Into The Storm Slot Review
A Viking longship rides calm water, red-and-white sail stretched overhead, dragon prow curling at the bow, shields lined along the rail. For a game that spends this much on painted Norse detail, the base game pays like it’s still saving up: this is a slot that keeps almost all of its money in the feature, and the long sail in between is the price of admission.
This is Light & Wonder doing Norse adventure on a 5×3 grid with line pays, high volatility and a 96.00% RTP. Fans of the studio’s bigger catalogue will know the territory from 300 Shields Mighty Ways and Raging Rhino Megaways. The Kraken is down there somewhere, and the reels are how you wake it.
Into The Storm Base Game and Paytable
Wins are line pays, plain and simple. Symbols must land on consecutive reels from the far-left reel on a played line, only the highest winner pays per combination, and wins on multiple lines add together. The paytable reflects the current bet configuration, and all awards are shown per symbol per winning line.
The paying symbols split between four character-and-armour icons and five runes, with the bearded sword-wielding warrior leading the ladder. Every value below is a multiple of the total bet, not the line bet, so the figures apply no matter how the stake is set:
- Bearded Warrior (sword): 2x for three, 5x for four, 20x for five
- Blonde Woman (purple): 2x for three, 4x for four, 10x for five
- Viking Man (brown): 1x for three, 3x for four, 6x for five
- Horned Helmet (blue): 1x for three, 2x for four, 4x for five
- Rune M (red) / Rune F (purple): 0.5x for three, 1x for four, 2x for five
- Rune R (green) / Rune J (yellow) / Rune N (blue): 0.25x for three, 0.5x for four, 1x for five
It’s a ladder that keeps its head down. Twenty times the bet for a full line of the top symbol won’t rearrange anyone’s session. The drop from the characters to the runes is steep too, with the lowest rung paying a quarter of the stake for three.
The real money in this game sits in the features rather than the base symbols. That’s a familiar shape for a high volatility line-payer, and Into The Storm doesn’t fight it.
The WILD symbol substitutes for all other symbols except the KRAKEN BONUS symbols. A single wild can stand in for multiple symbols at once, paying out for every win it’s involved in, which makes one well-placed wild worth more than it first looks.
The Kraken Bonus Symbols
The red octopus icon marks the KRAKEN BONUS symbol, and it’s the one symbol the wild refuses to touch. Whatever a Kraken Bonus symbol does for itself, the wild cannot stand in for it, which makes these icons matter independently of the substitution game happening around them.
Beyond that exclusion, the game keeps its cards close. What the Kraken Bonus symbols trigger and what they award isn’t spelled out, so the sensible read is simple: watch for the octopus, because the storm this game is named for is hiding somewhere behind it.
The bonus symbols share the reels with everything else, and they can sit alongside wilds on the same spin without either interfering with the other. The two symbol families do different jobs, and the game’s structure treats them that way.
The RESPIN Feature and Multipliers
The RESPIN Feature is the game’s second stage, and the wild’s second home. Wilds arrive here stacked, filling reel rows, and each one can complete several winning lines at once because it substitutes for multiple symbols and pays for every win it’s part of.
Stacked wilds on their own are good value. Add the multiplier and they get better: a multiplier is added for the duration of the feature, so every win a stacked wild completes during the RESPIN Feature is boosted rather than paid flat.
Put plainly, the feature works in three steps:
- Wilds stack onto the reels, covering full rows during the RESPIN Feature.
- A multiplier is added and holds for the duration of the feature.
- Every win the stacked wilds complete while the multiplier is live pays boosted rather than flat.
That combination is the engine of the game’s bigger moments. A reel full of wilds under an active multiplier is where a modest line-pay ladder suddenly has room to pay something worth the wait.
Wilds don’t appear anywhere else. They’re confined to the base game and the RESPIN Feature, which keeps the multiplier boost tied to the one place the stacked versions show up.
BUY PASS
Players who’d rather skip the waiting can use the BUY PASS feature, which jumps straight into the action from the base game. It’s a single button, sitting alongside the spin controls, and it trades the base game grind for immediate entry to the feature.
The maths matters before you press it. Two figures count:
- Standard game expected return: 96.00%
- BUY PASS expected return: between 95.73% and 95.88%
So the convenience costs a fraction of a percent rather than a chunk of it, and both figures reflect theoretical return across many plays rather than any single session. Each game’s outcome is completely independent, and the chances of a particular result are the same at the start of every spin.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7/10
Most of a session here is steady rowing: small line pays, a handsome longship, and the sense that nothing dramatic is going to happen until the octopus icons turn up. You come for that one moment when the reels stack with wilds and the multiplier switches on, and when it lands, it pays for the patience.
The multiplier lasting the full length of the feature is the best decision in the build – a good stack keeps earning rather than firing once and dying. The weakness is the base ladder: 20x for the top symbol means the quiet stretches pay almost nothing, and the Kraken Bonus symbols promise a storm the game never fully describes.
It suits players who like a traditional 5×3 line-payer and don’t mind rowing between features. Anyone who wants frequent action should sail past. For the patient, though, there’s a genuinely rewarding feature under that calm surface.
Into The Storm FAQs
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What is the RTP of Into The Storm?
96.00%. The optional BUY PASS runs at between 95.73% and 95.88%, slightly below the standard game. -
Is Into The Storm high volatility?
Yes, Into The Storm is a high volatility slot, so wins tend to be less frequent but with more potential in the features. -
What is the grid size of Into The Storm?
Into The Storm runs on a 5×3 grid with line pays, where winning symbols must land on consecutive reels from the far-left reel. -
Can you buy the bonus on Into The Storm?
Yes. A BUY PASS button sits alongside the spin controls and jumps straight into the feature, with an expected return of between 95.73% and 95.88%. -
What does the wild symbol do in Into The Storm?
The wild substitutes for all other symbols except the KRAKEN BONUS symbols, and it can stand in for multiple symbols at once, paying out for each win it’s involved in. -
Where do wilds appear in Into The Storm?
Wilds only appear in the base game and the RESPIN Feature, and during the RESPIN Feature they arrive stacked on the reels. -
How does the multiplier work in Into The Storm?
A multiplier is added for the duration of the feature, boosting every win that lands while it’s active rather than paying a single boosted prize. -
Can the wild substitute for the Kraken Bonus symbol?
No. The wild substitutes for all other symbols except the KRAKEN BONUS symbols, so the octopus icons count for their own purposes only. -
When is Into The Storm released?
Into The Storm’s release date is 12 April 2022. -
Who makes Into The Storm?
Into The Storm is made by Light & Wonder, the studio behind titles such as 300 Shields Mighty Ways and Raging Rhino Megaways.
