Golden Quest

Golden Quest Slot Review

Torchlight flickers over carved stone. Glyph-covered walls run deep into ochre shadow beneath a Mesoamerican ruin, pillars frame the reels in amber, and a gold plaque set into the rock overhead waits for somebody to earn it. Golden Quest is built almost entirely around one moment: a single trigger and one honest choice, with no wild and no second mechanic to fill the space between them.

That choice belongs to the Bonusspins round, where the trigger decides how many spins to take and at what multiplier. Amatic have built the game on a 5×3 grid with 10 paylines, paying leftmost to right on adjacent reels, and the atmospheric dressing is something the studio’s fruit-and-joker catalogue, from Book of Montezuma to Book of Aztec Dice, rarely attempts.

Reels, Lines and the Paytable

Ten lines cross the five reels, and only the highest win on each line is paid. Line wins are a multiple of the line bet, and wins from different lines are added together. Line wins pay leftmost to right on adjacent reels, so a paying combination has to start on the first reel and run without a gap.

There’s no wild symbol in this game. Every symbol on the reels pays in its own right, and nothing steps in to finish a combination for you. That’s rare in a ten-line title, and it puts the scatter under more pressure than usual.

The split between line bet and total bet matters before the paytable makes sense. A line win is priced against the single line it sits on, while the scatter is priced against everything staked on the spin. With ten lines in play, the two figures aren’t in the same currency until you convert them.

The Line Symbols

The woman in the hat is the character symbol and the richest payer on the lines, worth a five-of-a-kind of 10,000 times the line bet. Below her sit the feathered figures, then a short ladder of letter royals:

• Woman in hat: 100 for three, 1,000 for four, 10,000 for five
• Blue feathered bird and green feathered serpent: 40, 200, 400
• A (red): 20, 50, 200
• K (green) and Q (gold): 10, 40, 150
• J (blue): 5 for two, 10, 25, 100

Two things stand out in that ladder. The woman is a long way clear of everything beneath her, four times richer than the feathered figures at her best, so she’s the symbol every spin is quietly hoping for. And the J is the only symbol that pays for a pair, which softens the bottom of the table.

The Scatter

The Mayan mask medallion is the scatter, and it’s the only symbol that doesn’t care where it lands. Three, four or five of them anywhere on the reels both pay and trigger the bonus round. Scatter wins are a multiple of the total bet rather than the line bet, and they’re added on top of any line wins from the same spin, so a triggering spin already carries its own reward before the bonus even begins.

• 3 scatters: 20x the total bet
• 4 scatters: 200x the total bet
• 5 scatters: 5,000x the total bet

Convert the two currencies and the scatter is the richest prize in the game. Five masks pay 5,000x the total bet, which towers over the woman’s 10,000x line bet once that line figure is divided across the ten lines it sits against.

Five scatters is also the game’s ceiling. Nothing on the reels or in the bonus round outpays it, and the game makes no promise of anything bigger hiding behind it.

Bonusspins

Three, four or five scatters award the Bonusspins round, and before a single bonus spin plays, there’s a choice to make. Whoever triggered it picks the number of spins together with the multiplier that will be applied to every win in the round, and the two move against each other: more spins means a smaller multiplier, fewer spins means a bigger one.

• 5 spins with a 9x multiplier
• 10 spins with a 5x multiplier
• 15 spins with a 3x multiplier

The round then plays out in order. The chosen multiplier sits over every win the bonus reels produce, spins tick down one at a time, and any retrigger adds to the count rather than restarting it. When the last spin is spent, the round closes and the collected total is paid.

Every bonus win is multiplied by the chosen multiplier, so the pick decides the shape of the whole round. Five spins at 9x is the sharp route: fewer chances, but each one lands nine times harder, and a single decent combination through that multiplier pays like nine of them in the base game.

Fifteen spins at 3x spreads the same appetite across a longer round, giving the reels more attempts to build something while keeping the boost modest. Ten at 5x splits the difference. The short pick is a bet on one combination arriving; the long pick is a bet on the reels producing steadily.

What tilts the arithmetic slightly is the retrigger rule: the round runs until no Bonusspins are left, and additional spins can be won during the bonus itself. A round that starts with five spins can keep extending itself for as long as the scatters keep coming, which gives the shortest, sharpest option a hidden length the initial pick doesn’t show.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7.1/10

Golden Quest is ten straight lines and a lot of waiting, and the carved stone and torchlight give that patience somewhere attractive to happen. The one reason to pick it is the Bonusspins pick itself, because choosing between five spins at 9x and fifteen at 3x is a genuine decision, and a retriggering round can grow well past its opening size.

That choice is the strength. Most ten-line games hand you a trigger and leave it there; this one asks how you’d like to win. The weakness is the emptiness around it: no wild, one feature, and a scatter carrying every special duty on the reels, capped at 5,000x the total bet with nothing behind it.

It’s a good match for anyone after a well-made classic with one real decision in it, and the wrong one for anyone chasing layered mechanics, because the reels will run out of things to show them. There’s no maze behind the ruin’s doors. The single chamber it has, though, is built with real care.

Golden Quest FAQs

• How do you trigger the Bonusspins round in Golden Quest?

  Three, four or five scatter symbols (the Mayan mask medallion) landing anywhere on the reels award the Bonusspins round.
• What spin and multiplier options does the Bonusspins round offer?

  You choose between 5 spins with a 9x multiplier, 10 spins with a 5x multiplier, or 15 spins with a 3x multiplier. All bonus winnings are multiplied by the multiplier you pick.
• Can Bonusspins be retriggered during the bonus round?

  Yes. Additional Bonusspins can be won during the bonus round, and play continues until no Bonusspins are left.
• What does the scatter symbol pay in Golden Quest?

  The Mayan mask medallion scatter pays 20x the total bet for three, 200x for four and 5,000x for five, from any position on the reels. Scatter wins are added to any line wins from the same spin.
• Does Golden Quest have a wild symbol?

  No. Golden Quest has no wild symbol; every symbol pays in its own right and the scatter is the only special symbol on the reels.
• How are line wins calculated in Golden Quest?

  Line wins pay leftmost to right on adjacent reels and are a multiple of the line bet. Only the highest line win is paid on each line played, and wins from different lines are added together.
• How many paylines does Golden Quest have?

  Golden Quest has 10 paylines on a 5×3 grid, with five reels and three rows.
• When is Golden Quest released?

  Golden Quest’s release date is 30 January 2020.
• Who makes Golden Quest?

  Golden Quest is made by Amatic.