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Gates of Valhalla Review
Given so many interesting characters, no wonder Nordic mythology is the subject of multiple games. Hold your hammer high as you go fortune-hunting while trying to earn your place in Valhalla.
The guys from Pragmatic Play have a tradition of delivering quality games, and it now connects history, mythology and gaming in the latest epic slot. The amount you seek is attractive, but are you bold enough a warrior to grab the loot before everyone else?
- Highly volatile slot with a 20,000x maximum win
- Ten paylines
- Tumble feature, Free Spins and Roaming Wilds
The visuals are solid, and the soundtrack is captivating, but the entire presentation is not as enticing as other Nordic slots. Gates of Valhalla relies predominantly on the gameplay to keep your eyes glued to the screen.
Multiple features keep the action going, including cascading wins, the Free Spins round and roaming, multiplying Wilds. Add the Bonus Buy feature into the mix, and you get an interesting combination that can get you 20,000x your initial stake.
Still, do not expect the adventure to be easy, for this is a highly volatile slot.
Theme, Graphics and Sounds
Numerous games are related to Nordic mythology, providing an exciting backdrop for fortune-seeking. Gates of Valhalla is indubitably a good-looking casino game, although not the best work of the Pragmatic Play design team.
Snow-capped mountains in the background provide more than an appropriate setting for this game. Bright symbol colors may seem a bit out of place, but they do not affect the gameplay. The unassuming but epic soundtrack is appropriate for the theme.
The epic adventure transpires on a 5×5 game board with ten paylines. To win, you need to land three to five matching symbols on adjacent reels, both vertically and horizontally. The string can start on any reel whatsoever.
The low end of the paytable belongs to the four card suits, awarding 2.5x-5x for a five-of-a-kind win. Moreover, three differently colored faces are premium symbols that grant you 10x-75x the bet.
Golden Lions are Wilds that replace all the regular icons in creating winning combinations. Scatters are Bonus symbols that trigger the Free Spins round.
In-game features
The Tumble feature occurs in both the base game and the Bonus round, removing winning symbols and letting the new ones take their place. The procedure repeats until there are no more winning combos.
Except for substituting the regular symbols, Wild symbols also move to another position on the board after the winning icons have exploded. When it moves, the Wild symbol enhances its win Multiplier by x1 on each winning spin while the cascading wins last.
The process can repeat until it reaches x5 and explodes from the board. If more than a single Wild symbol is involved in a winning combination, the Multiplier values add together before applying.
Gates of Valhalla Free Spins
If you hit three, four or five Scatter symbols, you receive ten, twelve and fifteen Free Spins, respectively. During the entire Free Spins round, a win Multiplier is continuously active.
When the tumble sequence finishes, the total win value has a Multiplier attached, starting at x1. The Multiplier increases by x1 after every tumble and without resetting between spins.
The same procedure that initially activates the Free Spins round can also retrigger it without limits. If you land enough Scatter symbols, you can continue enjoying Free Spins for a long time.
You can hit the Free Spins round on average once in every 351 spins, but you can cut the process short if you do not want to wait. Where eligible, you can use the buy bonus feature for 100x your stake.
Where To Play Gates of Valhalla?
RTP, bet sizes and volatility
The game comes with three default RTP values, the optimal being 96.46% and rising to 96.6% when buying Free Spins. The other two values go well below the industry standard, and they are 95.50% and 94.47%.
There are multiple winning opportunities, with the game offering a wide betting range. The minimum bet amounts to $0.20, and the maximum wager you can place is $50. You can adjust all the parameters in the game menu and play it in accordance with your budget.
Gates of Valhalla is a highly volatile slot, meaning it provides heftier wins, but they do not occur so often.
The slot’s volatility might scare off modest players, but we think it is worth the risk. Those willing to take it may bring home the amount of 20,000x the stake.
Verdict
While this probably is not the best or the most entertaining slot to come out of the Pragmatic Play workshop, it still packs a punch. It may be a slow burner, but history, mythology and slot enthusiasts will enjoy it immensely.
Combining tumbling wins and roaming Multipliers provides a thrilling gaming experience. Solid features, solid payouts and solid fun all around. We rate this slot 4 out of 5 stars.
