Merlin – the legendary sorcerer who is claimed to have assisted Prince Arthur of Camelot in secret, hiding his all-powerful magic to avoid being killed as an enemy of the state! At least, that’s the version which was told in the last couple of takes on his story that I can remember. I also quite liked his depiction in Stargate, but I think you have to be a full-on sci-fi nerd to appreciate that one! Pragmatic Play’s new Power of Merlin Megaways online slot sticks to the more conventional idea of who Merlin was, depicting him as an older man with a beard and a laughable cliché wizards hat! However, there’s nothing cliché about the game’s vitals – up to 117,649 payways, a 40,000x stake jackpot, and a 96.09% RTP. Good grief!
There’s plenty more to unpack in terms of the feature set – wilds are present on reels two through six, the horizontal reel includes lightning bolts which are used to upgrade regular symbols into additional wilds, and the main free spin bonus round can award anywhere between 10 and 30 spins, depending on the number of triggering scatter symbols. Pragmatic Play’s free spin pie gamble option is back again in Power of Merlin too. If you haven’t encountered this before, it’s a dangerous yet potentially rewarding way of either throwing away your bonus round or turning it into something that is likely to be amazing! A bonus buy facility is available at the cost of 150x the normal price per spin, but you really need to be careful if you are going to utilise that option at the same time as the gamble feature – more on that later.
With a feature set like this – and such an enormous jackpot to go along with it – you’ll need to exercise restraint if you’re going to truly enjoy your time playing this game. I’d recommend starting out by trying our free demo slot of Power of Merlin Megaways – it’s available to play below:
| Provider | Pragmatic Play |
| Reels | 6 |
| Rows | 7 |
| Paylines | 117,649 |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.20 - 100 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 40,000x |
| Bonus Buy | Yes |
| RTP | 96.09% |
| Our Rating | 7.5 |
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Power Of Merlin Megaways Demo Slot
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Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
Typing Merlin’s name into our search engine only returns nine results, and only a couple of those even have the wizard’s name in their titles! I have to say that I found this very surprising – I was certain that I had personally reviewed at least a handful of games based on this guy by now! Stranger still, the top result isn’t based on ‘’this guy’ at all – it’s Boomerang Studio’s quirky Lady Merlin slot! I suspect that the reason for this anomaly is that many other games featuring the wizard are primarily based on Camelot – Clash of Camelot, for example, or the Avalon series by Microgaming. Let’s not forget ELK Studios’ excellent Avalon Gold slot whilst we’re at it – that machine offered a similarly mammoth jackpot as this release from Pragmatic Play, making it an obvious choice to compare it to. ELK’s game looks a little more up to date, in my view, but I tend to prefer the features offered in Pragmatic Play’s games most of the time. In terms of RTP, Power of Merlin Megaways definitely has the edge, and at more than a 2% difference, it isn’t a small one either.
Moving on to the paytable, the highest-paying regular symbol on offer here is Merlin himself, worth 20x the total bet for a full payway of six of a kind. He’s a bit of an outlier though – the next symbol down is an owl which pays just 5x for all six symbols, whilst Merlin’s staff will only get you 2.5x your stake for a complete payway. The potion bottle has a return of 2x for hitting six of a kind, which brings us to the six low-paying royal symbols; yes, I did say six! Six low-value symbols feels a little bit unfair when you consider that there are only four high-paying ones, but on the plus side, there isn’t much of a gap between the two groups. Six aces will get you 1.5x the total bet back in winnings, whilst, at the other end of the scale, you will receive 0.6x back for hitting six nines.
Pragmatic Play is one of the few developers who has not fallen into the trap of imposing arbitrary restrictions on how much you can bet. This machine has three selectors for choosing a bet, coin value, and total bet, allowing you to select any multiple of the €0.20 minimum up to the maximum of €100.00 per spin.
Base Game & Modifiers
Fans of existing Megaways slots will be right at home with the design of Power of Merlin Megaways; it’s the same six reel layout that we have all come to know (and mostly love), along with an additional horizontal reel positioned above reels two through five. Merlin himself has a payout for just two matching symbols starting from the left, whilst everything else requires at least three matches before you’ll be awarded any winnings.
Another familiar aspect of this game is its cascading reels feature. The tumble feature removes all winning symbols from the reels immediately after they land, creating empty spaces for new symbols to drop into view and create further winning combinations. A single round can theoretically continue indefinitely as long as tumbles continue to create new winning combinations.
Lightning Bolt
The lightning bolt does not have any cash payout associated with it and is only present on the top horizontal reel. Nevertheless, it can still be extremely valuable! Whenever a lightning bolt hits, it will transform all instances of one randomly chosen symbol through reels 2 – 5 into wilds.
If the lightning bolt ends up moving as a result of tumbling sequences affecting the top reel, it will activate for a second time and transform all instances of another random symbol into extra wilds.
Power Of Merlin Megaways Slot Bonus Features
Unless you pay to utilise the bonus buy facility, you’ll need to hit at least four scatter symbols to trigger the free spin bonus round. A four scatter trigger will award you ten free spins, increasing to 14, 18, 22, 26, or 30 spins when five, six, seven, eight, or nine scatters feature in the triggering combination.
If you’re unhappy with the number of spins you are awarded initially, a pie gamble feature allows you to try and boost your counter before the bonus round begins. When gambling from 10 to 14 spins, your odds are at their worst, just 63.10%, but they do get better as you win more spins. This makes it extremely tempting to keep gambling until you reach the maximum of 30 spins, as a gamble from 26 to 30 has odds of 78.92%.
However, let me put things another way here – if you start with 10 free spins and make all five gambles necessary to reach the maximum of 30, your odds of successfully starting the bonus drop to just 19.56%! Gambling just once or twice is much more likely to result in a positive outcome, so keep that in mind.
Free Spins
As for the bonus round itself, there’s not too much to talk about here – it’s the typical Megaways free spins feature with an ascending multiplier that increases by 1x every time a winning combination is removed, and a tumbling sequence occurs. There is no limit to how high your multiplier can reach during the bonus round, and you can even win additional free spins by hitting three or more scatter symbols whilst the feature is in play.
Bonus Buy
If you haven’t got the patience to wait for a bonus to trigger naturally, then you may want to consider taking advantage of the bonus buy facility – this costs 150x the normal price per spin, which is a little more than most Pragmatic Play machines, but may still be worth it considering the enormous potential (and 40,000x jackpot!) available in Power of Merlin.
Pros
- The monstrous jackpot of 40,000x the total bet!
- The ability to boost your number of free spins is a welcome option, especially as it’s a pie-style gamble.
- The lightning bolt feature can potentially create some huge wins, even during the base game.
Cons
- There’s very little unique or original to see here – it’s a cookie-cutter Megaways slot.
- The jackpot might be huge, but just how likely is it to ever hit? I guess I’ll have to keep an eye on YouTube to find out!
- The ability to buy a bonus and then gamble it away seconds later is a dangerous combination that I’m not sure is even a good idea to offer.
Final Thoughts
This is a fantastic online slot, but it’s also the same slot that you’ve already played a dozen times with different coats of paint. If you love Megaways, you’ll certainly love this – just don’t expect to find anything original on offer.
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