HelioPOPolis Slot Review 2024

Yggdrasil Gaming partner AvatarUX has flown their beloved PopWins mechanic to Egypt for another epic adventure, in HelioPOPolis!

It’s safe to say we’re well-versed in all things Egyptian, especially when it comes to slots with this theme, but will HelioPOPolis stand out in other ways?

HelioPOPolis gives AvatarUX’s beloved PopWins mechanic another run, where winning combinations increase the reel height, with the potential to open up a whopping 32, 768 ways to win.

We’re big fans of the PopWins series, yet we were excited to try out AvatarUX’s MultiPop mechanic in Zombie aPOPalypse which bought something new and refreshing to the table.

Will HelioPOPolis live up to expectations? Let’s play on and find out!

HelioPOPolis Base Game and Features

HelioPOPolis is a 5-reel slot with up to 32, 768 ways to win. Winning combinations are formed when 3 or more of the same symbols land from left to right or right to left on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost or rightmost reels.

The minimum bet available here is £/€0.20 (£/€0.25 Ante Bet) per spin and the maximum bet available is £/€100 (£/€125 Ante Bet) per spin, with plenty of other options in between the two. This game has a theoretical RTP of 96.00% and a max win cap of 20,000x.

In terms of symbols, the highest-paying regular symbol here is the Bird, followed by the Dog and Horse. Medium-paying symbols fall to Orange, Green, and Purple crest symbols. Low-paying symbols are standard Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and Ten. Wild symbols substitute for all other symbols in the paytable, appearing only in the Free Spins round.

Also in play during the Free Spins round is Mystery symbols. During this time, a random number of Mystery symbols can land in each spin. When mystery symbols land, the same High or Low-paying symbol from the paytable is revealed.

HelioPOPolis makes use of AvatarUX’s beloved PopWins mechanic. Each time a winning combination forms, all winning symbols will ‘pop’ and disappear from the reels.

All empty reel positions will then be replaced by 2 new symbols from the paytable, increasing the reel height. This will continue as long as there are more winning combinations, up to a maximum of 6 symbols high in the base game and 8 symbols high in Free Spins.

Ante Bet

Before you can begin spinning, you will have the chance to activate the Ante Bet feature. Choosing to do so will increase your current bet by 25%, but with that comes one advantage.

Once active, the Ante Bet feature will Double your chances of triggering the Free Spins round.

HelioPOPolis Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 Scatters automatically triggers the Free Spins round.

• 3 Scatters – Awards up to 7 Free Spins, 2,048 starting ways, and a random Multiplier of up to x5.
• 4 Scatters – Awards up to 9 Free Spins, 6,250 starting ways, and a random Multiplier of up to x6.
• 5 Scatters – Awards up to 11 Free Spins, 15,552 starting ways, and a random Multiplier of up to x7.

Before the Free Spins round can begin, you will be given the choice of 2 Rewards Options, as follows.

• Synced Reels – Awards 2 synced reels on every spin with a chance of landing giant 2×2 or 3×3 symbols.
• Expanded Win symbol with Guaranteed Wilds – Any symbol from the paytable (excluding Scatters, Wilds, and Mystery symbols) can become the Extended Win symbol. When used as part of a win, it will expand to fill the entire reel.

During Free Spins, the progress of unlocking reel positions does not fully reset between each free spin, only resetting to the shortest reel height.

Fully unlocking all reel positions during this time will award an additional +2 Free Spins and activates Synced Reels and Expanded Win symbol features.

Also in play during this time is an active Win Multiplier. Each time a winning combination forms, the Win Multiplier will increase by x1. Fully unlocking the reels will increase the Win Multiplier by x2 for every win in that Pop-round.

HelioPOPolis Bonus Buy

Those outside the UK will benefit from a Bonus Buy option. AvatarUX has granted players access to 3 Bonus Buy options, as follows.

• Big Sync – Awards the Free Spins round with the synced reels feature active for a total cost of 125x your current bet.
• Great Wilds – Awards the Free Spins round with Expanded win symbols & Guaranteed Wilds for a total cost of 125x your current bet.
• All Features – Awards the Free Spins round with both the Synced Reels and Expanded Win symbols & Guaranteed Wilds active for a total cost of 1,000x your current bet.

HelioPOPolis: Our Verdict

Nobody could have guessed how far AvatarUX would go with the PopWins series, but what’s even more surprising is how they keep such a long-running series so fresh.

Big Sync, Great Wilds and the All Features round puts an interesting spin on HelioPOPolis, though we won’t pretend that the features are something entirely new.

It certainly feels fresh enough to warrant another instalment, but we’ve been wondering for a while what creative abilities AvatarUX has outside of the PopWins, or even if they could go further with their MuliPop series, which only has one game so far.

Still, our wonders about other mechanics doesn’t quite take away from HelioPOPolis and its successes. During testing it stood out as one of the better-looking PopWins games we’ve seen so far, and potential-wise it looks great with 20,000x as a maximum win.

Overall, HelioPOPolis certainly isn’t innovation personified, but it’s fun, capable and quite attractive nonetheless.