Gonzo’s Quest II: Return to El Dorado review
NetEnt released Gonzo’s Quest II: Return to El Dorado on 25 September 2025, fifteen years after the first game about the conquistador. The grid is 6×4, but it grows: every avalanche adds a row, and the height can reach eight. The studio volatility index is 9.8, and on the platform scale the border between “medium” and “high” runs at 9.9, so by the official label the game keeps medium volatility while standing right on the edge. Three novelties stand out: two kinds of Wild, colossal symbols and Super Free Spins. The demo needs no registration.
A temple with a golden gate and flying masks
On the banner Gonzo, in helmet and armour, holds out a palm with a red crystal, a sun-faced shield beside him. Behind him stands a stone temple with gold glowing in its doorway, dense trees on the sides and waterfalls on blue cliffs. Stone masks fly through the air on the right, one grey and one lilac, both with yellow eyes. The title is set in gold letters with a red gem inside the “Q”, and the subtitle rests on a dark plank.
Ways, avalanches and a growing grid
Wins pay by ways: a combination forms left to right on adjacent reels, and the number of ways is the product of reel heights. On the starting four rows that is 4,096 ways, on five 15,625, on six 46,656, on seven 117,649 and on eight 262,144, a factor of 64 over the start. The maximum arrives when all six reels have grown to eight rows.
Every win starts an avalanche: winning symbols vanish and new ones fall from above. Alongside, the Expanding Reels feature adds one row at the top, up to four extra in all. In the base game the expansion ends when the avalanches stop, and the next spin begins from 6×4 again. A short win therefore changes almost nothing, while a chain of four avalanches takes the grid to the full eight rows at once, with each next avalanche in it running over more ways. How often such chains occur, the studio does not say.
Two kinds of Wild and the pay rule
Wilds of two types can land: the regular Wild and the Calamity Wild. Both can stand anywhere. The regular Wild stands in for any symbol except the Scatter and the Calamity Wild. The pay rule for them is careful: if a way begins with a run of Wilds, the payout is taken from the better of two options, the pure Wild run or the run of ordinary symbols. When the sums are equal, it pays as an ordinary combination.
A way made only of Wilds is paid only if it is six symbols long, from the leftmost reel to the rightmost. The rule keeps four Wilds in a row from grabbing a high prize before the fifth and sixth appear.
Calamity Wild: three to six regular Wilds
The Random Wilds feature is started by a Calamity Wild when it forms part of a winning combination; on its own it does not pay. Before the grid expands and the next avalanche runs, it randomly places 3 to 6 regular Wilds. They can fill empty cells or land on top of symbols, but never on a Scatter, another Wild or a Calamity Wild that has not fired yet.
On a 24-cell grid six Wilds cover a quarter, while on a 48-cell grid, at eight rows, the same six cover only an eighth. So a Calamity Wild hits hardest on a compact grid, although an early avalanche also has fewer ways: the value of a Wild is set by its share of the grid and the number of ways running through it together.
Colossal symbols at 2×2, 3×3 and 4×4
Scatters and high-paying symbols, apart from Wilds and Calamity Wilds, can come in colossal form: 2×2, 3×3 or 4×4. When a win is calculated, such a block counts as several symbols at once: a 2×2 as four, a 3×3 as nine, a 4×4 as sixteen, and a colossal Scatter as two, three or four Scatters respectively. When Random Wilds runs, colossal paying symbols can turn into colossal Wilds, no more than two per spin. The studio gives no odds for the blocks.
Entering free spins: Scatters in succession from the left
Free spins come from three, four, five or six Scatters standing in succession from the leftmost reel with no gaps. They give 10, 12, 15 or 20 spins. The spins are awarded after all wins are evaluated, and expanded reels and multipliers from the base game do not carry over, so the bonus begins on an ordinary 6×4.
The “in a row from the left edge” condition is stricter than “anywhere”, and a colossal Scatter helps here. A 3×3 block at the left edge opens free spins on its own, with no help from other symbols, and a 4×4 block needs only one more ordinary Scatter next to it to make five symbols and 15 spins.
Free Spins and Super Free Spins
In plain Free Spins, started by three or more regular 1×1 Scatters, the global multiplier starts at x2 and adds 2 with every avalanche. When all avalanches of a spin finish, it resets to x2 for the next spin, so each bonus spin is a fresh attempt at a long avalanche. Three or more Scatters in succession from the left edge inside the bonus add as many spins as the entry would have given.
The grid in free spins, by contrast, does not reset: new rows gained through avalanches carry over to the next spin, up to the maximum height of eight. By mid-bonus the grid is usually full, and while the multiplier resets, all the ways stay. A rising number of ways is joined by a multiplier that itself climbs on avalanches, which is why the bonus weighs more than the base game.
Super Free Spins start when at least one of the Scatters that trigger the bonus is colossal. The starting multiplier and the step depend on that Scatter’s size.
Free Spins — Triggered by: 3 to 6 Scatters at 1×1; Starting multiplier: x2; Added per avalanche: +2.
Super Free Spins — Triggered by: a colossal 2×2 Scatter; Starting multiplier: x2; Added per avalanche: +2.
Super Free Spins — Triggered by: a colossal 3×3 Scatter; Starting multiplier: x3; Added per avalanche: +3.
Super Free Spins — Triggered by: a colossal 4×4 Scatter; Starting multiplier: x5; Added per avalanche: +5.
A 2×2 Scatter gives the same multiplier path as ordinary free spins, while bigger blocks open a much steeper ladder. Whether the first avalanche pays at the start value or at the raised one, the studio does not say.
Elevate: five paid entries
With Elevate, features are armed before the spin. One option works per round.
| Option | Price | What it gives |
|---|---|---|
| Bonus Hunt | 2x | at least one Scatter is guaranteed in the base game |
| Calamity Explosion | 10x | a Calamity Wild is guaranteed inside a winning combination |
| Calamity Max | 30x | the grid at 8 rows at once and a guaranteed Calamity Wild |
| Free Spins | 100x | 3 to 6 Scatters and free spins, with a small chance of Super Free Spins |
| Super Free Spins | 1000x | 3 to 6 Scatters, at least one of them colossal |
Bonus Hunt guarantees only one of the three Scatters needed, and how much it raises the odds of free spins the studio does not say. Calamity Explosion delivers a winning spin with three to six new Wilds, while Calamity Max guarantees no win: it provides the eight-row grid and a Calamity Wild. When Calamity Max runs into free spins, the 8-row grid carries into the bonus, so the full number of ways applies from the very first spin.
Free Spins at 100x give 10 to 20 spins. Super Free Spins cost exactly ten times more and guarantee a colossal Scatter, yet not its size: if a 2×2 Scatter lands, the multiplier starts at x2 just as in ordinary Free Spins, and the extra nine hundred bets turn out to be an overpayment. The studio publishes no RTP for the paid entries, so each bonus buy here pays for access to a feature, not for a known return.
From the first Gonzo’s Quest to the sequel and to Megaways
The first game came out in 2010 and is still held up as the model of the avalanche mechanic: RTP 95.97%, a 2,500x ceiling. Gonzo’s Quest Megaways from Red Tiger followed in 2020 with an RTP of 95.77% and a 20,972x ceiling. The sequel has the best RTP of the three, 96.06%, and its 15,825x maximum payout is 6.3 times that of the original; whether a round ends when the ceiling is reached, the studio does not explain. The Megaways version keeps the ceiling record, but it has neither colossal symbols nor a Calamity Wild.
