Alchemy Ways

Alchemy Ways Slot Review

The workshop is dim and clearly well used: grey stone blocks vaulted overhead, a cracked wall behind the reels, a worn wooden ledge running beneath them. A tall glass vessel with a gold spiral around its neck stands to the right, waiting for whatever the reels feed it. This is Alchemy Ways from Red Rake Gaming, a slot where nothing on screen is ever quite finished: blocks crack open after they land, a hand rewrites the reels once they’ve stopped, and even the losing spins get banked.

It runs on a 6×8 grid, pays left to right, and carries an RTP of 95.3% at mid to high volatility. That’s an unusual amount of machinery for a base game to carry, and it’s the reason to care about this one. It sits in a catalogue alongside Million Zeus 2, Guardians of Luxor 2 and Mystic Spirits.

The Reels and the Paytable

Eight rows of symbols on six reels is a lot of screen, and combinations only count from left to right. The game doesn’t publish a fixed payline or ways count; wins land as left-to-right runs across the tall grid. Where a line pays more than one win, only the highest is paid.

The wild substitutes for all symbols except a few shown as icons, and it completes winning combinations on an active line. That’s its whole job. Everything more interesting happens through the game’s own cast of specials, which we’ll come to.

Symbol values are multiples of the total bet, and the top of the ladder climbs steeply:

• Cardinal/King figure – 2.5x for four, 5x for five, 25x for six
• Potion bottle – 1.5x for four, 2x for five, 7.5x for six
• Green book/monk – 1x for four, 1.5x for five, 5x for six
• Skull – 0.5x for four, 0.75x for five, 2x for six
• Dancer (A) – 0.4x for four, 0.6x for five, 1.75x for six
• K – 0.2x for three, 0.4x for four, 0.6x for five, 1.75x for six
• Q – 0.2x for three, 0.25x for four, 0.6x for five, 1x for six
• J – 0.15x for three, 0.25x for four, 0.6x for five, 1x for six
• 10 – 0.15x for three, 0.2x for four, 0.4x for five, 0.9x for six
• 9 – 0.1x for three, 0.15x for four, 0.4x for five, 0.8x for six

The premium symbols need at least four of a kind, while the royals pay from three, which tells you something about how the 6×8 grid is meant to fill. Six Cardinals at 25x the bet is the best the base ladder offers, and it’s a long way from the multipliers the bonus features can reach.

Between the ladder and the features sit the scatters. Neither the Emerald Elixir nor the Gold Ingot symbols behave like paying symbols; both are there to be collected in quantity, and quantity is exactly what an eight-row grid can deliver.

Hand of Alchemy

Hand of Alchemy symbols can appear in the reels on any spin. Once the reels stop, the hand from each of these symbols moves to the reel before it, picks a symbol at random from that reel, and copies it into the space the hand symbol just vacated. Any wins that result are then paid.

It’s a neat trick because it converts a dead symbol into a duplicate of something adjacent. If the chosen symbol matches its neighbours on the left, a losing column can turn into a paying run. The hand does its work after the spin resolves, so you see the copy land and the win follow it.

The more hand symbols land, the more copies follow, and on a grid this tall a single spin can carry several of them at once. Each one resolves independently, so a spin that looked finished can keep paying for a beat after the reels stop moving.

Mystery Blocks and the Alchemist Minigame

Some of the blocks in the grid aren’t symbols at all yet: they hide other symbols inside, and on each spin a random number of them can crack apart and show what they were holding. The reveals come out of the non-winning blocks, so a spin that had nothing going for it can suddenly grow new matches across the middle reels.

The Alchemist Minigame works on the opposite principle: it’s fed by failure. Every spin without a win adds to the percentage in the blue still sitting at the bottom of the screen. Losing spins aren’t wasted; they’re ingredients.

Between the two of them, very little of this base game sits idle. Mystery Blocks rescue individual spins in the moment, while the still banks the spins that nothing could rescue. A base game where every outcome feeds something is a rare thing.

Gold Ingot Scatters and the Alchemist Wheel

The Gold Ingot symbols are scatters with two tiers. Landing 3 to 6 Gold Ingots triggers the Gold Scatter Symbol, which multiplies the bet by up to 200. The Silver Scatter Symbol covers 3 to 12 Gold Ingots and multiplies the bet by up to 100.

The Alchemist Wheel is a separate multiplier event. Land on its multiplier sections and the corresponding value is applied to the bet. It rounds out a set of scatter-based prizes that sit between the base paytable and the free spins round in terms of what they can return.

Free Spins and the Multiplier Reel

Ten or more Emerald Elixir symbols opens the free spins feature. Ten-plus of anything on a 6×8 grid is a genuine collection job, and the elixir symbols stack in columns as they build towards the threshold.

Once inside, every spin activates the additional multiplier reel, which spins up values including x10, x50 and x100. With the base ladder topping out at 25x for six Cardinals, a x100 multiplier landing across a full premium run is where the real arithmetic of this game lives.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7.7/10

Playing Alchemy Ways is watching a workshop where nothing stays put for long: reels stop, then a hand rewrites them, blocks crack open, and the still quietly banks whatever went wrong. The one reason to choose it over a plainer six-reeler is exactly that – almost every spin has a second act, and that’s rare at this volatility.

The multiplier reel in free spins is the best idea here, because it makes the bonus round pay by different maths than the base game rather than just faster. The weakness is the ladder underneath: 25x for six of the best symbol is thin, so the features carry nearly all the upside and a mediocre session can feel flat between events.

This suits players who enjoy watching systems interact more than chasing a headline number; anyone who wants a known ceiling on the wall should pass this workshop by. If you like your spins busy, though, the still is always filling with something.

Alchemy Ways FAQs

• What is the RTP of Alchemy Ways?

  Alchemy Ways has an RTP of 95.3%.
• Is Alchemy Ways high volatility?

  Alchemy Ways is rated mid to high volatility, so wins can be spaced out with larger swings than a low volatility game.
• How do you trigger free spins in Alchemy Ways?

  The round needs 10 or more Emerald Elixir symbols, and on a grid this tall that’s a proper collection job. Inside, a multiplier reel spins alongside the main grid on every free spin.
• What does the Hand of Alchemy do?

  The Hand of Alchemy can appear on any spin. After the reels stop, the hand moves to the previous reel, picks a symbol at random from it, and copies that symbol into the hand’s old position, paying any wins that result.
• What do the Gold Ingot scatter symbols pay?

  Gold Ingots come in two tiers. The Gold Scatter Symbol needs 3 to 6 ingots and multiplies your bet by up to 200, while the Silver Scatter Symbol covers 3 to 12 ingots and multiplies your bet by up to 100.
• What do Mystery Blocks do?

  Some blocks in the grid hide other symbols inside them. On each spin, a random number of them can break open, and because the reveals come from non-winning blocks, they can turn a dead spin into a paying one.
• What is the Alchemist Minigame?

  The Alchemist Minigame is the blue still at the bottom of the screen. Every spin without a win adds to its percentage, so your losing spins build towards it rather than going nowhere.
• Who makes Alchemy Ways?

  Alchemy Ways is made by Red Rake Gaming.