Lady Merlin Lightning Chase Slot Review
Stone gargoyles crouch on a ruined gothic arch deep in a fogbound green wood, one spreading a tattered bat wing over the frame, teal light glinting off fluted columns and spiked tracery. Behind the stonework there’s only swamp-coloured haze, nothing solid. At the centre of it stands a sorceress conducting experiments in alchemy, and the game built around her keeps its best material behind a paywall: the headline round costs extra to unlock, and without paying it you’re playing a smaller game.
From ReelPlay, it runs 432 ways across five reels in a 3-4-3-4-3 arrangement, at medium-high volatility, with a ceiling of 40,960x the bet. RTP is 95.9% with the optional ante active, or 95.7% without it. ReelPlay’s shelf runs from Hyper Respins to Odin Lightning Blitz, and this sits on the stormier end of it.
Base Game & Features
Wins pay left to right from the leftmost reel, scatters pay anywhere, and coinciding wins add together. Only the highest combination pays for any given win, and each symbol can be used once per combination. Standard ways rules, on a grid that widens to four rows on reels two and four.
Stakes run from 0.25 to 5 per spin, and the regular game plays all 432 ways for a 25-credit cost. Wins land on roughly a third of spins, with the hit frequency sitting at 32.44%, so the base game ticks over steadily rather than going quiet for long stretches.
Symbols and Pays
The paytable splits into five premium symbols and four low symbols. Values for three, four and five of a kind, as multiples of the bet:
- Top premium symbol: 250x for five, 90x for four, 30x for three
- Second premium: 125x for five, 50x for four, 20x for three
- Third premium: 100x for five, 40x for four, 15x for three
- Fourth premium: 100x for five, 40x for four, 15x for three
- Fifth premium: 90x for five, 25x for four, 10x for three
- Low symbols: up to 60x for five, 20x for four, 10x for three
- Lowest tier: 30x for five, 15x for four, 10x for three
Lady Merlin herself is the wild, landing on reels two and four only. She substitutes for everything except the COLLECT symbol, and every wild in a win doubles the prize, since the base-game wild multiplier is 2. The COLLECT symbol appears on reel three only, and its job is banking coils rather than forming wins.
Lightning Coils
The LIGHTNING COIL symbols carry cash prizes of their own, from small change up to a 100x top tier. The full ladder of possible values:
- 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 7x, 8x, 9x, 10x, 20x, 25x or 100x the total bet
Six or more of them on a single spin is what sets the respin engine running, so coils are the symbols to watch on every base-game spin. A board full of low-value coils isn’t a disappointment either. Every new coil that lands during the feature resets the counter and keeps the round alive.
Lady Merlin Lightning Chase Bonus Features
Hold & Respin Feature
Land six or more LIGHTNING COIL symbols and you win three free respins. All coils lock in place while the remaining positions spin again. The respin counter resets to three whenever another coil, wild or COLLECT lands, so a single round can run for a long time if the coils keep coming.
During the feature, wilds and COLLECT symbols can appear on all five reels rather than their usual restricted positions. Any wild that forms part of a respin win multiplies the prize by its wild multiplier. If a COLLECT lands, all coil prizes on the screen are paid out immediately.
Collect Feature
The COLLECT symbol does exactly what its name suggests. When one appears, every LIGHTNING COIL prize on the screen is awarded at once, and those prizes aren’t held for any Hold & Respin triggered on the same spin. It’s the instant-cash option.
One wrinkle worth knowing: a COLLECT banks what’s on the screen and nothing more. Coils that would have kept accumulating during a respin run are gone once the prizes are paid, so an early COLLECT can end a round before it’s built up much of a board.
BOOM+ Bet
BOOM+ is an ante bet, toggled by its own button. It costs 40 credits per spin instead of the regular 25, a 60% increase, and it’s the only way to unlock the two features that follow. The ante applies proportionally across the whole stake range.
BOOM+ Wild Feature
With BOOM+ active, wilds substitute for every symbol including COLLECT. That turns any wild on reels two or four into a potential prize collector, which materially changes how often the coil cash actually gets banked. If more than one wild or COLLECT lands on the same spin, each prize is still only collected once.
BOOM+ Free Spins
Three or more scatters award ten free spins, but only with BOOM+ switched on. The round can also arrive randomly on any paid spin when nothing else has triggered. Inside the feature, every scatter or wild that lands does two things at once: it adds one extra free spin and increases the wild multiplier by one for the rest of the round.
That’s the engine of the whole game. A multiplier that never resets and a spin count that grows with every useful symbol means a good round builds on itself. Free spins play at the ways and bet of the triggering spin, and both free spins and the Hold & Respin can retrigger inside the round.
The random award has its own guardrails: it can only fire on a spin where no Hold & Respin landed and no scatter-triggered free spins were won. Nothing doubles up, but every paid spin carries at least a chance of the round arriving unannounced.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.1/10
Most sessions here are a steady drip of small way wins, coils stacking up, and a respin round every so often that pays out politely. The reason anybody sits through that is the free spins round, where the multiplier never resets and every useful symbol extends the feature. The sorceress rewards patience; she just invoices for it first.
The free spins round is the best thing in the game by a distance, because a growing multiplier with no ceiling and a spin count that swells alongside it gives a round genuine momentum. The weakness is everything around it: without the ante you’re playing a stripped-back version, and even with it, coils top out at 100x, so the base game rarely delivers more than pocket money.
It suits multiplier chasers and anyone happy to fund the full feature set on every spin. Anyone wanting the headline rounds without paying the ante will find the regular game thin. The workshop in the fog is worth a visit, but bring the extra credits.
Lady Merlin Lightning Chase FAQs
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What is the RTP of Lady Merlin Lightning Chase?
It pays back 95.9% with the BOOM+ ante bet active. In the regular game, without the ante, the figure is 95.7%. -
Is Lady Merlin Lightning Chase high volatility?
It’s rated medium-high volatility, with a hit frequency of 32.44%, so wins land reasonably often but the size varies considerably. -
How do you trigger the Hold & Respin feature in Lady Merlin Lightning Chase?
Land six or more LIGHTNING COIL symbols on a single spin. The coils lock in place and you get three free respins, with the count resetting to three whenever another coil, wild or COLLECT appears. -
What does the BOOM+ bet do in Lady Merlin Lightning Chase?
BOOM+ is an ante bet costing 40 credits per spin instead of the regular 25. It unlocks the free spins feature, which scatters can’t trigger without it, and lets wilds substitute for the COLLECT symbol. -
How do free spins work in Lady Merlin Lightning Chase?
Ten free spins are awarded by three or more scatters with BOOM+ active, or randomly on any paid spin when nothing else triggers. Every scatter or wild that lands during the round adds one extra spin and increases the wild multiplier by one for the rest of the feature. -
How many paylines does Lady Merlin Lightning Chase have?
It plays 432 ways across a five-reel grid with rows arranged 3-4-3-4-3. Wins pay left to right, with scatters paying anywhere. -
What are the betting limits on Lady Merlin Lightning Chase?
Stakes run from 0.25 to 5 per spin. The BOOM+ ante raises the credit cost from 25 to 40 while keeping the same 432 ways in play. -
Can the bonus features retrigger in Lady Merlin Lightning Chase?
Yes. Both the free spins and the Hold & Respin feature can be retriggered during the free spins round, and free spins play at the ways and bet of the triggering spin. -
What is the maximum win on Lady Merlin Lightning Chase?
The ceiling is 40,960x the bet, which at the top stake works out to the game’s advertised maximum payout.
