ABOUT GATES OF VALHALLA
Pragmatic Play provides a highly versatile slot collection – versatile in terms of animation/storyline, gameplay mechanics, and bonus features. While Gates of Valhalla provides features that are already familiar, it is the combination of features that gives the game its worth.
For instance, you wouldn’t find any other Norse-themed 5×5 slot by Pragmatic Play that has roaming wilds, free spins, and tumbling wheels.
And this is just an outline of Gates of Valhalla’s top features. Additional qualities that are worth mentioning are the bonus buy feature, progressive multipliers, and a 10,000x maximum payout. Both casual and high-risk players at UK slot sites should find the betting range convenient, with a minimum bet per spin of £0.20 to £100.
THEMES, SYMBOLS AND PAYTABLE
Pragmatic Play’s slots catalogue includes several other games featuring the all-popular and, evidently, highly adaptable Viking themed slots. If you’re into slots that draw from Viking mythology, try playing Push Gaming’s Viking Clash or Book of Vikings.
While the animation qualities do not quite match that of Pragmatic Play’s Power of Thor, Gates of Valhalla is still a pleasant visual experience. The symbols include three high-value and four low-value icons. Each of the four card suits (hearts, clubs, spades, and diamonds) represents one of the lower-paying symbols. The lows pay between 2.5x and 5x the bet for five of a kind, while the highs pay from 10x to 75 your stake for five in a pay line.
Among the special symbols are the roaming wilds with rising multiplier values, as well as the free spins symbol.
RTP, VARIANCE AND PAYOUTS
Gates of Valhalla RTP is 96.46%, but it can range between 94.47% and 95.5%. In the Buy Free Spins, the Gates of Valhalla RTP is slightly higher at 96.6%.
It is deemed a highly volatile and, therefore, a high-risk game, meaning a sudden high-paying hand or hands will follow a losing streak. Gates of Valhalla’s maximum payout is 10,000x the stake amount, after which the round abruptly ends and any other bonus features are cancelled.
GAMEPLAY AND FEATURES
Gates of Valhalla combines pretty ordinary gameplay on a 5×5 grid with the popular tumbling reel (or cascading reels) mechanic. The roaming wild is quite possibly the slot’s single most valuable symbol that can considerably increase your payout thanks to the rising multiplier. The Free Spin symbols are the scatters, and landing at least three will initiate the free spins round.
GATES OF VALHALLA PAYOUTS
Pragmatic Play’s Gates of Valhalla slot has 10 fixed pay lines. Each line pays for a combination of at least three and up to 5 matching symbols vertically or horizontally from left to right. For three of a kind, the high-value symbols pay between 0.50x and 1x the bet amount; for four of a kind, the highs pay 1.25x, 2.50x, and 5x the bet amount. As we already noted, the highs pay between 10x and 75x the bet for five of a kind.
At least three Free Spins symbols award 10 free spins; 4 FS symbols award 12, and 5 FS symbols award 15 free spins.
GATES OF VALHALLA – ROAMING WILD FEATURE
In Gates of Valhalla, the Golden Lion, which substitutes for all except the FS symbol, is the wild. If a wild is part of a winning combination, it will not disappear like the other symbols but remain on the reels and start ‘roaming’ to available positions left, right, up, or down. If there are no empty positions for the wild to move to, it will remain in place.
As the wild moves, a multiplier will increase by 1 for each win the wild is a part of, up to a 5x multiplier.
OUR VERDICT
All things considered, Gates of Valhalla was well worth the wait. Again, visuals are not as good as Power of Thor Megaways, but the graphics are good enough, and the gameplay and features are what add to the engagement.
Due to the roaming wild, free spins might take a while before they are triggered with at least 3 FS symbols. However, Pragmatic Play allows impatient or more dynamic players to buy into the free spins feature at the cost of 100x their current stake size. Alongside Power of Thor Megaways, check out Pragmatic’s Asgard and Book of Vikings. These games may have a similar theme to Gates of Valhalla but come with special features like expanding symbols or mystery stacked symbols.
