John Hunter and the secrets of Da Vinci’s Treasure Slot Review
A yellowed map fills the screen, its coastlines and place-names half-lost to shadow at the edges, brass instruments crowding the corners of a carved timber frame. John Hunter and the secrets of Da Vinci’s Treasure, from Pragmatic Play, hides its best ideas where the map is darkest: the most interesting thing about this game is the one thing you never get to choose, and that’s which of its three bonus rounds each trigger hands you. It’s a bold way to build a slot, and it works more often than it frustrates.
Underneath the decoration it’s a straightforward high-volatility game: a 5×3 grid, 25 paylines, 96.53% RTP and wins up to 48,000x the bet, with stakes from 0.25 to 100 per spin. Three different bonus games sit behind a single trigger. The explorer’s earlier outings, like John Hunter and the Book of Tut Megaways and John Hunter & the Tomb of the Scarab Queen, built his name on the same arithmetic.
Base Game & Features
All symbols pay from left to right across the 25 selected paylines, and only the highest win counts on each line. Wins on multiple lines are added together, and every win is multiplied by the bet per line. It’s a classic fixed-line setup with nothing unconventional about it.
The paytable rewards patience more than frequency. Symbol values are multiples of the total bet:
- John Hunter – 2x for three, 8x for four, 32x for five
- Shield/Drum artifact – 1.2x, 6x, 20x
- Compass/Amulet – 1.2x, 6x, 20x
- Ornithopter – 0.8x, 4x, 12x
- Crossbow – 0.8x, 4x, 12x
- A, K, Q – 0.2x, 0.6x, 6x
- J, 10, 9 – 0.2x, 0.4x, 4x
The premium symbols keep faith with the theme. Alongside the explorer himself there’s a shield and drum artifact, a compass and amulet, Da Vinci’s ornithopter sketched into a flying machine, and a crossbow. The royals – A, K, Q, J, 10 and 9 – fill out the lower end, paying the smallest sums on the table.
The wild substitutes for every symbol except the BONUS symbol and appears only on reels two, three, four and five. It can’t complete a bonus trigger, so it’s purely a payline helper.
The BONUS Symbol
The BONUS symbol lands only on reels two, three and four. Hit all three at once and the game opens one of three bonus rounds at random: Map Quest, Progressive Multiplier Free Spins, or Prize Picker. Which one you get isn’t up to you.
That single trigger is the whole architecture of the game. Base play exists to land those three symbols, and everything else – the paytable, the wilds, the royal symbols – is the slow road towards them. The bet menu works in coins per line and coin value, so there’s plenty of room to set a stake precisely.
Sessions can be run hands-off if you prefer. Autoplay takes a chosen number of automatic spins with a counter tracking what’s left, and a skip option auto-dismisses feature introduction and end screens after a short pause. Spin speed cycles between normal, quick and turbo, and the space bar starts and stops a spin on desktop.
Da Vinci’s Treasure Bonus Games & Free Spins
Map Quest
Map Quest is a board-game round spread across 23 points, each carrying a money award. You start at the first point and spin a wheel of fortune to advance. The wheel has six slices: one, two, three, four or five steps, and a GAME OVER slice.
Land a number and you move that many points along the map, then spin again. Land GAME OVER and the round ends immediately. Reach point 23 and the round also ends, with the prize attached to the last point you reached paid out. It’s a push-your-luck structure where every extra spin can either build the award or wipe the round out, and the further along the map you travel, the more each GAME OVER slice costs you.
Progressive Multiplier Free Spins
This round awards 12 free spins with a multiplier that starts at 1x and increases by 1x after every free spin. Each spin’s win is multiplied by the current value, so the later spins carry the most weight – spin 12 pays at 12x, before any retrigger.
Retriggers are generous. Three BONUS symbols on reels two, three and four during the round award 12 additional free spins, and the feature can keep retriggering up to a ceiling of 60 free spins. A fully extended round leaves the multiplier climbing deep into double digits, which is where the game’s biggest wins become possible. Free spins wins are paid after the round completes, and bonus wins are added to any payline win from the triggering spin.
Prize Picker
The simplest of the three. Works of art line the screen and you pick one of three items to reveal a cash award. One choice, one reveal, and the round is over. There’s no skill to it and no second pick – the entire round rests on a single decision.
The three rounds aren’t equal in scope. Prize Picker resolves in seconds, Map Quest strings together as many wheel spins as the GAME OVER slice allows, and free spins runs to at least 12 spins with room to grow past that. What any single trigger is worth depends entirely on which of the three the random selection hands you.
Gamble Feature
After any feature win is collected, the total can be gambled instead of banked. You choose a target multiplier, then pick one object from the matching set:
- 2x gamble – pick 1 of 2 objects; one pays 2x the gambled amount, one loses
- 3x gamble – pick 1 of 3 objects; one pays 3x, two lose
- 4x gamble – pick 1 of 4 objects; one pays 4x, three lose
- 5x gamble – pick 1 of 5 objects; one pays 5x, four lose
Exactly one object wins, and it multiplies the gambled amount by the chosen factor. Every miss costs the full stake. The bigger the multiplier you chase, the worse your odds: the 2x gamble is a coin flip, while the 5x gamble gives you one winning pick out of five.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.2/10
This is a slow burn with a handsome face. Most spins pay gently or not at all, the reels ticking over the antique map until the middle reels finally line up three BONUS symbols – and that unpredictability is exactly why you’d pick it, because the moment the trigger lands you genuinely don’t know which game you’re about to play.
The strength is the free spins round, and it’s not close. A multiplier that grows every spin and retriggers up to 60 of them is the only place here where a win can snowball rather than arrive finished. Map Quest is charming, but it’s a wheel deciding your fate rather than a reel paying you.
The weakness is the random selection itself. Two triggers in you might have seen only the eight-second Prize Picker while the round you actually wanted stays sealed. It suits players who like a long build and don’t mind the game keeping some secrets; anyone who wants the free spins round on demand should look at the explorer’s Egyptian outings instead. For the patient, the map still rewards a steady hand.
John Hunter and the secrets of Da Vinci’s Treasure FAQs
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What is the RTP of John Hunter and the secrets of Da Vinci’s Treasure?
The RTP is 96.53%, which sits just above the typical market average. -
Is John Hunter and the secrets of Da Vinci’s Treasure high volatility?
Yes, it’s a high volatility game. Wins come less often on average, but the chance of a big win in a short session is higher. -
What is the maximum win on John Hunter and the secrets of Da Vinci’s Treasure?
The maximum win is 48,000x your bet. -
How do you trigger the bonus games?
Landing 3 BONUS symbols together on the middle reels opens one of the game’s three bonus rounds, and which one you receive is decided at random. There is no way to choose or influence the selection. -
Can free spins be retriggered in Da Vinci’s Treasure?
Yes. Landing 3 BONUS symbols during the free spins round awards 12 additional spins, and the round can retrigger up to a total of 60 free spins. -
What is the Map Quest bonus game?
Map Quest is a board-style round with 23 points, each worth a money award. You spin a wheel of fortune to advance between one and five steps at a time, and the round ends if you hit GAME OVER or reach point 23, paying the prize of the last point reached. -
How does the Prize Picker bonus work?
Prize Picker presents three items and you pick one to reveal its cash award. There’s no second pick and no way to influence the outcome – the round is a single choice, then it’s over. -
How does the gamble feature work?
After any feature win, you can gamble the total at 2x, 3x, 4x or 5x. You pick one object from two, three, four or five respectively, and only one object wins. All the others lose the gambled amount in full. -
What are the minimum and maximum bets?
Stakes run from 0.25 to 100.00 per spin.
