Comparison of Egyptian-themed Slots from Various Providers

Ancient Egypt is arguably one of the most popular themes for slots out there, and just about every notable developer has dabbled in it to some extent. This can partially be explained by the public’s familiarity with the subject. Everyone immediately recognizes the sphinx and other Egyptian symbols, so making these games attractive to new players is easy.

All the Egyptian-themed slots we have selected for this article are high-rated, fun to play, sport impressive features and adequate win rates. The final choice comes to personal preference, but if one is looking for inspiration, we can readily suggest these games as a good starting point for your next big hit in the world of slot machines.

Book of Dead from Play’n Go

• Title: Book of Dead;
• Developer: Play’n GO;
• Reels: 5;
• Rows: 3;
• Paylines: 10;
• RTP: 96.21% | 94.25% | 91.25% | 87.25% | 84.18%;
• Hit Freq: N/A;
• Max Win: 5,000x;
• Max Win Probability: 3.75E-07;
• Volatility: High (10/10);
• Min/Max Bet: 0.10/50;
• Release Date: January 02, 2020.

Accessing the slot will present users with a layout consisting of 5 reels and a total of 3 rows, so there is nothing too confusing regarding the interface. The game features 10 paylines to bet on, and players can customize these using the plus and minus buttons next to the relevant box. At the same time, they can also customize their wager, with the coin value displayed as the first option to change. This offers a range of between 0.01 and 1 to choose from, while the number of coins in action is adjustable between one and five. This means a maximum overall wager between 10 cents and €50 per spin.

Play’n GO is known for providing titles with intriguing graphics, which is easily showcased with Book of Dead. The background depicts an underground temple or tomb, instilling players with a sense of adventure. On the game’s reels, you will find symbols, starting with those running from 10 through A. The K and A icons provide the maximum rewards of x150 of the player’s bet. Next in line is the phoenix icon, followed by one of the Egyptian gods — Anubis. A Pharaoh can also be seen here, while the explorer Rich Wilde tops these symbols off. These can reward users with a maximum payout of 5,000 times the current stake.

With five scattered wilds in sight, it is possible to see a stake multiplier that goes as high as x200. Additionally, three or more of the scatter symbols showing up will also activate the game’s free spins round. You will be given 10 of these to play through, but there is a secondary perk to this round, too: a special Expanding Symbol will also be chosen before the free spins start. It is randomly selected among the higher-paying symbols, and, whenever it comes into view on any of the reels and forms part of a win, it will expand to cover the entirety of the reel or reels it is present on. Highly volatile, this could lead to a whopping 5000 times the current stake win should the player land all 5 Rich Wilde symbols at the same time.

Book of Dead has a gamble round, which is activated by users forming a winning combination in the base game. When this happens, they will be asked to guess the suit color of the next card to be turned over. Get the color right, and your winnings will be doubled, while a correct suit guess will quadruple that amount.

Book of Fallen from Pragmatic Play

• Title: Book of Fallen;
• Developer: Pragmatic Play;
• Reels: 5;
• Rows: 3;
• Paylines: 10;
• RTP: 96.50% | 95.50% | 94.50%;
• Hit Freq: 1 in 3.25;
• Max Win: 5,000x;
• Max Win Probability: 1 in 2,118,644;
• Volatility: High (5/5);
• Min/Max Bet: 0.10/50;
• Release Date: 25.11.2021.

The RTP for this one varies, so be on the lookout for higher winnings. The default version has a value of 96.5%, which compares favorably to other ‘book’ titles on our list. Regular bets range from 10 p/c to £/€50 per spin, though this is driven up when engaging the Super Spin Ante Bet, which we will look at in greater detail below. While the Ante Bet is active, the RTP drops slightly to 96.49% or to 96.48% when buying free spins.

Most of the rules remain untouched, meaning that Book of Fallen is played on a 5×3, 10-line game panel, where winning combos consist of identical symbols landing from the first reel. The characters are standard, too, starting with 10-A card rank tiles, shifting to higher-value Ankhs, Anubis, Tutankhamun, and John Hunter. Landing a line of five premium symbols is worth a payout of 75 to 500 times the current stake.

The only other symbol of note is the Book. Books are treated as wilds, so they replace any paying symbol to help score more wins. They are also the scatter, so should 3 or more books be in view, the player will be rewarded with 10 free spins. Before the bonus round begins, the user picks which symbol they would like to be the special expanding symbol. During the round, after the payout of regular symbols, the special symbol expands vertically to cover all positions on its reel. Expanded symbols pay all lines from any place — they do not need to be adjacent or start from the left side of the screen to form winning combinations.

It is a base game add-on that increases the current total bet for every spin by x10 when activated. By switching the Super Spin Ante Bet on, players can preselect a special expanding symbol for the following spins. This selected symbol expands and pays anywhere, the way it would in free spins, but on regular base game spins. Win values are calculated using the base bet, not the increased Super Bet cost.

Another option is buying the bonus round itself at the cost of x100 of the bet. This will instantly trigger 10 free spins.

Valley of the Gods 2 from Yggdrasil Gaming

• Title: Valley of the Gods;
• Developer: Yggdrasil Gaming;
• Reels: 6;
• Rows: 3–8;
• Paylines: 240–20,160;
• RTP: 96.3%;
• Hit Freq: 20%;
• Max Win: 5,481x;
• Volatility: Medium/High;
• Min/Max Bet: 0.25/125;
• Release Date: September 24, 2020.

One glance is all it takes to realize that Yggdrasil has taken its time to redesign the entire format. Instead of the 5-reel rectangle of the original, we now get a layout of 6 reels with expandable rows that start with a default 1–2–3–4–5–2 format. Surrounding these active positions are scarab-patterned blocker tiles, giving the reels a sort of pyramid look.

Playable from 25 p/c to £/€125 across any device, we get a slightly higher RTP rate than before, at 96.3%, while volatility has been tuned up to a medium/high setting. Users might think landing winning combinations is hampered by having just one symbol on the first reel, but a hit rate of 20% means around 1 spin in 5 will theoretically be a win.

Putting a combination together requires linking up three or more matching symbols left to right. There are no paylines to speak of — as long as characters are adjacent to the first reel, they will link up. This means that, in the default mode, there are 240 winning combinations and the number grows to 20,160 once all blockers have been removed. The process is detailed in the following section.

First, let us look at the paytable’s regular symbols, of which there are 10. The first 6 are 9-A royals, while the remaining 4 are the gods Anubis, Horus, Sobek, and Bastet. The cat goddess Bastet is the most valuable of the bunch, pulling in 20 times the stake for a six-of-a-kind line. There is no regular wild symbol, but a wild reel is activated as part of the game’s features.

Valley of the Gods 2 offers many features that build off one another. As the saying goes, it only takes a spark to light a volcano. Here, the process starts with every win. When that happens, the scarabs fly off the combination to destroy blocker tiles. The number of tiles removed is the number of symbols used in the successful combination. A respin is also triggered, and if another win occurs on the respin, the process repeats all over again.

If all blocker tiles are destroyed, an extra life is awarded, and the three collection modifiers are activated. Differently colored scarabs fly off the winning symbols and fill the modifier meters whenever a winning situation occurs. Every 5 red scarabs award 1 extra life, every 5 blue scarabs increase the win multiplier by 1, while 5 golden scarabs trigger a wild reel, positioned on a randomly selected reel. Wild reels remain in place until the successive win occurs or until the respins end.

If a respin does not result in a win, one life is used to keep the feature going. Running out of lives without scoring any wins ends the respin round and resets the grid to its default mode before continuing the hunt.

Book of Atem from All41 Studios

• Title: Book of Atem;
• Developer: All41 Studios;
• Reels: 5;
• Rows: 3;
• Paylines: 10;
• RTP: 96.45%;
• Hit Freq: 29.80%;
• Max Win: 5,000x;
• Volatility: High;
• Min/Max Bet: 0.10/25;
• Release Date: 13.12.2019.

The controls are minimal on mobile, and users start the game by hitting the teeny tiny coins icon to select bets from 10 p/c up to £/€25 per spin. Next to the coins are the options for autospin, settings, and the paytable. Open them up to reveal 9 base game pay symbols and one bonus symbol. Card royals with the LED theme make up the first five low pay symbols. These are backed up by four picture icons — pink lotuses, striking cobras, lanner falcons, and the Pharaoh symbol. Low pay symbols need to form a three-of-a-kind to score a win, while the high paying ones only need two. The Pharaoh is the top dog at 500 times the stake for a five-of-a-kind combination.

Like several earlier ‘Book of’ games, the list is minimalistic but satisfying statwise. Firstly, there are just 10 fixed paylines on a 5×3 grid. Volatility is set to high and is complemented with a solid RTP of 96.45%. Like before, the book symbol is the key to unlocking the best bits by far, but with a hit rate of 29.8% and solid symbol values, the base game looks lucrative enough by itself.

There is just one extra symbol — the almighty book. The great thing about it is that it has two roles. Acting a both the scatter and the wild, it can land anywhere on the reels, and 3 or more of them in sight triggers 10 free spins.

Before free spins commence, the book opens, and one of the pay symbols is randomly selected as the special symbol. When 2 or more (3 for lower value card royals) of these special symbols land on a free spin, they expand to take over the whole reel. What makes them unique is that these expanded symbols don’t need to be next to each other to form winning combinations. This gives them the ability to rake in substantial coin numbers.

Book symbols continue to land during bonus rounds so that free spins can be retriggered. Moreover, as a wildcard, the book substitutes for any other pay symbols but does not substitute for expanded symbols during free spins. It might sound a little bare, and it arguably is, but the gameplay is super compelling, and winnings can seriously rack up with expanded symbols in play.

Cleopatra 2 from IGT

• Title: Cleopatra 2;
• Developer: IGT;
• Reels: 5;
• Rows: 3;
• Paylines: 20;
• RTP: 95.88% | 94.88% | 93.17%;
• Max Win: 50,000x;
• Volatility: High (4/5);
• Min/Max Bet: 0.20/600;
• Release Date: 08.07.2021.

Cleopatra, a land-based classic for IGT that successfully crossed over into the online sphere in 2012, where it instantly found new popularity. It might have taken nearly a decade, but in 2021 the studio followed up with more Egyptian queen-themed action, courtesy of the sequel titled ‘Cleopatra 2.’

The further users progress into Cleopatra 2, the more changes from the original will they discover, though the overall vibes remain largely the same. Visually, there have been a few subtle upgrades: the 5-reel, the 20-payline grid looks less like the Book of Ra, and IGT has swapped the columns of the background image for a traditional view of the Giza Pyramids.

Bound to fill physical casinos across the globe, Cleopatra 2 is also available on every platform from desktops to mobile devices, offering stakes from 20 p/c per spin. Like its predecessor, Cleopatra 2 is quite a volatile sojourn across the sands, generating a confusing RTP range of 93.17% to 95.88%. Since no further player input or strategy is required other than hitting the play button, it is unclear why the RTP varies so much, and this ambiguity may prove a bit of a turn-off.

Players who liked the uncomplicated nature of the first Cleopatra will appreciate the fact that nothing too complex made its way into the sequel. Wins hit when three or more of a kind queue up on a payline in the base game or during free spins. IGT has swapped the symbols, but the big ones — Bastet, Horus, and Anubis — make up the 3 premium symbols worth up to 25 times the bet for five-of-a-kind. On the lower side, the same royal symbols appear, except for 9, since that one has been completely dropped from the game.

The game’s logo symbol is when things start to get serious, as five of them on a payline can earn players up to x2,500 in payouts. This Cleo II symbol is also wild, landing anywhere to replace any regular pay symbol. Cleo II also doubles the value it would typically earn when used to complete a winning combo.

In the spirit of simplicity, the only other feature in Cleopatra 2 is the free spin round. To unlock their bounty, you will need at least 3 Sphinx scatters in view to access the fabled bonus round. It starts by selecting one of 3 boxes to determine how many free spins the player shall wind up with. The more scatters triggered the feature, the larger the number will be. So, 3, 4, or 5 would award 5–15, 8–18, or 10–20, plus a payout of x3, x10, or x2,600 times the current bet.

During free spins, the scatter win value decreases, but in its place, premium symbols now payout for two-of-a-kind combinations. Free spins stand out with the introduction of their own win multiplier that starts at x1. On each subsequent spin, the win multiplier increases by 1 whether a win actually occurred or not. Free spins can be retriggered up to 50 times, and the multiplier increases even on retriggered free spins. This means that, at most, an x50 multiplier will be waiting for those players who make it to the very end.

In the End

Most leading gaming providers have worked on Egyptian-themed slots. This is mainly due to the topic’s exciting nature that helps it stay in demand. Such slots allow players to travel through time, plunge into the world of ancient gods and treasures, then tell incredible stories of wonderful fortunes found in the sand. When developing such games, special attention should be paid to the graphics, sound effects, and the technical characteristics of newly made slots.