The last time the word “Avalon” appeared in the name of an online slot, it was Microgaming that was using it. They released two games, the second of which attempted to introduce a sense of going on a quest into an online slot – something which felt new and boundary-pushing at the time. Still, they ultimately led the game to not have the same longevity as many other online slots. ELK Studios has taken a very different approach – with Avalon Gold boasting up to 262,144 pay ways, a maximum win of 25,000x the current stake, and a theoretical RTP of 94%.
The game reminds me of a recent Megaways game which had an expanding reel set, but ELK Studios have not bothered licensing BTG’s ever-popular payout mechanic for Avalon Gold, instead coming up with their own way of creating up to 262,144 pay ways. The game features mystery boxes – note the box, not symbol – these work very differently from the typical mystery symbols you have seen before, as well as expanding wilds, giant symbols, and two free spin modes, one of which is only accessible via the bonus buy facility.
ELK Studios has already created some stunning slots this year, but do you know what? This could just be the best so far! Don’t believe me? Then why not try our free demo slot of Avalon Gold, available to play below:
| Provider | Elk Studios |
| Reels | 8 |
| Rows | 8 |
| Paylines | 262,144 |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.20 - 100 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 25,000x |
| Bonus Buy | Yes |
| RTP | 94.00% |
| Our Rating | 8.3 |
Avalon Gold Slot Casino Bonuses
Avalon Gold Slot Free Play
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Avalon Gold Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
We’ve talked about a few games based around the legend of Camelot, Arthur, and his Knights of the Round Table here at Demoslot. It seems only fitting to point you in the direction of Microgaming’s original Avalon online slot, which was arguably more successful than its sequel, as we mentioned the franchise so much in the opening paragraph. Camelot, as I’m sure you are aware, was one of five fictional kingdoms that may or may not have ever existed – it is widely believed to be nothing more than a legend, but some scholars do believe that the stories written about the land, King Arthur, and his brave Knights, were at least somewhat based on a true story – perhaps relating to the kingdoms of Great Britain.
Unsurprisingly, King Arthur is the highest-paying regular symbol in this game, represented as a dark-haired man on a red background, and pays you 5x your bet for a complete pay way of six-of-a-kind. The three other high-paying symbols are represented by purple, green, and blue helms – that’s Knight’s parlance for a helmet, by the way – and these will pay you 3x, 2.5x, or 2x respectively for full pay ways of six-of-a-kind. There are four medium and four low-paying symbols, both of which are colour-coordinated with the high paying symbols making it easy to remember which are the most valuable in each set. Of course, these payouts are not very high, but they really don’t need to be in a game that can expand up to a monstrous 262,144 payways.
The level of variance and volatility in a game such as Avalon Gold is quite terrifying, so it may be worth betting a little bit lower on this machine than you would usually when playing other online slots. The minimum permitted wager is €0.20 per spin, while the maximum is €100.00.
Base Game & Modifiers
The regular base game begins with a 6×4 playfield layout and 4,096 payways. Each time you hit a winning combination, the symbols will explode and be removed from the grid, allowing new ones to drop in from the top of the screen. Each time this happens, an additional row of symbols will be added to the playfield – see the Expansion section below for full details.
Mystery Boxes
The mystery boxes featured in Avalon Gold are square symbols with a pentagram logo on them. These boxes will become sticky when they land on the reel set, persisting between spins until you have at least five of them on the screen. After five or more mystery boxes are in view at the conclusion of a spin, the boxes will activate, transforming into one of the following new symbols:
- Coin Win – A number between one and 10 will be shown on the mystery symbol, which represents a multiple of your current stake.
- Multiplier – All mystery boxes in view will have their current values doubled, including those which have previously collected the values of other boxes.
- Swiper – Adds a “one” in front of the value of the previously revealed mystery box. For example, if your previous box revealed a ten, it will now be worth 110 instead.
- Collect – The values of all mystery boxes that have already been revealed will be collected together and dropped into the collect box before all other mystery boxes are reset, allowing you to claim a new win from each of them.
- Redrop – Awards a free re-spin, including a fresh activation of all of the mystery boxes that are currently in view.
These boxes are much more interesting than the regular “Mystery Symbols” found in other online slots. Still, they can also behave just like those other mystery symbols when it is to your benefit – see the free drop bonus round details below.
Wild Symbols
Wild symbols can appear in both single and stacked configurations. There are also expanding wilds, represented by a pointy diagonal surface along the top of the wild symbol. The wild will only expand when it forms part of a winning combination or will create a winning combination by expanding upwards.
Giant Symbols
During any spin, both base game and bonus round, giant sized symbols can appear on the reels. The game labels these Super, Mega, and Epic, for 2×2, 3×3, and 4×4 sized giant symbols respectively.
If a Super, Mega, or Epic symbol happens to drop near the top of the reels such that some parts of it extend beyond the height of the current reel set, the game will automatically expand the size of the reel set, filling in any newly created spaces with additional symbols that will fall into view just as on a regular spin.
Expansion Feature
When you first begin playing Avalon Gold, the playfield is sized at 6×4 positions with 4,096 pay ways. Each time you hit a winning combination, the size of the playfield will increase when new symbols drop in to replace the ones which previously exploded.
The number of pay ways increases in tandem with the height of the playfield, as follows:
- Five rows – 15,625 Pay ways
- Six rows – 46,656 Pay ways
- Seven rows – 117,649 Pay ways
- Eight rows – 262,144 Pay ways
Avalon Gold Slot Bonus Features
The main bonus round in Avalon Gold is a free spins feature (known as “free drops” in this games terminology) that can be triggered by hitting three or more bonus symbols during the base game.
There is also a “Super free drops” mode, which is only accessible using the bonus buy feature, meaning that those playing in a jurisdiction that forbids using such features will be unable to experience that feature except during free play.
Free Drops Feature
Hitting three bonus symbols will award 10 free drops, whilst four, five, or six bonus symbols will increase this to 15, 20, or 25 free drops, respectively. You can also retrigger the same number of additional free drops by hitting more bonus symbols whilst the feature is in play, although such retriggers seem extremely rare based on my testing of the game.
During this mode, the height of the reel set does not shrink back down to four rows in between spins, so once you have expanded the playfield up to its maximum height of eight rows, it will remain that way until the conclusion of the bonus round.
Mystery boxes will also remain persistent between free spins during the bonus round until you have accumulated the minimum of five required to activate them. The mystery boxes will be lost if the bonus round finishes before this happens.
Super Free Drops Feature
This “super” version of the free drops bonus round works just as the regular one detailed above, with one crucial difference; all mystery boxes that land during this mode will remain in place on the grid, even after their contents are revealed during a free spin.
Because of this, you can end up with a very large number of mystery boxes on the reels by the time you get to the end of a feature, and you are guaranteed to reveal their contents on every single free spin. This is obviously a very profitable tweak to the formula bonus round, but it comes with a similarly high price – see below for full details.
X-iter Bonus Buy
All ELK Studios games include the X-iter bonus facility, which includes several options for purchasing special features. A couple of these may even be UKGC-compliant, but we will have to see if ELK decides to bother trying to include the X-iter feature for UKGC players at all; for many developers, it simply isn’t worth the hassle.
There are five choices available, as follows:
- 5x Bet – A giant symbol is guaranteed to drop on the next spin.
- 10x Bet – A column of expanding wilds is guaranteed to appear on the next spin.
- 50x Bet – At least five mystery boxes are guaranteed to land during the next spin.
- 100x Bet – Purchase the regular bonus round with a random number of triggering symbols, meaning you could end up with between 10 and 25 free drops.
- 500x Bet – Purchase the super bonus round, which is only accessible here on the X-iter menu and has the additional benefit of persistent mystery boxes that do not disappear between free spins.
Avalon Gold Slot Review Final Thoughts
This is a fantastic online slot with unique, innovative features, truly entertaining gameplay, and the possibility of winning a humongous 25,000x your bet. What more could you ask for? Avalon Gold could possibly be ELK Studio’s greatest achievement to date. But I’ll let you decide that.
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