Guardian Of Ra Slot Review
A temple courtyard, sandstone columns carved with hieroglyphs, blue lotus blossoms drifting on a dark reflecting pool: Guardian Of Ra does ancient Egypt properly. Red Rake Gaming have painted every corner of it. But the scenery isn’t why you’d stay. You’d stay because the coins don’t just pay here, they stick: symbols lock to the reels and build towards a collection round that carries the whole game.
It plays on a 5×4 grid with mid to high volatility and an RTP of 95.3%. Red Rake have mined this corner of the catalogue before, and Guardian Of Ra sits alongside Ramses Legacy and Pots of Tut Rake It In, with Guardians Of Luxor 2 in the same family. The question is whether the locked-coin formula does enough to stand out in such crowded company.
Base Game, Wilds and Locked Gold Symbols
All wins pay left to right on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost, and all wins occur on selected lines. If a line pays more than one win, only the highest counts. It’s a conventional setup, and the 5×4 grid gives it room to breathe.
The Wild substitutes for every symbol except the Beetle, the coins and the wheels, and it carries its own pay values on top of that substitution role. Everything else on the grid is a straightforward payer.
The Paytable
Symbol pays are multiples of the total bet, from three matches up to six. The values, in descending order:
- Amulet/Beetle: 2x, 10x, 50x
- Wild and Woman (Cleopatra): 0.2x, 1x, 3.5x
- Lotus: 0.1x, 0.4x, 1.5x
- Lion, Cat: 0.1x, 0.4x, 1.2x
- A, K: 0.0667x, 0.2x, 0.8x
- Q, J: 0.0667x, 0.2x, 0.5x
- 10, 9: 0.0333x, 0.2x, 0.4x
There’s a steep drop from the top of that ladder to the bottom, and the royals account for most of the gap. A six-of-a-kind royal win barely registers against the total bet, which tells you where the meaningful money in this game lives: the feature symbols.
That gap is the base game’s real shape. Nothing below the premium tier clears much of a return at the top of its range, so the biggest line wins depend on the Beetle, Cleopatra and the Wild arriving together. The rest of the time, the reels are marking time between coin symbols.
Locked Gold Coins and Locked Gold Wheel
Two symbols behave differently from everything else on the grid. The Locked Gold Coin and Locked Gold Wheel remain fixed on the reels for three respins whenever they land.
They don’t block paylines, which is the detail that matters. Symbols falling behind the locked symbols are still shown as they land and evaluated for wins in that spin, so the locks add persistence without costing ordinary payouts. A locked symbol sitting on the reels is a reminder that the coin collection is building, not an obstacle in the way of it.
Locked Spins
This is the feature the whole game is built around. There are four types of coins in total, split into two varieties:
- Two scatter win coins, which carry their own win values
- Two wheel coins, which feed the Locked Spins wheel
Landing six coin symbols of any mix – all one type, or any combination of the four – takes you into the Locked Spins feature. From there, the round runs on a simple set of rules:
- Three respins are granted to start
- Every additional coin symbol that lands resets the respin counter back to three
- The feature ends when the respins run out or all 15 positions on the reels are filled with coins
- Filling every position awards the GRAND prize
Because the counter resets on every new coin, a productive round can run for a long time. Each coin that arrives buys three more chances to arrive at another one, and the tension builds position by position as the grid fills towards the 15 needed for the GRAND.
Coin values sit inside the symbols themselves, shown in fire-bordered frames as the round progresses, and the scatter win coins contribute those values to the final total when the feature closes. The counter tracks only respins remaining, not coins collected, so the state of the grid is the real scoreboard: every filled position is one step closer to the ladder’s top rung, and every empty one is three spins of runway for another coin to land in it.
The Jackpot Ladder
A four-tier prize ladder sits in the side panels during play, with the GRAND at the top. The tiers, as multiples of the bet:
- GRAND: 200x
- Major: 40x
- Minor: 20x
- Mini: 5x
The Locked Spins Wheel
Wheel coins collected during Locked Spins aren’t just decoration. Each one awards a spin on the Locked Spins wheel, taken when the feature ends and before wins are calculated.
Once every wheel spin has been used, each win earned is displayed on its corresponding wheel coin and the totals are added together. The order matters: coins first, wheels second, then the sum. The wheel layer sits on top of the coin collection rather than replacing it, which is what gives the round its second bite.
Wilds still appear while all this is happening, occasionally stacked on a single reel, and they keep substituting for the standard symbols throughout. The coins and wheels, as ever, stand apart from what the wild can replace.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 6.8/10
Guardian Of Ra is mostly a matter of waiting in a very beautiful room. The base game is plain, the royals pay almost nothing, and everything between Locked Spins triggers is scenery – gorgeous scenery, but scenery. What makes it worth the wait is that the coins genuinely stick around, and the game builds towards a collection round that can extend itself for as long as new coins keep landing.
That round is the game’s strength. The reset-on-every-coin structure means a good round keeps renewing its own momentum, and the wheel layered on top gives the finale a second way to pay. The weakness is the top of the prize ladder: the GRAND, the top tier of the game’s jackpot ladder, sits at 200x the bet at the observed stake, which is modest for a collection game.
It suits players who enjoy the slow build of collect-and-hold slots and value a theme done with real craft over a giant top prize. Anyone hunting four-figure ceilings will want to look past the pillars. For everyone else, this is one of the finer temples on the block – the treasures inside are just measured rather than extravagant.
Guardian Of Ra FAQs
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How do you trigger the Locked Spins feature in Guardian Of Ra?
Landing six coin symbols of any type – a mix of the scatter win coins and wheel coins counts – takes you into the Locked Spins feature. -
What happens if you fill all 15 positions with coins in Guardian Of Ra?
If all 15 positions on the reels are filled with coin symbols during Locked Spins, you are awarded the GRAND prize, the top tier of the game’s jackpot ladder. -
What does the Locked Spins wheel do?
Wheel symbols collected during the Locked Spins feature each award a spin on the Locked Spins wheel. These spins play out when the feature ends, before wins are calculated, and any winnings are added to the coin totals. -
Can Locked Spins be retriggered?
Yes. Every additional coin symbol that lands during the feature resets the respin counter back to three, so the round continues for as long as new coins keep arriving. -
Do the Locked Gold symbols block paylines in Guardian Of Ra?
No. The Locked Gold Coin and Locked Gold Wheel symbols stay fixed on the reels for three respins, but symbols falling behind them are still shown and evaluated for wins in that spin. -
What is the RTP of Guardian Of Ra?
The RTP is 95.3%. -
Is Guardian Of Ra high volatility?
It’s a mid to high volatility game, so wins can be spaced out with larger payouts available through the Locked Spins feature and the jackpot ladder. -
What is the grid size of Guardian Of Ra?
Guardian Of Ra plays on a 5×4 grid, giving 15 positions in total during the Locked Spins feature.
