Avalon X  (Bigwinboard.com)

Avalon X: Slot Overview

Like eccentric businessman Elon Musk, software provider ELK Studios has a curious interest in the letter 'X'. For example, the studio has used the letter to mysteriously title such releases as Pirots X and Katmandu X - both additions to two of ELK Studios' hugely successful game series. Today's online slot Avalon X follows suit. It's an 'X' rendition, which shares commonalities with previous X slots, mixes in a bit of Propaganda, while merging everything with the coin win, Mystery Box focus found in Avalon Gold.

ELK Studios has designed an enchanting place to hold Avalon X in, one which is every bit as alluring, if not more so, than Avalon Gold. Crumbled steps leading nowhere and stonework overgrown with plants speak of a civilisation or belief system in decline, a culture forgotten by all but a few of the most devoted followers, that sort of thing. A place once revered is now being reclaimed by nature, which somehow makes it even more special. Oops, we almost got lost in the Avalon X theme just there. Suffice to say, ELK Studios has crafted a pretty and wondrous successor to the original game.

Bet selection ranges from 20c to $/€100 per drop, and bonus modes can be bought from the X-iter. ELK Studios rates the volatility at 7 out of 10, and the one RTP configuration is 94%. In this game, winning symbols are removed from the 6x7 grid and replaced by an avalanche mechanic that repeats as long as new wins keep landing. Each winning cluster generates a wild in one of the empty spaces. The multipliers of wild symbols are combined and applied to the generated wild if more than one wild contributes to the same cluster. Regular wilds have a value of 1. Multiple wilds in a winning cluster merge into a multiplier wild, and multiplier wilds that connect multiple winning clusters are split into the respective clusters.

Avalon X's pay symbols are four lower-value animal symbols and four higher-paying knights. Clusters of 5 matching symbols connected orthogonally pay 0.05x to 1x the bet, going up to 5x to 50x when hitting 16+ OAK clusters. The wild and multiplier wild substitute for all regular pay symbols. All multiplier wilds in a win are added to each other and then multiply the winning amount of their clusters before the global multiplier is applied.

Avalon X: Slot Features

ELK Studios' slots are rarely short on features, and Avalon X sticks to tradition by possessing a global multiplier, Big symbols, Mystery Boxes, Holy Strikes, free spins, super free spins, and X-iter feature buys.

Global Multiplier & Big Symbols

The global multiplier applies to all winning clusters. Each winning cluster of low-value symbols increases the global multiplier by +1, and each winning cluster of high-value symbols increases it by +2. The multiplier persists through avalanches but resets at the end of the spin. Moreover, all pay symbols and Mystery Boxes may land in 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, or 4x4 sizes, counting as the number of 1x1 positions they cover. Redropped Big symbols crush 1x1 symbols on the way down, except those of the same type, wilds, scatters, or Mystery Boxes.

Mystery Boxes

Mystery Boxes are blocking symbols which can land on any reel. If there are 5 or more Mystery Boxes in view, they activate when there are no more wins, revealing a pay symbol, a wild symbol, or triggering Avalon features. The Avalon features are:

• Coin values.
• Collect - collects all coin values from revealed Mystery Boxes. All already open Mystery Boxes reactivate.
• Redrop - awards a symbol drop and a reactivation of the Mystery Boxes currently in view after all other Mystery Box features have been played.
• Global Multiplier Spreader - multiplies a random number of revealed coin values.

Holy Strike

Holy Strike replaces a random number of symbols in view with wild, multiplier wild symbols, or Mystery Boxes, on any drop. Scatters, super scatters, Mystery Boxes, wilds or multiplier wilds cannot be replaced.

Free Spins

Landing 3 scatters triggers 7 free spins. The global multiplier and unopened Mystery Boxes are persistent between free spins in the bonus. Each landed scatter or super scatter awards +2 free spins. If the bonus is triggered by 2 scatters and a super scatter, super free spins are awarded. This feature guarantees a Holy Strike on each spin. Hitting a super scatter during a regular free spins feature upgrades it to super spins.

X-iter

Avalon X's X-iter has Bonus Hunt at 3x to buy a spin with more than triple the chance of triggering the bonus, Holy Strike at 25x, alternatively 5 guaranteed Mystery Boxes for 50x, the regular bonus for 100x or the super bonus for 500x the bet.

Avalon X: Slot Verdict

These X slots are real wild cards. Just when you think the Gold series is long dead and buried, or finished at least, along comes ELK Studios, pulling in a few good ideas to revive it. Well, maybe not revive, since this isn't a slot that features the adventurer Kane (or much in the way of innovation), but it blows a gust of life in and branches off someplace interesting. Mysteriously interesting, too, as Mystery Boxes played an enormous part in Avalon X's enjoyment. To be fair, they functioned pretty much the same way they did in Avalon Gold, with an exception or two - sadly, the Swiper effect is missing, but on the whole, they're a well-designed feature that warrants a return visit.

Wilds and the global multiplier are two more stars of the show, both functioning in similar ways to Katmandu X and Propaganda. What's cool is the way they all interact with each other. Winning clusters boost the global multiplier, wilds boost each other, and the way wild multipliers affect the win before the global multiplier steps in is a real power move. The only bummer is that the global multiplier does not multiply coin wins, which might have been a sweet evolution. As it stands, Avalon X is able to deliver tension from several angles - global multiplying, winning clusters spawning, merging, and splitting wilds, and coin wins from Mystery Boxes. Compared to some of its DNA contributors, Avalon X's 10,000x win cap is a little on the small side, but it's still more than large enough to make an enticing icing on the rest.

Have to say that Avalon X is not ELK Studios' most innovative release. Mechanically, it's made up of bits and pieces from various games, with little that is brand new to get all frothy with excitement over. However, ELK Studios does know how to make playable games of enviable quality of which Avalon X is, even if it is largely made out of spare parts.