Gemhalla review
BGaming released Gemhalla on 15 June 2023, and its rules are dated 6 June. The story is Norse, about Thor and the ash tree Yggdrasil, only without paylines: symbols pay anywhere on a 6×5 grid, winners vanish and new ones drop in from above. The studio lists volatility as very high, RTP is 97.17% in every mode and the cap is 5,000x the bet. The real hook is the shield multipliers: each one can reach 500x, and they add up.
Thor, objects and pays anywhere
The rules name Thor as the hero. On the cover he is a bearded Viking in a helmet with the world tree glowing behind him, the tree ancient Scandinavians saw as an endless source of vitality. The rules add that here it is a source of big wins. The grid holds fantasy objects instead of cards: a horned helmet, a beer mug, a pouch, an axe and five runes of different colours.
That makes nine regular symbols, four objects and five runes. On top of them sit a scatter and a shield multiplier that pays nothing itself but changes the size of a win. The object names come from the pictures, since the game sheet has no official captions.
The game counts the total number of identical symbols on screen after the spin. The minimum for a win is eight, and positions do not matter: the symbols need not touch. The grid has thirty cells, and noticeable sums start from ten symbols.
After payment the winning symbols disappear, the rest fall down and the gaps fill from the top. This repeats until nothing new forms. The rules set no limit on the number of refills, and the money is credited only after the last refill of the whole chain. Scatters do not take part in refills and stay in place until the sequence ends.
The demo configuration stores values in units where the bet equals twenty. Dividing by twenty converts them to multiples of the total bet. A check against the in-game pay table confirmed that, for example, the helmet scale 200, 500, 1000 means 10x, 25x and 50x.
| Symbol | 8-9 pcs | 10-11 pcs | 12 or more |
|---|---|---|---|
| Horned helmet | 10x | 25x | 50x |
| Beer mug | 2.5x | 10x | 25x |
| Pouch | 2x | 5x | 15x |
| Axe | 1.5x | 2x | 12x |
| Purple rune | 1x | 1.5x | 10x |
| Gold rune | 0.8x | 1.2x | 8x |
| Green rune | 0.5x | 1x | 5x |
| Blue rune | 0.4x | 0.9x | 4x |
| Red rune | 0.25x | 0.75x | 2x |
Each type pays its single applicable tier: ten helmets pay 25x rather than 10x plus an extra for two. Eight helmets are worth 10x, eight red runes 0.25x and twelve red runes 2x. First-to-last growth is fivefold for helmets, tenfold for mugs,7.5-fold for pouches,eightfold for axes and red runes, and tenfold for other runes. These compare prices without inferring group frequency.
Shields add after refills
A shield carries a random value from 2x to 500x, and its look hints at the range. The wooden one gives 2x to 5x, the green one 6x to 30x, the violet one 31x to 100x and the striped one 101x to 500x. A shield pays nothing by itself. It works only when the same spin has a win.
Shields of 4x,10x and 50x give 64x rather than 2,000x. 500x limits one shield rather than several shields’ sum. Without a win a shield pays nothing and does not carry to a new regular spin. Illustratively at bet 1, nine mugs pay 2.5x and eight purple runes 1x, followed by ten green runes at 1x. The 4.5x total with 3x+12x=15x shields becomes 67.5x. One 100x shield would give 450x on the same combinations.
The accumulated free-spin total
Four or more scatters trigger 15 free spins. A scatter pays in any position: four give 3x, five give 5x, six or more give 100x. The payment adds to ordinary combinations from the same spin.
Inside the bonus the shields accumulate. The multiplier sum of every winning spin is added to the sum of the earlier ones, and the whole total is applied to the current win, including shields that just landed. No multiplier burns out before the round ends.
Take a concrete case. On the first winning spin shields of 5x and 10x land, so the result is multiplied by 15. On the second, another 20x shield arrives. The pot is now 35 and the second win is multiplied by 35. If the third spin wins without any shield, it still gets the same 35. The value of the bonus therefore grows toward the end of the round rather than evenly.
Unlike some similar slots, the supplied rules explicitly apply the saved total to a win without a new shield. Three or more bonus scatters add five spins; repeat limits are unnamed. Winning-spin shields increase the pool rather than symbols on a losing grid. free spins explains carryover and extensions.
The buy and Chance x2
A round can be bought for 100 bets, and the next spin after the purchase starts free spins. The demo confirms the price: at a 0.60 bet the button reads 60.00. Buy RTP is also 97.17%, the same as the regular game.
The studio calls the second paid option Chance x2. It raises the bet by 25% and, according to the studio, doubles the chance of landing scatters. At a 0.60 bet each spin costs 0.15 more. RTP with Chance on is also 97.17%. The two options do not work together: while Chance is on the buy is disabled, and the other way round.
The buy and Chance are mutually exclusive: enabling one disables the other. At base bet 0.20 the buy costs 20 and Chance 0.25; at 50 they cost 5,000 and 62.50. Eighteen settings span 0.20–50 with 0.60 as default. bonus buy guide explains entry costs. Doubled scatter chance does not supply a separate Chance FS Rate, so neither an 81.6 interval nor a buy comparison by waiting cost can be derived.
Frequencies, the ceiling and versions
The studio publishes FS Rate 163.20 and Hit Rate 2.96 without defining their units. They establish neither a mean trigger interval nor a payout percentage. The described demo configuration lists odds of the 5,000x limit as 1:3,008,718; the measurement mode and applicability to other builds are unconfirmed. Individual shield types and values have no published frequencies; termination at the ceiling is unspecified.
500×10=5,000 is an arithmetic example matching the ceiling rather than its only confirmed route. The pool may exceed 500x over several winning spins while total payout remains limited to 5,000x. A single shield’s maximum does not cap the bonus pool.
Gemhalla — Released: 15 June 2023; RTP: 97.17%; Volatility: very high; Max: 5,000x; Hit Rate: 2.96; FS Rate: 163.20.
Alien Fruits 2 — Released: 25 June 2024; RTP: 97.17%; Volatility: very high; Max: 5,000x; Hit Rate: no data; FS Rate: 163.2.
Gemhalla Xtreme — Released: 4 June 2026; RTP: 97.17%; Volatility: very high; Max: 10,000x; Hit Rate: 3.23; FS Rate: 168.
Matching RTP and FS Rate in Alien Fruits 2 does not prove an identical complete mathematical model. Xtreme raises the ceiling, while Hit Rate 3.23 also lacks units. Sweet Bonanza and Starlight Princess also use pays-anywhere and multipliers, with their own application rules. The catalogue is on BGaming.
