Emperor Caishen Slot Review
Caishen, the bearded Chinese god of wealth, stands at the edge of the reels with his arms flung wide, gold coins heaped at his feet and a sunburst glowing behind him. For all that gold on display, the paytable barely pays for the candles: the top line win is under 9x the bet, and everything worth chasing hangs off the special symbols instead. Pragmatic Play have built Emperor Caishen as a 5×3 grid with 243 ways to win, low volatility, a 96.49% RTP (with a 96.45% lower setting) and a maximum win of 2,500x the bet.
The studio has visited this deity before, in Caishen’s Cash and Caishen’s Gold, and the wider catalogue answers to names like Chests of Cai Shen. This one’s shape is different from all of them: a calm, frequently-paying base game with two bonus rounds stacked on top. The god of wealth has plenty of ways to hand out his gold here.
The 243-Ways Base Game
Wins pay left to right on adjacent reels from the leftmost reel, with all ways active on every spin. Only the highest win counts per combination on a single way, and wins across multiple ways add together. It’s a familiar arrangement that keeps the low-volatility maths moving.
Low volatility here means exactly what the label promises: payouts arrive in smaller amounts but more often, while the chance of a bigger win stays on the table through the jackpots and the free spins. For a game whose top line pays sit well under 10x the bet, that pacing is the whole design.
The symbol roster draws on Chinese fortune imagery. A red phoenix-dragon leads the pays, followed by an owl, a blue qilin, a turtle and a lucky cat, with the royals from A down to 9 filling out the bottom of the table. Every value is shown as a multiple of the total bet:
- Phoenix/Dragon (red): 1.1364x, 1.7045x, 8.5227x for three, four and five
- Owl: 0.5682x, 1.1364x, 5.1136x
- Qilin (blue): 0.4545x, 0.9091x, 3.4091x
- Turtle: 0.2273x, 0.5682x, 2.2727x
- Lucky Cat: 0.1136x, 0.2841x, 1.5682x
- A / K: 0.0568x, 0.1136x, 0.3409x
- Q / J: 0.0568x, 0.1136x, 0.2841x
- 10 / 9: 0.0568x, 0.1136x, 0.2273x
The gap between the premium symbols and the royals is wide. Five phoenixes or dragons returns 8.5227x the bet, while five of any royal pays a fraction of that. The middle three reels carry most of the interest once the fortune symbols start lining up left to right.
A gold-ingot wild appears on reels two, three and four and substitutes for all symbols, and every wild on screen carries a chance of randomly setting off the Jackpot Bonus Game. The scatter, a gold coin symbol, triggers the free spins from three or more on adjacent reels from the left.
One quirk of the wild’s placement is that it never starts or finishes a pay way. It can only ever complete a combination across the middle reels. That suits a game where the wins are designed to stack up small and steady rather than arrive as single big lines.
Jackpot Bonus Game
The jackpot round is triggered at random by any wild landing in view during the base game. No wild, no jackpot – the two are tied together completely.
Inside, you pick symbols one at a time to reveal jackpot icons and match three of a kind to claim the corresponding prize. Four jackpots sit on the ladder:
- GRAND: 1,000x the total bet
- MAJOR: 100x the total bet
- MINOR: 20x the total bet
- MINI: 10x the total bet
The ladder steps in tens rather than climbing exponentially, so even the bottom rung is a genuinely useful hit on a low-volatility game. The GRAND at the top is worth 1,000x the total bet, which puts it within reach of the sort of rounds this game’s maths is built around.
Free spins wins are added to pay way wins, and all wins are multiplied by the base bet. It’s tidy maths, with nothing hidden in the small print.
Free Spins Feature
Three or more scatters from left to right on adjacent reels award six free spins. Before the round begins, you choose one of five options, each determining the composition of the special reels used throughout the feature:
- 88 of the top symbol, with royals, wilds and scatters only
- 98 of the top symbol, with royals, wilds and scatters only
- 108 of the top symbol, with royals, wilds and scatters only
- 118 of the top symbol, with royals, wilds and scatters only
- 128 of the top symbol, with royals, wilds and scatters only
More of the top symbol means more ways to stack the highest-paying combinations, and the special reel strips strip out everything except royals, wilds and scatters. It’s a straightforward dial: pick your density and spin.
Because the strips drop every symbol except the royals, the wilds and the scatters, the lower fortune symbols – the owl, qilin, turtle and lucky cat – don’t appear in the feature at all. Every spin inside the round is a contest between the best-paying symbol and the royals, weighted by whichever option you picked.
Six spins is a short round, so the retrigger matters. Three or more scatters on adjacent reels from the left during the feature award six more free spins, and there’s no limit on how many times that can happen. A well-timed retrigger is what turns a modest round into one that pushes towards the cap.
That cap is 2,500x the bet, and it applies in the base game as well as the free spins. If a free spins round reaches it, the round ends on the spot, the win is paid and the leftover spins are lost.
Special reels stay in play for the whole feature, so the strip you chose governs every spin including retriggers. Your one decision at the start shapes everything that follows.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.7/10
Emperor Caishen is a steady drip rather than a rush, and the reason to choose it is that jackpot ladder: every wild carries a shot at a 1,000x GRAND, which gives even the quietest base-game spin something riding on it. Caishen grins through all of it, arms wide, handing out coins a few at a time.
The free spins choice is the best thing here. Five strip options is real agency over how the round plays, and the unlimited retrigger can build something substantial out of six spins. The weakness is the paytable itself: line wins are thin enough that the base game rarely delivers a memorable hit of its own, and 2,500x is a modest ceiling for anyone chasing a genuinely big result.
This one suits players who like frequent small hits, a jackpot to hope for and a bonus round they can actually steer. It isn’t built for the volatility chaser after a life-changing multiple. For everyone else, Caishen’s gold arrives the way he hands it out: coin by coin, often enough to keep the pot interesting.
Emperor Caishen FAQs
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How do you trigger the Jackpot Bonus Game in Emperor Caishen?
The Jackpot Bonus Game is triggered at random whenever a wild symbol appears on the reels during the base game. Wilds land on reels two, three and four, and each one carries a chance of launching the pick-to-match jackpot round. -
What are the jackpot values in Emperor Caishen?
Four fixed jackpots are available: GRAND pays 1,000x the total bet, MAJOR pays 100x, MINOR pays 20x and MINI pays 10x. In the bonus game you pick symbols and match three of a kind to win the corresponding jackpot. -
How do you trigger free spins in Emperor Caishen?
Three or more scatter symbols from left to right on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost reel, trigger the Free Spins Feature and award six free spins. -
What are the five free spins options in Emperor Caishen?
Before the free spins round starts, you pick one of five reel-strip options containing 88, 98, 108, 118 or 128 of the top symbol, with royals, wilds and scatters only. Higher numbers mean more of the best-paying symbol on the special reels. -
Can free spins retrigger in Emperor Caishen?
Yes. Three or more scatters from left to right on adjacent reels during the feature award six more free spins, with no limit on the number of retriggers. -
What is the RTP of Emperor Caishen?
The RTP is 96.49% at its maximum, with a lower setting of 96.45%. -
What is the maximum win on Emperor Caishen?
The maximum win is 2,500x the bet, capped in both the base game and the free spins. If a free spins round reaches the cap, the round ends immediately, the win is paid and any remaining free spins are forfeited. -
Who makes Emperor Caishen and how many ways does it have?
Emperor Caishen is made by Pragmatic Play and runs on a 5×3 grid with 243 ways to win.
