannot replace the special symbol, while a fully covered Thoth reel can. If selected HP3 expands on reels one, three and five, full Thoth on reel two counts as the fourth before the full-stack multiplier applies. Ordinary and expanded pays must be evaluated in their respective units.

The card gamble and RTP builds

After a regular-play pay, a face-down card offers a colour or suit guess with up to five attempts. A wrong guess loses the gambled award. The source review takes doubling and quadrupling factors from detailed Book of Dead rules; confirm Amulet’s own factors in its help screen. The gamble does not make a selected colour predictable.

RTP settings are 96.29%, 94.28%, 91.22%, 87.28% or 84.24%, with the active build named in the rules. Volatility is high at 7/10; the studio’s 1:2.55 hit rate concerns the main configuration. The limit is 5,000x with rule-sheet odds of about 1:20.4 million. Comparing Moon Princess at below 1:160 million does not establish the reason for that difference or bonus frequency.

Book of Dead arrived in January 2016 with 96.21% RTP and a Wild-scatter book. January 2020’s Legacy of Dead has 96.58% RTP, a tomb and an additional special symbol per retrigger. Cat Wilde’s adventure arrived in June 2020 with 96.29% RTP and Rich’s daughter in the lead. Book of Dead vs Legacy of Dead compares the original book mechanics further.

Artefacts and mummy Wilds

The 5×3 grid has ten fixed lines paying from reel 1. Nine regular symbols comprise four premiums—Cat, the Sphinx, Anubis and the Scarab—and five low artefacts. Premiums pay from two symbols, artefacts from three. Per-line figures in the rules sheet are divided by ten and expressed as total-bet multiples. The sheet does not map the Sphinx and Anubis to HP3 and HP2.

Wilds depict five ancient kings and queens with different appearances but identical rules. Any mummy may land on any reel and immediately fill all three cells, contributing to every line. Mummies also expand in free spins and substitute for the special symbol. Wilds have their own payout only for five, but fewer can form a combination with a regular symbol.

The compass and special symbol

The compass scatter appears only on reels 1, 3 and 5. One on each awards ten free spins; the scatter itself pays nothing. Before the bonus, a spinning compass randomly selects a high or low symbol. It stays special throughout the round and cannot be chosen or known in advance.

Regular combinations pay first. The special symbol then fills its reel if it contributes to a win: premiums require two reels and artefacts three. Reels need not be adjacent. Expanded symbols pay across all lines, adding to the regular payout. A full screen of Cat or mummies pays 1,000x; low LP1–LP3 artefacts pay 20x.

Three new compasses add ten spins with unlimited retriggers. The selected symbol stays unchanged and mummies keep expanding. Symbol-selection weights and bonus frequency are not disclosed; five artefacts and four premiums do not imply equal selection probabilities.

Configurations and the Dead family

Available RTPs are 96.29%, 94.22%, 91.21%, 87.26% and 84.26%, with the active version shown in the rules. Hit frequency is one in 2.44 spins. Volatility is high: the studio page rates it 7 out of 10 and the 2020 sheet 10. The 5,000x maximum has stated odds of one in a billion spins; excess wins are not paid.

In Book of Dead, the Book is both Wild and scatter anywhere and awards ten free spins with one special symbol; RTP is 96.21%. In Legacy of Dead, the tomb combines those roles, starts with eight spins and adds a special symbol per retrigger; RTP is 96.58%. Both have the same maximum. The pharaohs from Rise of Dead (2019) returned in Pyramids of Dead, while Rich Wilde and the Amulet of Dead continued the father’s line.

Cat Wilde in the Eclipse of the Sun God (February 2021) has cascades with multipliers up to 10x and up to 70x in free spins. Cat Wilde and the Lost Chapter (10 February 2022) changes the special symbol on every Pyramid Spin. Pyramids of Dead (2022) adds an instant prize, free spins and fixed jackpots up to 10,000x. Incan Quest (8 February 2024) offers falling-Wild re-spins and a jackpot bonus up to 10,000x.

Offset rows and neighbouring reels

In most cascading slots, symbols simply fall straight down. Here the rows are offset like brickwork, so after a win a round symbol first drops, then slides left and right until it finds a stable resting place. The rules put it plainly: remaining symbols fall vertically, then slide to the left and then to the right repeatedly until they settle.

Three matching symbols on consecutive reels, starting from the left, is the minimum for a payout. Gaps aren’t allowed, and only the longest combination per way is paid. Coloured gems are the low payers, the ibis, camel and cat sit in the middle, and a lucky seven tops the paytable. The W Wild covers regular symbols, but it cannot replace the bonus or multiplier symbols.

Stakes are 0.20–100; exact symbol values appear in the in-game paytable.

One seven on reel one, two on reel two and one on reel three make two ways; two on reel three would make four. After a pay, surviving symbols first roll into gaps; when no new wins remain, a refill adds another row, up to eight. The next paid spin starts at four again.

X scatters double subsequent payouts

Multiplier scatters can arrive in any drop and activate when they reach the bottom row. The multiplier starts at 1x, the first activated scatter makes it 2x, and each one after doubles the current value: 4x, 8x, 16x, 32x and finally 64x. Up to six such scatters can appear in one round, which is exactly how the 64x ceiling is reached. It applies to all following wins in that round and resets before the next spin.

The key word is “following”. A scatter doesn’t boost wins already paid; it only lifts what forms after it activates. So a scatter that reaches the bottom in the very first drop is worth far more than one that gets there at the tail of a chain, when there may be no wins left to multiply.

Here’s a sample chain with invented payouts at a stake of 1. The first drop pays 0.4 for a line of gems, and one scatter reaches the bottom row, so the multiplier becomes 2x. The next drop, now on five rows, pays 0.6, doubled to 1.2. Two more scatters then roll down and the multiplier climbs to 8x. A line of ibises worth 1.5 now pays 12. The chain ends with 13.6x in total.

The bonus symbol must reach the left edge

One bonus symbol is enough, but it has to roll all the way to the left pillar, meaning the first column. It doesn’t cut the current chain short either: every cascade plays out first, and only then does the bonus begin.

The rules include a detail most players miss. If the bonus symbol gets stuck in a dead zone from which it could never reach the first column, it explodes and is replaced by a new bonus symbol in the next drop. The game doesn’t waste bonus symbols forever, but the replacement is no more likely to succeed than the one before.

Free Drops: a full grid and sticky multipliers

The bonus awards 7 free drops, each played with all eight rows active. Every bonus opens at 1x. In the bonus, multiplier scatters become sticky, so the multiplier can only go up and each new drop begins from the value already reached. A fresh bonus symbol reaching the first column retriggers the round, and the total is paid at the end.

Six activated X symbols give 64x: regular play needs them within one chain, while the bonus can accumulate them across drops. This is a retention difference rather than a published 64x hit rate. The original’s retrigger extension amount is unspecified.

Strategies change stakes, not the rules

Every ELK game, this one included, ships with Betting Strategies that change your stake automatically. Optimizer bets a percentage of your balance, from 1% to 10%. Leveller raises the bet two steps after five straight losses. Booster raises it one step after each loss, up to four levels over the base stake. Jumper does the same after wins. Each resets to the base level when the result flips.

These patterns change neither RTP nor bonus odds. how slot RNG works explains random outcomes; raising the stake changes the cash at risk.

RTP is 96.10%, volatility 8/10 and hit rate 23%. Bonus frequency and payout distribution are not supplied. The 5,000x limit immediately ends the round and pays the collected amount; remaining free drops are forfeited. RTP concerns average return rather than the bonus wait.

Cygnus 2 and 3

Both official sequels change the engine in noticeable ways. In Cygnus 2, the multiplier rises when a multiplier symbol reaches the leftmost column and then turns into a Wild, and extra bonus symbols during the round add 3 free drops each. Cygnus 3 introduced the Cygnus Wheel, which awards coin wins, free drops and three fixed jackpots.

Part two has 94% RTP, 8/10 volatility, 23.6% hit rate and a 50,000x limit. Part three has 94% RTP, 7/10 volatility, 26% hit rate and a 10,000x limit, with fixed €1,000, €10,000 and €100,000 jackpots. Both sequels offer X-iter modes at 2x–500x; check their rules for individual RTPs. The original has no bonus buy.

Katmandu Gold pairs six columns and expanding rows with big symbols and a buy. Pirots offers a different collection system. All three belong to ELK Studios, whose Mobile First portrait layout keeps controls within thumb reach. The demo loads from the studio’s server.

Desert, pyramids and a radiant Ra

The action takes place in the sands: pyramids stand behind the playfield and on the right Ra rises full height in golden regalia with a staff. The top symbols are creatures with fiery eyes: a hooded serpent, a black stallion, a phoenix and a scorpion. Below come the card values A, K, Q, J and 10, drawn to match the desert. The Wild shows the face of Ra himself, and the Bonus is a golden winged scarab.

The press release adds that Ra remains the only Wild and that scarabs can land only on the second, third, fourth and fifth reels. That layout sets the game apart from its Egyptian neighbours: there a book or the sun usually plays a double role, here the functions are separated.

Six reels, four rows and fifty lines

Lines are read from left to right, starting at the first reel. The 6×4 grid uses fifty fixed lines, the scheme of which is drawn on the rules page. A win needs three or more identical symbols in a row, only the best combination on a line is paid, and totals from separate lines are summed. Every line crosses all six reels, so on average each of the 24 cells sits in 12.5 lines, and a single symbol seldom works alone.

Each payout is calculated from the stake on a single line, and a full stake is twenty coins. The coin steps up from 0.01 to 12.00 over 23 rungs, so the total bet spans 0.20 to 240. Neither a buy nor an ante exists; the stake is the one lever.

What the symbols pay: the table in bets

The price of one line is tiny, so the values were read on the rules screen at a 2.00 bet, divided by two and written as shares of the total bet. Payouts start at three matching symbols and run up to six.

The scale is tidy but not overly generous: the top symbol pays 15 bets for six in a row, and the Wild 25. The press release confirms that the high symbols pay up to 15 bets. For four in a row the Wild even trails the serpent (2.5x against 3.75x), so its strength lies in substitution and in the reel with a multiplier. Everything else, the cap included, is assembled from the multiplier and the bonus.

Ra turns symbols into a Wild reel

Ra may show up on each of the six reels and stands in for any symbol other than the Bonus scarab. It has a special property: when one or more Wilds appear on the grid, they can randomly turn into a reel filled entirely with Wilds. That reel carries 3x: the multiplier lands on every winning combination in which the transformed Wild stands.

The rules make two clarifications explicit. The transformation happens at random, not on a schedule. And the multiplier acts not on the whole spin but only on combinations that include the transformed Wild; the other lines pay by the ordinary table. How often the transformation occurs, the rules do not say.

The golden scarab: bonus entry and retriggers

The Bonus symbol lands only on reels 2, 3, 4 and 5. Three or more start free spins. Besides the entry to the bonus, scarabs pay from the total bet: three give 2x, four give 5x; the rules list no payout for more. Since the symbol is possible on only four of the six reels, the number of scarabs available at once is limited.

Inside the bonus two scarabs are enough for a retrigger, so the round is extended more easily than it begins. Two symbols add 3 spins, three add 6, four add 9. The rules name no upper limit on the number of repeats.

Fifteen spins and the ankhs

Free spins open with fifteen spins. During the round a new symbol, the ankh, appears, and the press release describes a progress meter for it next to the reels. The ankhs collected upgrade the reel strips, that is, they change the set of symbols from which the game draws the result of each spin. Ankhs give no multiplier: they add Wilds to the strips over four levels.

By the fourth level the number of Wilds on the strips has almost doubled. How many symbols there are on the strips in total, and what share the Wilds hold, is not reported, so the probability of a Wild landing on the grid cannot be estimated from these figures. The ankh frequency is not given either, but with the opening fifteen spins the fourth level needs one ankh per spin on average. A round with retriggers is therefore usually stronger than one without: the extra spins give time to collect ankhs and open the later levels.

The 22,500x cap and Egyptian neighbours

The press release words it as a mammoth 22,500 bets, for both parts of the game: base and free spins. The rules fix the same limit. The settings of the demo server imply a 1 in 1,022,013 chance per spin of reaching it. Once the limit is taken, the round closes, the win is paid and any remaining spins and features are dropped.

The closest Egyptian neighbour from the same studio is John Hunter: Book of Tut from 2020, with a 96.50% RTP, a 5,500x cap and medium volatility. Play’n GO has Legacy of Egypt from 2018 (96.50%, 5,000x, medium), and Hacksaw has Le Pharaoh from 2024 (96.18%, 15,000x, medium). At an almost identical 96.49% RTP, Might of Ra stands out by a cap four times that of the first two and by the only high volatility label.