Book of Dead review
Book of Dead, full title Rich Wilde and the Book of Dead, came out from Play’n GO on 14 January 2016 and became the benchmark for book games. It offers a 5×3 grid with 10 paylines, simple rules and one striking bonus: free spins with a special expanding symbol.
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.
| Symbol | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rich Wilde | 1x | 10x | 100x | 500x |
| Pharaoh | 0.5x | 4x | 40x | 200x |
| Falcon, Anubis | 0.5x | 3x | 10x | 75x |
| A, K | — | 0.5x | 4x | 15x |
| Q, J, 10 | — | 0.5x | 2.5x | 10x |
| Book (anywhere) | — | 2x | 20x | 200x |
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:
- Before the first spin, the game draws one regular symbol at random. It stays the expanding symbol for the whole sequence, retriggers included.
- On each spin, ordinary line wins are paid first.
- The chosen symbol can then expand to cover all three positions on its reel, but only when that creates extra wins on active lines.
- Expanded symbols do not need to sit on adjacent reels to form those wins.
- 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.
