A couple of GONG Gaming Technologies online slots appear slightly rushed in their presentation, but that certainly isn’t the case with the game we are looking at today. The fledgling developer’s Empire Shields online slot looks fantastic, especially when I blew the game up to full-screen on a large format monitor. This is a 243-ways to-win machine with an RTP of 96.19% and a maximum win of 12,150x. The paytable mentions that your odds of winning the jackpot are just 0.000000000008939%. I’m hoping my math is correct here, but doesn’t that mean 1 it’s a 1 in 8 billion shot? If so, I hope the genuine odds are a little bit shorter!
Leaving that confusion aside for the time being, there is a special row of symbols along the top of the regular reel set, which allows you to collect “energy” and trigger Double Reel, Multiplier, Wild, or Expanding Wild features. A free spins bonus round is also included, but that too relies on the energy features to some extent, and none of them is adequately explained on the paytable. Don’t worry – we’ll dig deep and work everything out for you later in our review.
If that sounds like far too much reading and waiting around for your liking, we don’t blame you – feel free to fire up our free demo slot of Empire Shields below and stay where the action is!
| Provider | GONG Gaming |
| Reels | 5 |
| Rows | 3 |
| Paylines | 7,776 |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.20 - 20 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 12,150x |
| Bonus Buy | No |
| RTP | 96.19% |
| Our Rating | 7.6 |
Empire Shields Slot Casino Bonuses
Empire Shields Slot Free Play
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Empire Shields Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
The name “Empire Shields” might make you picture an army of Roman soldiers or a fleet of British warships from the time of the dark ages, but GONG had other ideas. The developer has gone with a sci-fi theme for their Empire Shields slot game, so all the high-paying symbols feature wonderfully over-the-top characters instead. These guys are mostly wearing crazy suits of armour, holding enormous weapons, or clasping mythical-looking orbs. Fans of Asian artwork will probably appreciate this theme, despite the art style being much more realistic than a typical Anime series.
As for the paytable, everything looks roughly aligned with what I would expect for a 243-way online slot. The highest-paying symbol is a huge guy with white hair and an equally massive sword with a return of 15x your bet for a full pay way of five-of-a-kind. He is followed by a blonde heroine clasping a giant shield who returns 10x your stake for all five, a younger guy dressed in Red (with an uncanny resemblance to Kilik from the Soul Calibur fighting game franchise) who will pay you 7.5x, and a winged beauty wearing lilac paying 5x your bet for a fully loaded pay way. The wild symbol pays 15x your bet for a full pay way, identical to the regular top symbol, whilst the scatter returns a slightly disappointing 10x if you hit all five.
You’ll find the wager selection, autoplay, and turbo speed options hidden behind the hamburger menu in Empire Shields online slot, just like most other GONG Gaming Technologies machines. The minimum bet per spin is €0.20, whilst the maximum is €20.00, both of which seem entirely reasonable for a 243-way game.
Base Game & Modifiers
At first glance, Empire Shields may appear to be a relatively standard online slot; the base game layout is a standard 5×3 affair, but after you have made your first spin, you will immediately notice that there are five additional positions above the standard reel set which are now full of special symbols.
As a 243-way online slot, you only need to hit matching symbols on three or more adjacent reels starting from the left-hand side to score a winning combination. There are several base game modifiers, all activated by that additional row we mentioned which GONG calls the “Topper”.
Topper Feature
Each of the five reels in Empire Shields has an additional “topper” positioned above it, which is a shield that also acts as a meter which you can fill to activate four payout boosting modifiers. Each time you spin the reels, the feature shields shown on the topper will move one position to the left; if the meter is not filled before the shield scrolls out of view, the half-filled meter will be lost.
Each modifier requires a different number of energy charges before it is filled and activated. When one or more shields are filled, the relevant features will be applied to the standard reel set before your winnings are evaluated.
Double Reel Modifier
The easier mod to trigger requires four energies to charge fully; once the double reel feature shield is activated, the reel below will double to a height of six symbols, increasing the number of payways up to a maximum of 7,776.
Multiplier Modifier
Five energy charges will activate the multiplier mod, awarding a random multiplier of up to 10x to the reel below. The multiplier will change each time the shield moves to the left and will de-activate entirely once the feature shield moves out of view.
Energy Wild Modifier
The wild modifier seems a little underpowered, considering you need to charge it six times before it activates; a single wild will be added in a random position on the reel below. It’s still useful, of course, but it isn’t even in the same league as the next mod!
Expanding Wild Modifier
If you can fill the expanding wild feature shield with a mammoth seven charges, the entire reel below it will transform into a stacked wild. If you are lucky enough to get two or three of these stacked wilds on the grid, you can be near-certain of a huge win.
Empire Shields Slot Free Spins Feature
Three or more scatter symbols will trigger the main free spins bonus round, but before you start, you will be taken to a separate screen containing 20 shields. You will be asked to pick five shields out of the available 20 to fill your topper, which will remain locked in place for the duration of the bonus round.
During free spins, all modifiers require the same energy to activate as they do in the base game. Multipliers are still refreshed between spins, but the shields do not scroll, and you do not lose any meter you build up unless you run out of free spins. On your 10th spin, the game will activate all of the topper features for you; it might only be a single spin, but if you picked a particularly lucrative set of feature shields at the beginning of the feature, then this one final spin can be extremely valuable.
The free spins feature can be re-triggered by hitting three or more scatters during your free spins. Not only does this win you ten more free spins, but it also gets you an additional “all features activated” spin at the end.
Empire Shields Slot Review Final Thoughts
Empire Shields is a lot of fun; I especially loved all the different modifiers, which go a long way towards spicing up the base game and should keep most players hooked between bonus rounds. The presentation is top-notch, there are many ways to win big during the base game, and the bonus round is even better – what more could you want?
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