Excalibur Slot Review
Excalibur is a rare slot where the best thing that can happen sits in the base game, not the bonus round. A golden wild completing a line pays quadruple on any spin, no trigger required, which means every single turn carries the game’s biggest multiplier. That’s an odd way to build a slot, and it’s what makes this candlelit Camelot, all gilded candelabras and Celtic knotwork, worth a second look.
NetEnt built this one in the era that made the studio’s name, alongside Starburst, Gonzo’s Quest and Dead or Alive. The setup is a 5×3 grid with 20 fixed bet lines, an RTP of 95.08%, stakes from 0.2 to 80 per spin and a top prize of 1,800x the bet. Two wilds and one free spins round carry the whole feature list.
The sword in the stone was never meant to be complicated, and neither is this.
The Symbols of Camelot
Wins pay left to right across the 20 fixed lines, starting from the leftmost reel, and only the highest win per line counts. All symbol values are in coins.
- Sword Wild: 2, 3, 4 or 5 pays 10, 250, 2,500 or 10,000 coins
- King: 2, 3, 4 or 5 pays 3, 25, 100 or 750 coins
- Wizard (Merlin): 3, 4 or 5 pays 25, 100 or 500 coins
- Knight and lady: 3, 4 or 5 pays 15, 100 or 500 coins
- Ghost knight or sorceress: 3, 4 or 5 pays 10, 75 or 250 coins
- Dark knight: 3, 4 or 5 pays 10, 50 or 200 coins
- Ace: 3, 4 or 5 pays 5, 50 or 150 coins
- King, Queen or Jack: 3, 4 or 5 pays 5, 25 or 125 coins
- Ten: 2, 3, 4 or 5 pays 2, 5, 25 or 100 coins
- Scatter chalice: 2, 3, 4 or 5 pays 2, 5, 25 or 500 times the total bet
The top of the card is character-heavy: a crowned king in red, Merlin in purple, and a knight-and-lady pair, with an ice knight, a sorceress and a dark knight filling the middle tiers. The royals run Ace down to Ten, and they pay the least. Only two symbols break the pattern of paying from three of a kind: the King and the Ten both start at a pair, which softens the low end of the paytable a little.
There’s a clear gap between the character symbols and the royals. A five-of-a-kind king line is worth seven and a half times a five-Ace line, and the jump from the dark knight down to the Ace is where the paytable narrows. The middle tiers cluster together tightly, so most line wins land in a fairly narrow band.
The sword wild steps in for every symbol except the scatter and the golden wild, and it doubles the value of any line win it helps complete. At five of a kind it’s the richest symbol on the reels. One condition applies to the doubling: a line made up entirely of wilds doesn’t get it, so the multiplier only applies when the wild is filling gaps in a bigger combination.
The golden wild does the same substituting job but multiplies the win by four instead, which makes it the symbol worth watching for on every spin. The two wilds don’t combine with each other, so a line never gets doubled and quadrupled at once. The quadruple applies to every symbol except the wild itself, so the golden wild boosts character lines and royal lines alike.
The chalice scatter pays as a multiple of the total bet rather than the line bet, so it counts anywhere on the reels and doesn’t need to sit on a payline. Landing scatters also opens the free spins round, which is where the game keeps its one real trick.
Bets, Levels and Coin Values
Betting works on the old two-dial system. A level selector moves the bet through levels 1 to 4, and a separate coin value selector sets what each coin is worth, so the same headline stake can be built several ways. The balance display shows the coins available to wager rather than a currency amount, which fits a game that thinks of everything in coins.
All 20 lines are fixed, so there’s no choosing fewer lines to cut the stake: every spin covers the full board. Stakes run from 0.2 to 80 per spin, and the max bet shortcut plays all lines at the highest level using the coin value already selected.
The RTP sits at 95.08% with a hit frequency of 35%, which means roughly one spin in three returns something. That’s a steady drip rather than a drought-and-flood rhythm, and it fits the game’s unhurried pace. A 35% hit rate on a fixed 20-line board means most of those returns are small line wins rather than feature triggers, since the scatter needs three copies to do anything at all.
The Free Spins Round
The round starts when 3 or more chalice scatters land anywhere across the five reels. The award steps up with the count:
- 3 scatters award 10 free spins
- 5 scatters award 30 free spins
Every win during the round is paid at three times its normal value, so line hits that feel routine in the base game suddenly carry real weight. A golden wild completing a line in here is the best result the game can produce: a four-times multiplier stacked on top of a three-times round.
The scatters themselves pay before the round begins, at 2, 5, 25 or 500 times the total bet depending on how many landed. That payment stands whether the free spins that follow deliver or not. A five-scatter trigger is the one worth chasing, since it combines the biggest scatter payment with the full 30 spins.
There’s no retrigger. Additional free spins are excluded while the round is running, so the spin count you start with is the spin count you play. It’s a single burst, not a chain, and the round’s ceiling is fixed from the moment the scatters land.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 6.9/10
Playing Excalibur is a steady, unhurried thing: something lands roughly every third spin, the wins are small, and the reels keep ticking like a castle hearth. The reason to choose it is the golden wild. That quadruple multiplier can arrive on any spin, and it turns an ordinary royal line into something worth the wait.
That’s the strength, too: the game’s best moment isn’t locked behind a trigger, so no spin is dead. The weakness is the free spins round. Triple pay on a single, unretriggerable burst is a modest climax for a game this patient, and 1,800x is a ceiling that belongs to a gentler decade.
This one’s for players who like their slots simple, steady and steeped in NetEnt history, the sort who’d rather grind the base game than chase a bonus ladder. Anyone who wants features stacked on features will find it thin. But as a candlelit evening of small wins and the occasional golden surprise, the old sword still draws nicely.
Excalibur FAQs
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What is the RTP of Excalibur?
95.08%. That’s the total expected return, and it sits a shade under the level most modern slots aim for. -
How often does Excalibur pay out?
The hit frequency is 35%, so roughly one spin in three returns a win of some size. Most of those are small line wins rather than feature triggers. -
Can the free spins round retrigger?
No. The round runs for the spins it opens with and nothing can add more, so a 10-spin trigger is exactly 10 spins. -
How does the free spins round work?
Scatters anywhere on the reels start it, awarding 10 spins for 3 scatters up to 30 for 5. Every win inside the round is tripled. -
What is the difference between the wild and the Golden Wild?
Both stand in for other symbols, but a line completed by the sword wild pays double while one completed by the golden wild pays quadruple. Neither substitutes for the scatter, and they can’t stand in for each other. -
Does a wild line always get its multiplier?
Almost. The sword wild doubles any win it helps complete, but a line made up only of wild symbols doesn’t get the doubling. The golden wild’s quadruple applies to every symbol except the wild itself. -
What is the maximum win on Excalibur?
1,800x the bet. In coin terms the game’s ceiling is 138,808 coins. -
What are the betting limits on Excalibur?
Stakes run from 0.2 to 80 per spin. All 20 lines are fixed, and the bet is built from a level of 1 to 4 combined with your chosen coin value. -
How many paylines does Excalibur have?
20, all fixed. Every spin covers all of them, with wins paying left to right from the leftmost reel.
