Aura God: Slot Overview
To the surprise of some people, perhaps, religion and slots are two things that quite often run into each other, though usually in the form of mythologies such as the ancient Greek Pantheon or ancient Egyptian deities rather than modern mainstream belief systems. Kindred owned software provider Relax Gaming has boldly attempted to bridge the gap between betting and spirituality in its online slot Aura God, a game with metaphysical overtones, and down-to-earth features such as multiplier ladders, mystery symbols and a host of optional betting choices.
Located to the left of the screen on the peak of a hill is a guru-type fellow seated in the lotus position. To the right of him is a building impressively constructed at the top of a steep hill, set amongst the clouds in a very spiritual (for a slot) location. Aura God gets even more mystical when triggering a bonus round, where play shifts to outer space or the astral plane. Despite some nice artistic touches, there’s also something a bit off about some of the visuals, as if part of the game was made by Relax Gaming, another part completed by a less accomplished studio. On the whole, it’s all fine, but Aura God lacks the full package feel found in some of Relax Gaming’s more polished titles.
Aura God is a 6-reel, 6-row game with 46,656 ways to win. At the start of each spin, there are up to 24 stone blocks on the reel area. All winning symbols, as well as orthogonally adjacent stone blocks, are destroyed, causing symbols to drop in for another chance to win. The cascading process repeats until no more wins occur. Clocking in at medium/high volatile, the default RTP is 96.1% when betting 20c to $/€100 per spin.
On the hierarchy of pay symbols, there are J-A card ranks and five Hindu god style character symbols. A winning way of 6 matching royals gets you 0.2x-0.25x the bet, or 0.35x-1x for 6 matching high pays. Wilds appear on all reels except the leftmost reel, and they are used to substitute all regular paying symbols to create wins.
Aura God: Slot Features
Forming the aura are features such as Mystery Frames, free spins with a Multiplier Ladder or Persistent Mystery Frames, super free spins with both, Golden Spins, Upgrade Spins, and bonus buys.
Mystery Frames
Each spin starts with up to 8 Mystery Frames, and more can be randomly added on cascades. If a Mystery symbol appears on the grid, all framed positions become Mystery symbols after wins are awarded, revealing either matching pay symbols or coins with prize values up to 100x. Coins are destroyed after awarding a prize, but they do not destroy stone blockers.
Free Spins
Destroying all stone blocks in the base game awards 6 free spins. Players get to choose Persistent Mystery Frames or the Multiplier Ladder.
- Persistent Mystery Frames – the first free spin starts with up to 8 frames. Frames stay on the reels between spins and can grow in number with each cascade.
- Multiplier Ladder – has a multiplier trail ranging from x1 to x100, multiplying any win, including those from coins. The multiplier increases one step after every winning cascade and before each new spin after the first. Reaching x10, x15, x20, or x50 awards +1 free spin each time, and reaching x100 awards +2 free spins. The multiplier ladder progress does not reset till the round ends.
Landing a coin symbol during the round can award an extra free spin instead of a cash prize, and if all blockers are destroyed on a free spin, +3 free spins are granted.
Golden Spin and Super Free Spins
Any regular spin or free spin may randomly become a Golden Spin. Destroying all blockers during a Golden Spin awards entry to super free spins. If this occurred from free spins, then +3 free spins are also awarded. The current state of Mystery Frames or the Multiplier Ladder from the free spins round is carried over to super free spins, which have both Persistent Mystery Frames and the Multiplier Ladder. Destroying all stone blockers during super free spins awards +3 spins.
Upgrade Spins & Bonus Buy
The Bonus Hunt costs 2x the bet to provide fewer blockers and a higher hit rate to boost the chance of triggering a bonus round. Super Bonus Hunt costs 6x and every spin is a Golden Spin. At 10x the bet, the Bonus Reels mode is a spin where only coin symbols or blanks may land, increasing the chance of triggering free spins or super free spins, since landing a coin symbol on each reel triggers the feature. Aura God also lets gamblers buy into the free spins round for 75x their bet or super free spins for 400x.
Aura God: Slot Verdict
After witnessing the splendours of the ancient world in Relax Gaming’s Conquer Babylon, curiosity for further wonders was awakened by a slot titled Aura God. In some ways, the game delivers a sense of wonder through its metaphysical connotations, guru character, and hints of Hinduism. On the other hand, Aura God didn’t have the level of polish expected from a Relax Gaming slot, despite a slip in quality of late. Visually, it’s sort of there, but not quite there, if that makes any sense, though kudos to the studio for tackling subject matter not often used in a betting game.
The same ‘sort of there sort of not’ response applies to Aura God’s features as well. The base game does keep players occupied with trying to clear blockers to trigger free spins, while sprinkling Mystery Frames around for a dash of extra flavour. The Bonus Hunt Upgrade Spins option is another way of possibly augmenting the base action. Once free spins trigger, the dilemma is whether to pick the Multiplier Ladder or Persistent Mystery Frames. The multiplier might seem to be the obvious choice, but having over 40,000 ways to win means Mystery symbols aren’t a bad option either. Though it was odd stringing a bunch of cascading wins together, only to be rewarded at the end of the run with peanuts of a win. Maybe the multiplier is a better option? Players’ choice.
Aura God is an okay game with a 10,000x win cap, the theme and its use are quite unique, plus the gameplay isn’t bad. At the same time, there’s something hard to define about Aura God that’s missing, a final glistening, professionally performed gloss perhaps, which might have made it a more fulfilling game.
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