On July 6, Pragmatic Play, a flagship slot provider with 80+ HTML 5 titles for mobile and desktop computers based in Silema, Malta, released Power of Merlin Megaways™, a magic-themed slot featuring the story of Arthur’s counselor and magician.
In addition, the provider’s previous similar hits include: Hellvis Wild™, Spellbinding Mystery™ and Wisdom of Athena™.
Magical visual:
True to its title, the main theme of the slot is the aforementioned most famous wizard, Merlin, an important character in the legend of Camelot. The game takes place in a dense, mossy forest area, a place where players can feel the magic everywhere, long forgotten by all but Merlin.
This slot is boosted by Big Time Gaming’s Megaways™ mechanic, which works on a six-reel structure with the added addition of an extra horizontal wheel. Simply put, it’s a system that allows for a virtually unlimited number of potential winning combinations on any given spin, which for Megaways™ slots means they are equipped with 117,649 ways to win on each spin. This is achieved by using a system of cascading reels and random multipliers, which means that the number of potential winning combinations can change with each spin.
To win, players must form a combination of 3 to 6 matching regular symbols on consecutive reels, starting from the 1st reel on a dynamic grid equipped with 6 reels and up to 7 rows. In addition, the game can be played on any device.
The basic low-value symbols are the 9 to A royals, while the high-value bonus symbols are the potion bottle, staff, owl and Merlin. A combination of six low-value bonus symbols is worth 0,6x to 1,5x, increasing to 2x to 20x a player’s bet for a combination of 6 high-value bonus symbols.
The game has high volatility, a default RTP of 96.09% and a maximum win of up to 40,000x a player’s bet in a single round.
Slot features:
Tumble Feature – when players make a winning combination, the symbols that are part of it will be removed after the payout. After that, new symbols will fill their positions and provide one more chance to win. However, this continues as long as players create new winning combinations.
Lighting Bolt Feature – to trigger this feature, the lighting bolt symbol needs to land on the top tracking reel, When this happens, it randomly selects one of the paying symbol types, causing all instances of the chosen symbol type on reels 2, 3, 4 and 5 to convert into Wilds. However, if the lighting bolt symbol changes its position due to the tumble feature, its effect is activated again.
Wild Symbol – Wild, aka a red orb, helps to enable more winning combinations by replacing other regular symbols.
Free Spins – when 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 Scatters, aka spellbooks, land on any reel, they reward 10, 14, 18, 22, 26 or 30 free spins and the feature is triggered. As soon as it’s triggered, players have the opportunity to gamble on the prize wheel to rise their allotted number of free spins. If they succeed, they are rewarded with up to 30 additional free spins, but if they fail, they lose a lot. It’s important to note that this particular wheel can very easily become an addiction.
Moreover, also during this feature, there is a win multiplier of 1x. With each win tumble, it rises by 1 and does not reset for as long as the feature lasts. In addition, lighting bolt symbols are also available here, and if players land at least 3 scatters, it rewards them with +4 free spins.
Bonus Buy – in order to trigger this feature, the player should want to get to the Free Spins immediately. As soon as it is triggered, players can purchase Free Spins for 150x a player’s bet. In addition, the RTP during this feature is the highest at 96.08%.