Easter Island Slot Review
Two weathered moai stand either side of a stone-and-timber reel temple, grass sprouting from their crowns and wildflowers climbing the turf below. Yggdrasil plays the most mysterious island in the Pacific for charm rather than menace, and this is the rare five-reel slot that doesn’t bother waiting for a bonus round: every winning spin awards a respin, and the base game is the bonus round.
It’s a 5×3 grid with 27 paylines, 96.1% RTP, low volatility and a 1,880x ceiling on what a spin can pay. The idea proved durable enough that the sequel, Easter Island 2, took it further in 2021, and it still sets this one apart from studio-mates like Cazino Cosmos and Vikings Go to Olympus.
Base Game & Features
Nine regular symbols make up the paytable: five animal statues as the high pays and four wooden suits as the lows. Wins need three or more identical symbols in sequence on a payline, beginning from the leftmost position. Only the highest winning combination per line is paid, and the total win is the sum of every winning line.
Betting works on a coin system. The bet size is always 25 coins, and you change your stake by changing the coin value rather than the coin count. Stakes run from 0.10 to 200 per spin, and the Max Bet button jumps straight to the top coin value, then back to your previous setting on a second press.
The values below are what each symbol pays at the default stake of 2, so halve them for the multiple of your own bet: the top statue pays 40 for a full line, which is 20x.
- Top animal statue: 5 = 40, 4 = 20, 3 = 10
- Second statue: 5 = 8, 4 = 4, 3 = 2
- Third statue: 5 = 6.40, 4 = 3.20, 3 = 1.60
- Fourth statue: 5 = 4.80, 4 = 2.40, 3 = 1.20
- Fifth statue: 5 = 3.20, 4 = 1.60, 3 = 0.80
- Each of the four wooden suit lows: 5 = 1.60, 4 = 0.80, 3 = 0.40
The gap between the tiers is worth a glance. The top statue pays 25 times what a full line of lows returns, but the lowly wooden suits all pay identically, so there’s no premium low to chase. Your coin value converts any coin win into your home currency, and autoplay handles sessions where you’d rather not press spin each round, with optional stop conditions in the settings.
Wilds substitute for every symbol, appear only on reels two and four, and expand to fill their entire reel whenever they land on a winning spin. That single sentence covers their whole job, though it feeds directly into the respin system below.
Easter Island Bonus Features & Respins
Symbol Swap Respin
Every winning spin in the base game triggers one respin, and the respin always comes with the Symbol Swap feature attached. The swap works differently depending on which half of the paytable won:
- Winning low pay symbols: the three other low pay symbols are replaced with the winning symbol
- Winning high pay symbols: the other four high pay symbols are replaced with the winning symbol
The swap happens before the respin reels stop, so the board is already loaded by the time it settles. A concrete example: win with the third statue and every statue above it vanishes for the respin, replaced by more of the one that just paid. The bet size can’t be changed during the respin, and wins in respins don’t trigger further respins, so the chain is always exactly one deep.
Expanding Reels
The reels grow taller during the respin, and how much they grow depends on the length of the win that triggered it. The bigger the combination, the more rows and paylines the respin carries:
- Three of a kind: no expansion, respin runs on 27 paylines
- Four of a kind: two extra rows, respin runs on 65 paylines
- Five of a kind: four extra rows, respin runs on 103 paylines
If a single spin contains a three, a four and a five of a kind at once, only the highest win awards the expansion. So a spin that lands both a four and a five of a kind grows the reels by four rows, not six.
All reels collapse back to their regular size once the respin is done. The respin’s win is then added to the activating spin, and the two are paid as a single total. The line count shown on the game panel follows the reel height, so it shifts as the reels do.
Expanding Wilds
Wilds on reels two and four do their best work inside this system. A wild that lands on a winning base game spin is sticky for the respin, expands to cover its full reel, and grows further still when the Expanding Reels add rows.
A wild landing during a respin expands the same way, covering its entire reel before the win is counted. Because wilds only sit on the two middle reels, they’re always at the heart of a payline rather than stranded on the edges.
Stack that on top of a symbol swap and the respin board can fill with matching symbols and full wild reels at once. That’s the entire bonus structure in one package, and with a 16% hit frequency the base game hands it out often enough to carry a session on its own.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.8/10
This is a slot that never asks you to wait. The whole appeal is that something happens on most wins, and with a 16% hit rate there’s always another little event just a few spins away. The statues grin, the flowers bloom, and the island keeps itself busy.
The best thing here is the escalation: a five of a kind flips the board into 103 paylines with one symbol doing all the work, and when a sticky wild is already on a middle reel, that single respin can do more than most games manage from a full bonus round. The ceiling keeps it modest, though. Low volatility with a 1,880x cap means the escalations are frequent but never dramatic, and the top statue paying 20x for a full line keeps even the good respins polite.
If you want the rare, violent peaks of a high-variance game, this island will feel very calm. For longer sessions, smaller bankrolls and anyone who likes a slot where the action lives in the spin rather than in a bonus screen you might never reach, it’s an easy recommendation. The moai have been standing there patiently for centuries, and that’s roughly the tempo this game runs at.
Easter Island FAQs
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What is the RTP of Easter Island?
The overall theoretical return to player is 96.1%. -
Is Easter Island high volatility?
No. Easter Island is a low volatility slot, with frequent smaller wins rather than rare large payouts. -
What is the hit frequency of Easter Island?
The hit frequency is 16%, which works out to a winning spin roughly once every six spins. -
How many paylines does Easter Island have?
The base game runs on 27 paylines, but the reels expand during the Symbol Swap Respin, taking the count up to 65 paylines on a four of a kind win and 103 paylines on a five of a kind win. -
How does the Symbol Swap Respin work?
Every winning spin in the base game triggers one respin. If the winning symbols were low pays, the other three low pay symbols are replaced with the winning symbol for the respin; if they were high pays, the other four high pay symbols are replaced instead. -
Can the respins retrigger?
No. Wins in respins don’t trigger further respins, so the chain is always a single respin after a winning base game spin. -
What is the minimum and maximum bet on Easter Island?
Stakes start at 0.10 and go up to 200 per spin, set through the coin value. -
When is Easter Island released?
Easter Island’s release date is 22 March 2018.
