I’ve always enjoyed watching the dramatic depictions of ancient Kings being conned by shysters who claimed to have the ‘power’ of alchemy – one of the most famous examples is that of English philosopher Roger Bacon, who is claimed to have pulled the trick several times during the mid 13th century. Playing slots is a little bit like alchemy, really – worthless animations somehow generate you a little extra income, assuming that Lady Luck is on your side, of course! Alchemy Gold from Pocket Games Soft takes the analogy much further than this however, and its 96.78% RTP and 5,000x stake jackpot present a tidy pile of gold; all you need now is some lead and an audience with the king!
This machine does not use the typical pay line or pay way mechanics common to many other video slots. Instead, wins are awarded for gathering five or more symbols in an adjacent cluster, with the largest prizes reserved for only the luckiest spin. Just how lucky is that, exactly? Oh, you know – only an entire screen of 25 matching symbols, nothing too crazy! To help you in your quest to achieve this, the reels are filled with special golden variants of each of the game’s regular symbols. These will transform into wilds whenever they are involved in a winning combination, a feature which is extremely similar to the one included in PGSoft’s recent Midas Fortune online slot – the free spin-based bonus round included here is also very much like the one in that game, which could suggest that PGSoft used a lot of the same code in the creation of this pair of slots.
Are you ready to try your hand at the ancient ‘science’ of alchemy? I really wouldn’t bother – it doesn’t work! Fortunately, our free demo slot of Alchemy Gold is a little more reliable – you can find it available to play below.
| Provider | PG Soft |
| Reels | 5 |
| Rows | 5 |
| Paylines | Cluster Pays |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.20 - 100 |
| Volatility | Medium |
| Max Win | 5,000x |
| Bonus Buy | No |
| RTP | 96.73% |
| Our Rating | 6.4 |
Alchemy Gold Slot Casino Bonuses
Alchemy Gold Slot Free Play
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Alchemy Gold Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
This isn’t the first game I’ve reviewed with an alchemy-focused theme – you might remember the Sweet Alchemy games from Play’N’Go, for example, even if they were a little bit rubbish! Gold pops up even more frequently – Pragmatic Play’s Old Gold Miner Megaways wasn’t too bad, scoring 7.8 in our review just a few months ago. By the time you read this, we’ll likely have published our review of Midas Fortune as well – that game was also published by PGSoft and shares much in common with Alchemy Gold, but it’s a little less demanding with respect to the number of symbols required in a maximum prize cluster. It’s swings and roundabouts, as they say, though – a full screen in this game will pay you 300x your total stake, whilst the most valuable symbols offered in Midas Fortune are worth just 25x the total bet.
The witches hat is an especially valuable symbol in this game, with a payout of 300x the current stake should you manage to land 25 or more of them in adjacent positions. Just in case it didn’t already occur to you though, that’s a full screen – so good luck with that! The same applies to hitting a full screen of any other symbols, even though they all appear in large stacks on all five reels. Should you manage it though, the spell book, potion, and silver ring are each worth 100x the total bet, whilst playing card suits are used for the low-paying symbols. The hearts and spades are slightly more valuable at 90x each, whilst the clubs and diamonds will get you 75x the total bet for a set of 25 symbols.
High rollers are sure to appreciate the huge maximum betting limit of €200.00 per spin, whilst those with smaller bankrolls will likewise be pleased to find that they can select any multiple of the game’s minimum €0.20 bet as well. It’s always nice not to be limited by arbitrary restrictions!
Base Game & Modifiers
Alchemy Gold utilises a 5×5 reel set for a total of 25 symbol positions, and with just eight regular symbols included on the paytable – four high and for low-paying – it’s a game which should offer up a win relatively often. Unfortunately, the smallest winning clusters of five symbols are always worth much less than the cost of a spin – the low-paying symbols can require as many as 10 symbols just to break even! Fortunately, the high-paying symbols are much better in this regard, and just six will usually be enough to return your stake.
The situation with the low-paying symbols can be improved somewhat if you are fortunate enough to accumulate a reasonable multiplier during play. Multipliers are obtained by hitting clusters of winning symbols, increasing by 1x each time a symbol removal phase is completed. The multiplier is reset before each game round during the base game, however, so it’s tough to reach a significant value outside of the bonus round.
Gold Symbols
During any spin, regular symbols can appear with a golden hue and matching glow. These special symbol variants do not pay more than their regular counterparts, but they transform into wild symbols whenever they are included as part of a winning combination.
Alchemy Gold Slot Bonus Features
Three scatter symbols landing during a single game round will award you ten free spins, with two extra spins added for any additional scatters above the minimum requirement of three. The multiplier is reset to 1x before each bonus round.
Free Spins
The free spins feature is mainly identical to the base game in this slot, which is a tad disappointing if I’m honest. It’s also inferior to the free spins feature in Midas Fortune (the other recent PG Soft game I mentioned earlier), as the base game multiplier cannot be transferred over in Alchemy Gold.
The one big difference in this mode compared with the base game is that the multiplier achieved during free spins is retained between rounds. This makes it much easier to accumulate a large multiplier value, especially if you manage to hit a re-trigger or two whilst the feature is in play. You’ll need at least three scatters to win a re-trigger though – again, this is more demanding than other PG Soft games, which often offer a smaller number of additional spins if you hit just two scatter symbols.
Pros
- The paytable includes much larger prizes than the Midas Fortune slot that I’ve referred to many times during this review.
- Gold symbols make the base game much more interesting than it otherwise would be.
Cons
- The user interface looks poor on desktop-based browsers.
- The 5,000x jackpot cap is very small for a game with a 300x highest—paying symbol and an uncapped multiplier bonus round!
- Very similar to many previous PG Soft games – to be fair though, they weren’t bad games to start with.
Final Thoughts
Alchemy Gold is effectively an alternative to Midas Fortune with a touch more volatility added, which would usually make it my preferred choice. Unfortunately, many of the best features of that game are missing here, and the requirement for a full screen of matching symbols to win the top prizes makes them near-impossible to achieve.
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