Gates of Valhalla Slot Review 2022

Put on your best Viking attire and polish off your Shield, Pragmatic Play are preparing us for battle in their newest release, Gates of Valhalla!

Are you ready to enter the Mythological realm of Valhalla and claim the hidden treasure for yourself? Of course you are!

There’s no denying that Pragmatic Play are the best provider for their quick releases, with Gates of Valhalla being the 5th January release so far this year. We understand that there’s a bit of healthy competiton between Providers to release their slots quicker than the rest, but is Pragmatic Play rushing theirs out before they’re ready? That’s for you to decide.

We’ve become a Pirate for a day in Smugglers Cove and excavated an icy cave in Crystal Caverns Megaways, now it’s time to become legendary in Gates of Valhalla!

Gates of Valhalla Base Game

Gates of Valhalla Theme

Once you get a feel for Gates of Valhalla, you may notice that the layout and mechanics are very similar to Play’n GO’s Moon Princess. Whether Pragmatic Play got their inspiration from this is anyone’s guess, but either way we’re loving it so far!

The background in Gates of Valhalla is quite spectacular and definitely a breath of icy fresh air. Glorious snowy mountains and a bright blue sky can be seen, along with Thor’s Hammer blissfully blowing in the wind on the right side of the screen.

The music that can be heard playing throughout is dramatic and gripping, which is certainly fitting with theme. The sound effects are a little overpowering and drown out the music, but ultimately work well with the theme.

We’ve seen a fair few Asgardian themes in our time and so there isn’t anything particularly resfreshing about Gates of Valhalla in terms of looks. Will gameplay provide us with the excitement that is lacking in the theme? Let’s find out.

Gates of Valhalla Betting and Symbols

Gates of Valhalla has a variety of betting options for players to choose from. For those who prefer a lower stake, the minimum bet available is £/€0.20 per spin. For those who prefer a higher stake, the maximum bet available is £/€100 per spin, with plenty of other options in between the two.

The highest paying regular symbol in Gates of Valhalla is the Red God, this is closely followed by the Purple Goddess and the Green God. Lower paying symbols fall to Spades, Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds.

Wild symbols substitute for all symbols except Scatters.

Game Provider Pragmatic Play
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Maximum Bet 100
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Maximum Win 10,000x
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Paylines 10
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Release Date 27/01/2022
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RTP 96.46% - 95.50% - 94.47%
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Mechanics Video Slot
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Volatility high
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Reels 5
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Minimum Bet 0.2
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Gates of Valhalla Base Game and Features

Gates of Valhalla is a 5 reel slot with 10 fixed paylines. Gates of Valhalla has a Pay Anywhere mechanic, similar to those seen before in slots like Moon Princess. Wins do not require a formation of symbols from left to right, but rather 3 in a row horizontally or vertically regardless of their position.

Gates of Valhalla features Tumbling Reels. Each time a winning combination is formed, all winning symbols will be removed from the reels and new symbols will tumble down, filling all empty positions and possibly creating even more winning combinations.

Gates of Valhalla has an exciting Roaming Wilds feature to keep players battling on whilst they patiently wait for Free Spins to land.

Roaming Wilds

Whenever a Wild symbol is used as part of a winning combination, instead of the Wild being removed along with winning symbols, it will move to a random position, either Up, Down, Left or Right if there is space for it to do so. The Wild symbol can also remain in its position if there is no available spaces around it to move.

Once the Wild symbols moves for the first time, a Multiplier will be awarded and increases by x1 with each position move, up to x5. After the Multiplier reaches x5, if the Wild symbol is used as part of a winning combination yet again, it will explode and a normal Tumble occurs.

If more than one Roaming Wild is used as part of a winning combination, the Multiplier of all Wilds adds to each other before applying.

Gates of Valhalla Roaming Wilds Feature

Gates of Valhalla Free Spins

Landing 3, 4 or 5 Scatters in any position on the reels, awards 10, 12 and 15 Free Spins respectively.

For the duration of Free Spins, a Multiplier that applies to the total win of all Tumbles is present. Once the Free Spins round starts, the Multiplier will begin at x1, increasing by x1 with each occuring Tumble.

The Roaming Wilds feature is active during the Free Spins round, working in the same way it does during the Base Game. The total win Multiplier does not reset during Free Spins, but the Roaming Wilds Multiplier does.

Landing 3 or more Scatters, awards an additional +10 Free Spins and there is no limit to how many times you can retrigger the round.

If the maximum win capacity of 10,000x is reached, the round immedietley end and all remaining Free Spins are forfeited.

Gates of Valhalla Free Spins 1

Gates of Valhalla Bonus Buy

For those outside the UK, you may benefit from a Bonus Buy option.

This can be purchased for a godly 100x your current bet.

The RTP when purchasing Free Spins increases slightly from 96.46% to 96.60%.

Gates of Valhalla Our Verdict

This is more like it Pragmatic Play.

Lately there’s been a fair few questionable releases, and admittedly confidence was starting to wear thin. Gates of Valhalla is a very entertaining and very well made with great graphics and sounds for an all round great experience. Granted, it’s not completely innovative, because Gates of Valhalla is basically Pragmatic Play’s answer to Moon Princess, which isn’t a bad thing in our eyes.

If you’re not a fan of the Japanese aesthetic that comes with Love, Star and Storm, then Gates of Valhalla may be more your thing. Perhaps the most impressive thing here is how Pragmatic Play has gone outside of their comfort zone for a big 10,000x capable game. Usually, 5,000x is the go to figure for Pragmatic Play, so it’s great to see something with a little something extra.

One thing to say is beware of the RTP variants. In hindsight it probably doesn’t make too much difference anyway, but there are 96.46%, 95.50% and 94.47% variants out there, so it may be worth checking if you’re on the lookout for the best RTP.

Overall, Gates of Valhalla is a potential rich slot with a great theme, great graphics and entertaining gameplay.