Egypt Sphere: Hold The Spin Slot Review
Two stone falcons with glowing violet eyes flank a carved sandstone frame, a pyramid rising in the dusk-purple sky behind them. Egypt Sphere: Hold The Spin hides its real game behind that gilded front, because the board you start on isn’t the board it’s played on. Gamzix have built a slot where the 5×4 grid exists to be outgrown: the bonus round adds two rows mid-play, and the 5,000x Grand sits on the sixth row alone.
Volatility sits in the mid-high band, and the maximum award is capped at 5,000 times the bet. Gamzix know this format from 3 Patrick’s Pots: Hold the Spin and Solar Strike Hold the Spin; in Egypt Sphere it’s the rows that grow rather than the coins.
Base Game and Symbols
Egypt Sphere plays on five reels and four rows, with every pay line active on each spin. Wins land in succession from the leftmost reel to the rightmost, only the highest win per line is paid, and wins across multiple lines are added together. Once a spin starts, the bet for that round is locked.
Symbol payouts aren’t fixed multiples; the paytable reads out in your own currency and shifts with the chosen stake. High-pay symbols sit alongside the royals, and a pyramid Scatter opens the free spins round when three land on reels one, three and five.
The Wild substitutes for every symbol except the Scatter, Bonus, Collect, Expand, Payer and Jackpot symbols, and it can appear on any reel in both the main game and Free Spins.
Heap of Spheres Feature
Any Bonus symbol landing during the main game or Free Spins carries a chance of setting off the Heap of Spheres feature. When it fires, orbs are added to the reels in numbers large enough to trigger the Bonus Game outright.
During the feature, Major, Minor and Mini symbols can also be added alongside the Bonus symbols, which guarantees activation once six or more are on the board. It’s the only thing standing between a quiet base game and the round this slot is actually about.
The Hold the Spin Bonus Game
Six or more Bonus symbols anywhere on the reels trigger the Bonus Game, and every symbol that triggered it transfers across. Three spins are granted to start, and each time a new symbol lands, its position locks and the counter resets to three. A round that keeps landing symbols never runs out of road.
Every empty position spins individually, and the round ends when the counter reaches zero or every position is filled. It’s played at the bet of the triggering round, and the total is added to any wins from that round. Only the following can land:
- Bonus symbols carrying a random prize of 1x to 16x the bet
- Collect symbols
- Expand symbols
- Payer symbols
- Jackpot symbols
Expand Symbols
Rows five and six sit inactive when the Bonus Game begins. An Expand symbol activates one extra row, and a maximum of two can land during the round, upgrading the reels to six rows in total. After unlocking its row, the Expand symbol itself takes a random prize of 1x to 16x the bet, or becomes a Major, Minor or Mini Jackpot symbol.
The new rows change what can land on them. Row five only takes Bonus symbols worth 10x to 16x the bet, plus Collect, Expand, Payer and Jackpot symbols, so nothing on it pays less than 10x. Row six is more exclusive still: only Collect, Payer, Jackpot and the special Grand symbol may appear there.
Collect and Payer Symbols
The Collect symbol gathers the wins from every other Bonus symbol on the reels, including other Collect, Expand, Payer and Jackpot symbols. When several land, gathering runs from the leftmost reel rightwards, then from the top position downwards, so order matters.
The Payer symbol increases the winnings of all other Bonus symbols on screen by its own value, following the same left-to-right, top-to-bottom sequence. When several Payers land, each one applies its boost after the previous one has acted, so values compound as the round runs. A Collect arriving after a Payer gathers the boosted totals, not the originals.
The Jackpot Ladder
Four fixed jackpots sit above the reels, and any of their symbols appearing during the Bonus Game pays the corresponding amount. As multiples of the bet:
- Grand: 5,000x
- Major: 150x
- Minor: 50x
- Mini: 20x
Major, Minor and Mini symbols pay only inside the Bonus Game. The Grand is different: it appears only on row six, the row that needs both Expand symbols to unlock, and it pays 5,000 times the bet. That’s the game’s maximum award, and landing it ends the round immediately.
Free Spins
Three Scatter symbols on the first, third and fifth reels of the main game award 10 Free Spins. The round is played with only high-pay, Wild and Bonus symbols on the reels, which thins the board out in the round’s favour.
The same three Scatters landing during Free Spins add five extra spins. Spins run at the bet of the triggering round, and the total win is added to that round’s takings when the counter reaches zero.
Because Bonus symbols stay in play, the Bonus Game can be triggered from inside Free Spins too. It’s a stacked route to the hold-and-spin round: Scatters in, coins out, spheres filling.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.2/10
Most of a session here is spent watching sandstone reels turn over while you wait for six spheres to arrive. That wait is deliberate, and the reason somebody sits down at this one is the thing behind it: a bonus round that visibly grows the further it runs. For a hold-and-spin, that’s rare ambition.
At its best, the round builds its own suspense. A board that’s already filling up suddenly gains a row, and the stakes of every reset climb with it. The letdown is that everything outside those walls is bare: five reels, a wild, and long stretches of nothing but the Heap of Spheres feature standing guard.
This one’s for hold-and-spin players who enjoy a slow build towards something they can see happening on the board. If you want action between bonuses, the falcons will stare at you for a long time first. Worth the wait for the patient; everyone else should wander to another tomb.
Egypt Sphere: Hold The Spin FAQs
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Is Egypt Sphere: Hold The Spin high volatility?
It sits in the mid-high volatility band, so wins can be sizable but you shouldn’t expect them to arrive at a steady pace. -
What is the grid size of Egypt Sphere: Hold The Spin?
Egypt Sphere: Hold The Spin plays on a 5×4 grid, which can grow to six rows inside the Bonus Game when Expand symbols land. -
What is the maximum win on Egypt Sphere: Hold The Spin?
The maximum award is capped at 5,000 times the bet. The Grand Jackpot on the sixth row of the Bonus Game pays exactly that, and landing it ends the round immediately. -
Who makes Egypt Sphere: Hold The Spin?
Egypt Sphere: Hold The Spin is made by Gamzix, a studio with several other Hold the Spin titles to its name. -
When is Egypt Sphere: Hold The Spin released?
Egypt Sphere: Hold The Spin’s release date is 13 June 2024. -
How do you trigger the Bonus Game in Egypt Sphere: Hold The Spin?
Six or more Bonus symbols anywhere on the reels trigger the Bonus Game. The Heap of Spheres feature can also add Bonus symbols to guarantee activation whenever any Bonus symbol lands. -
Can Free Spins be retriggered in Egypt Sphere: Hold The Spin?
Yes. Three Scatter symbols on the first, third and fifth reels during Free Spins add five extra spins to the counter. -
What do the Collect and Payer symbols do in Egypt Sphere: Hold The Spin?
Inside the Bonus Game, the Collect symbol gathers the wins from every other Bonus symbol on the reels, while the Payer symbol increases all those winnings by its own value. When several land, both apply from the leftmost reel rightwards and from the top position downwards.
