Crystal Skull

Crystal Skull Slot Review

Carved stone heads flank a torch-lit temple courtyard, a brazier burns at the edge of the reels, and a stepped golden arch rises towards a sky full of stars. It’s classic lost-civilisation dressing, and Endorphina have dressed it well. Less classic is the maths: Crystal Skull pays back 97.77% to 98.10%, a return most slots never approach – and it does it without a single free spins round.

Instead, the money lives in a bonus trail that runs from a spinning wheel into a five-level pick game, on a 5×3 grid with 25 paylines and bets from 0.25 to 75.00 per spin. For more tomb-raiding in the same catalogue, Joker Ra and Minotaur ReBurn both dig in similar ground.

Symbols and Pays

Wins are for matching symbols on enabled paylines, left to right on adjacent reels. The crystal skull wild substitutes for everything except the bonus symbol, and when it’s already on a reel it can appear again to complete winning combinations. That stacking behaviour gives the wild real work to do on a 25-line grid.

The pyramid scatter pays anywhere on the reels, and the wild can stand in for it too, though only for one scatter per reel. All values below are multiples of the total bet:

• Explorer: 400x for five, 8x for four, 1x for three, 0.08x for two
• Gold idol: 40x for five, 4x for four, 0.8x for three
• Teal mask: 30x for five, 4x for four, 0.8x for three
• Snake: 20x for five, 4x for four, 0.8x for three
• Ace: 4x for five, 0.8x for four, 0.4x for three
• King, Queen, Jack, Ten: 4x for five, 0.4x for four, 0.2x for three
• Pyramid scatter: 50x for five, 10x for four, 2x for three

Only the highest win is paid per payline, and scatter wins are added on top of line wins. The paytable is steeply top-heavy: everything below the explorer drops off quickly, and the royals pay modestly even at five of a kind.

Wheel of Fortune Bonus Game

Three bonus symbols trigger the wheel. They only appear on reels three, four and five, and they count in any position. Once you’re in, the wheel spins and stops on a multiplier of the total bet or on a bonus segment that launches the Treasure Hunt.

The wheel’s prizes are:

• 10x the total bet
• 12x the total bet
• 15x the total bet
• 20x the total bet
• 25x the total bet
• BONUS segment, leading to the Treasure Hunt

The interesting part is the retry rule. If you’re happy with the multiplier, you take it. If not, you can use up to three attempts to chase the maximum multiplier or the bonus segment – and only the last result counts. Each prize on the wheel has its own chance of being awarded, so the wheel is a visual front for weighted odds.

The bonus game plays at the same bet as the spin that triggered it, and it can’t be won again during the feature. There’s no way back to the wheel once you’ve moved on to the Treasure Hunt.

Treasure Hunt Bonus

Land the bonus segment on the wheel and take the win, and you move into a five-level pick game. Each level shows five stone masks. Levels one to three hide gemstones; levels four and five hide artefacts and snakes, the treasury keepers.

You pick one mask per level. A gemstone or artefact pays a reward based on your total bet and moves you up a level. A snake pays nothing for that level, and then either turns into an artefact, letting you continue, or attacks, ending the game on the spot.

All wins across the levels are added together and paid at the end of the pick game, so a single run can stack rewards from all five levels. The snake is what gives the round its tension: survive all five levels and the rewards build, but one bad pick on the top tiers can end everything.

Risk Game

After any win you can gamble it. Four cards are dealt face down; pick one, and if it beats the dealer’s card your win is doubled. You can keep going for up to ten attempts, and the dealer winning any round costs you everything you’ve gambled.

The four cards aren’t weighted equally, and cards can reappear from round to round. The Joker beats every card, and the dealer can never draw one. Matching the dealer’s value is a draw: your winnings stand and you get another go. Your chance of beating the dealer depends entirely on what they’re holding:

• Dealer shows 2: 162%
• Dealer shows 3: 121%
• Dealer shows 4: 113%
• Dealer shows 5: 101%
• Dealer shows 6, 7 or 8: 100%
• Dealer shows 9: 92%
• Dealer shows 10: 78%
• Dealer shows Jack: 69%
• Dealer shows Queen: 66%
• Dealer shows King: 64%
• Dealer shows Ace: 42%

Risk everything regardless of the dealer’s card and the round’s average return is 84% – a losing proposition over time, though the per-round odds swing wildly depending on what you’re facing. Take the win whenever you’d rather not find out.

Bonus Pop Buy Feature

The Bonus Pop button buys access to the Treasure Hunt at any time. The cost depends directly on your total bet, so the price moves proportionally with your stake whether you’re at the minimum or the maximum. Activation works like a natural trigger: a single reel spin lands enough bonus symbols to start the wheel, which then lands on the bonus segment.

Two things to know. Winnings from bought games can’t be gambled in the Risk Game, and with Bonus Pop on the theoretical return drops to 95.78%. The feature may not be available at every casino carrying the game.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7.7/10

This is an old-fashioned 25-liner in beautiful temple clothes, and the reason to sit down at it is that return: a theoretical payback most modern slots don’t get near. The base game between bonuses is plain left-to-right spinning with a hard-working stacked wild, and it can feel like a long walk between torches.

The bonus trail is the design effort, and it’s the best thing here – the wheel’s retry rule means a poor first result is never final, and the Treasure Hunt builds properly level by level. The weakness is the paytable around it: apart from the explorer, five of a kind barely pays, and there’s no free spins round or stated win ceiling for the big-hunt crowd.

It’s for players who like pick games, card gambles and old-school structure with unusually generous maths, and it’s not for anyone who wants free spins or a headline chase. The temple gives up its treasures slowly, to those willing to dig.

Crystal Skull FAQs

• How do you trigger the Wheel of Fortune Bonus in Crystal Skull?

  Three BONUS symbols trigger the Wheel of Fortune Bonus Game. They appear only on reels 3, 4 and 5 and count in any position on those reels.
• What happens if you uncover a snake in the Treasure Hunt Bonus?

  A snake gives no reward for the current level. It then either turns into an artefact, letting you continue to the next level, or attacks, which ends the bonus game immediately.
• What is the RTP of Crystal Skull?

  The theoretical return to player is 97.77% to 98.10%. With the Bonus Pop buy feature switched on, the RTP is 95.78%. The Risk Game round has its own average RTP of 84%.
• How many paylines does Crystal Skull have?

  Crystal Skull is a 5-reel, 3-row slot game with 25 paylines. Winning combinations of matching symbols must land on enabled paylines on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost reel.
• What is the minimum and maximum bet on Crystal Skull?

  Bets run from 0.25 to 75.00 per spin. Unfinished games and untaken prizes are saved for seven days before being cancelled.
• Can you buy the bonus on Crystal Skull?

  Yes. The Bonus Pop buy feature lets you play the Treasure Hunt Bonus at any time, with the cost depending directly on your total bet. Winnings from bought games cannot be gambled in the Risk Game, and the feature may not be available at all casinos.
• When is Crystal Skull released?

  Crystal Skull’s release date is 22 November 2022.
• Who makes Crystal Skull?

  Crystal Skull is made by Endorphina.