Spellmaster: Slot Overview
Hey, magically minded players, are you looking to ‘Cast your way to victory?’ If so, then you’re in luck, because those words have been taken from the tagline to developer Pragmatic Play‘s slot Spellmaster, a game of sorcery, enchantment, and illusion. It’s also a slot which boasts a substantial max win, though the pathway that leads to potential monetary success isn’t the most creatively exciting Pragmatic Play has laid down, consisting of a fairly insipid hold ‘n’ win round where up to three modifiers may be active.
The visuals are about what you’d expect to see in a game bearing a name like Spellmaster. During the base game, braziers burn in an eloquent, circular room full of books and other mysterious miscellanea. Three portals to the respins feature called stashes, fizz and pop above the reels, and when the bonus round activates, how the background maelstrom looks is determined by which modifiers triggered the feature. Slightly out of place is music that seems better suited to an Egyptian or Arabically themed slot than a magic one, but no biggie.
According to the game’s maker, Spellmaster is ‘very high‘ when it comes to volatility, and of the three RTP values, 96.5% is the most preferable. In most situations, gamblers will probably be playing on a 5×3 gaming area with 50 paylines squeezed on there, though it does double in size during respins when triggered by the Golden Orb. Per spin, a minimum of 10c to a maximum of $/€250 may be staked.
Ten pay symbols make up the pays list, which includes 10-A card ranks, sceptres, bottles, books, and owls. Royal wins of 5 matching symbols in length pay 1x the bet, while a line of 5 matching premiums pay 2x-4x the bet. A wizard is imprinted on the wild symbol, hitting on all reels except the leftmost reel. Wilds replace any regular paying symbol and may only appear during the base game.
Spellmaster: Slot Features
Spellmaster’s biggest trick is its respins round, which is triggered by landing Bonus Orbs. There are three types of Bonus Orbs which can appear on the reels.
- Golden Orb – gets collected by the Jackpots stash on top of the reels. When collected, it can randomly trigger the respins feature. Respins with the Golden Orb active are played on a 5×6 grid, where landed Golden Bonus Orbs reveal a random Jackpot name. Collect 3 of the same Jackpot names to win an award. Possible awards are the 12.5x Mini, 30x Minor, 125x Major, 1,000x Mega, or the 1,875x Grand.
- Red Orb – gets collected by the Multiply stash, and can randomly trigger the respins feature when collected. Respins with the Multiply active randomly award a multiplier for up to 10 Money symbols when a Red Orb hits. For the first 9 Money symbols, the multiplier is x2, while for the 10th symbol, it can be x2 to x10. The same Money symbols can be multiplied up to 4 times per respin round.
- Blue Orb – gets collected by the Charge stash above the reels, and may trigger respins. When respins are active with the Charge modifier active, every Blue Orb that hits randomly selects a Money symbol on screen to increase its value with random amounts on every respin. Possible incremental values range from 0.3x to 25x the bet.
The Orb collection occurs at the end of the spin and can randomly award one, two, or three modifiers. The subsequent respins are played with all awarded modifiers.
Respins Feature
Money symbols can only appear during the respins round, carrying a value of 0.3x to 25x the bet. When the respin round starts, normal symbols vanish and only blanks, Bonus Orbs, or Money symbols may land. As well as the initially awarded modifiers, modifiers that were not awarded may be activated when Bonus Orbs associated with them are collected. Players get 3 respins, and when a Money symbol or Bonus Orb hits, the number of respins resets to three. Money symbols lock in position till the round ends. If respins run out or all positions are filled, the feature ends and players are awarded the relevant payout. If all positions are filled, players win 40,000x the bet.
Feature Buy
The respins round can be triggered by buying it for 50x the bet. When buying respins, one, two, or three modifiers will be awarded on the triggering spin.
Spellmaster: Slot Verdict
Is it just us, or are games with collection points that can trigger a bonus round with certain modifiers depending on what has been collected (and randomness) propagating at an accelerating rate at the moment? Games Global studios have been doing them for a while, Push Gaming pushed out similarly styled slots, 3 Magic Pots and Wild Swarm Triple Hive, and before this, Pragmatic Play designed Gem Trio and Lucky’s Wild Pub. It would appear their stock is rising as we add Spellmaster to the heap.
Hitting Bonus Orbs was about the most entertaining thing about Spellmaster’s base game. Despite there being a lot of paylines on a 5×3 grid, there didn’t seem to be a lot of major regular line win activity. Then again, who really cares about the base game anyway, since it’s during respins that the eye-catching max exposure becomes a technical possibility. Especially when the feature buy price is set relatively low compared to a lot of contemporary slots. Triggering respins with the Jackpot feature active is a double-edged sword. On one hand, you get a greater play area to possibly land extra Money symbols or Golden Orbs, though the Jackpot values aren’t incredible. On the other hand, since the 40,000x win cap is winnable when a grid is filled during respins, then in some ways, would a smaller reel set provide better odds?
Without the colossal max win figure lurking in the background like Big Brother’s watchful eye, Spellmaster would lose substantial amounts of clout, and as it stands, an uneventful base game is matched with a fairly bland bonus round with practically nothing new or exciting to check out.
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