Lost Relics Slot Review
Ropes coil down a cavern wall, a brass pot overflows with coins nobody has come back to claim, and the whole dig glows amber like a torch left burning. Lost Relics, from NetEnt, belongs to that rare group of slots where the buried-treasure artwork is a literal description of the maths rather than a costume for it: the biggest rewards genuinely sit underneath the reels, and the game makes you work the dirt off them spin by spin. That honesty of theme is the reason to play it.
It plays on a 5×5 grid with Cluster Pays, a 96.3% RTP, a top prize of 900x the bet and stakes from 0.2 to 400. Wins form as connected blocks rather than along fixed lines. NetEnt have used the cluster format in Aloha before, and the follow-up, Lost Relics 2, chased far bigger numbers. This is the more modest original, and its charm is all in the digging.
Cluster Pays on the 5×5 Grid
There are no paylines and no left-to-right wins here. Matching symbols pay when they touch horizontally or vertically, and any group of six or more connected symbols is a winning cluster. Diagonals don’t connect. It’s a simple rule, and it changes how the grid reads: you scan for shapes and density rather than checking rows.
Cluster size is the whole measure of a win. Six symbols is the entry point; a cluster can sprawl across much of the grid, and the bigger it is, the more it pays according to the paytable. Because wins are counted as blocks, one spin can also deliver more than a single cluster, with each group of six or more paying separately.
The wild is a golden snake ‘W’ that substitutes for any symbol and can serve more than one cluster at a time. That’s its whole job in the base game. Hit frequency sits at 20%, so a winning cluster lands on roughly one spin in five.
Bets are set from the game settings, and the game can be played with cash or with coins, though not every operator offers both modes. In coin play, the stake is built from a coin value and a bet level rather than picked as a single figure. The bet is the amount wagered per spin either way.
Scatters are the other base game symbol worth knowing. Their rules are narrower than they first appear:
- Scatters can appear anywhere on reels 1, 3 and 5 in the main game.
- Three collected scatters start the free spins round.
- Scatters awarded by the Extra Scatter feature are the exception: they appear inside winning clusters instead.
Because scatters only occupy three of the five reels, they arrive at their own pace, and the base game’s feature modifiers exist partly to hurry that along.
Coin Win, Extra Wild and Extra Scatter
When a winning cluster forms, one of three modifiers can activate alongside it. Each one attaches itself to the win rather than replacing it: the payout stands, and something extra gets bolted on.
- Coin Win – one symbol in the winning combination pays out between 3x and 30x the bet, added to the round’s other wins.
- Extra Wild – three extra wilds are placed at random, in positions not part of the winning cluster and not already holding a scatter or wild.
- Extra Scatter – one symbol in the winning combination awards an extra scatter, which appears within that cluster in the main game.
Extra Scatter is the one to watch. Scatters are otherwise restricted to three reels, and this modifier drops them into places they can’t normally reach, shortening the road to the bonus round.
Extra Wild does its best work when several fire in succession. Up to 15 wilds can accumulate on the reels this way, and a grid full of golden snakes bridges clusters together quickly. Coin Win is the plainest of the three: money, straight up, stacked on whatever the cluster already paid. The symbol that awards a Coin Win stays in the cluster, so it contributes to the base payout too.
Free Spins and the Hidden Chest
Three collected scatters award 10 free spins. What happens inside those spins is where Lost Relics stops being a straightforward cluster game and becomes something closer to a dig. Behind the reels, a chest occupies a number of spaces, hidden at random.
The round works to a short set of rules, and each one matters:
- Spaces beneath winning clusters become uncovered.
- Uncovered spaces carry over to the next spin until the chest is fully uncovered.
- Once a chest is found, all uncovered spaces reset and must be cleared again.
- A new chest is then hidden in a random location, and the digging restarts within the same round.
There are three chest sizes:
- Small – occupies fewer spaces, so it’s reached fastest.
- Medium – a middle ground in both size and reward.
- Large – occupies the most spaces, takes the longest to reach, and pays the most.
The mechanic earns its place because it gives every free spin a second thing to watch. A spin that pays nothing can still uncover two or three spaces towards a large chest, so it isn’t dead time. Uncovering runs strictly on wins, though: only the spaces beneath winning clusters clear, so a cold run of ten spins uncovers nothing and the round ends with the chest still buried.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.7/10
Playing this is a slow, satisfying scrape through the dirt. You pick a spot, you work it, and sometimes a coin-rich cluster falls out of the wall. The one reason to choose it over a hundred shinier games is that it respects your attention: a bonus round where nothing is resolved until you’ve physically dug it out is simply more interesting to sit through than free spins that run themselves.
The carry-over on uncovered spaces is the best thing here, because it means a free-spins session builds a visible debt in your favour. Even the misses feel like they’re getting you somewhere.
The ceiling is the honest weakness: 900x is a modest reward for a game this patient, and the cold runs uncover nothing at all, so the round can simply expire. This suits players who enjoy the process as much as the payout, the sort who liked cluster games before they grew jackpots. Chasers of the four-figure wins the sequel went after will find the treasure here buried at a shallower depth than they’d like, but for everyone else the dig is still worth the candle.
Lost Relics FAQs
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How do wins form in Lost Relics?
Wins don’t follow paylines. A symbol belongs to a cluster when it sits directly beside the same symbol horizontally or vertically, and six or more connected symbols of a kind pay as one win. -
What triggers the free spins in Lost Relics?
Collecting three scatter symbols in the main game awards 10 free spins. Scatters can appear anywhere on reels 1, 3 and 5, and the Extra Scatter feature can award additional scatters inside winning clusters. -
How does the Hidden Chest feature work?
During free spins, a chest is hidden behind the reels, occupying a number of spaces. Spaces under winning clusters become uncovered and carry over between spins until the chest is fully revealed. Once found, the spaces reset and a new chest is hidden at random. There are small, medium and large chests. -
What does the Extra Wild feature do?
When activated, three extra wild symbols are placed at random in positions not part of the winning cluster and not occupied by scatter or wild symbols. Up to 15 wilds can appear as a result, and a wild can contribute to clusters of any symbol, including more than one cluster at a time. -
What does the Coin Win feature pay?
When activated, one symbol in a winning combination awards a win of between 3 and 30 times the bet, which is added to any wins from the round that triggered it. The symbol awarding the win remains part of the winning cluster. -
Do uncovered spaces reset after a chest is found?
Yes. Once a chest has been fully uncovered and claimed, all uncovered spaces reset and must be uncovered again, and a new chest is hidden in a random location. A single free spins round can therefore yield several chests. -
Can Lost Relics be played with coins instead of cash?
Yes. The game supports both cash and coin play, and you can switch between them in the game settings. In coin mode, the bet is built from a coin value and a bet level. Not every operator offers both modes. -
What is the RTP of Lost Relics?
The RTP is 96.3%, and the hit frequency is 20%, meaning a winning cluster lands on roughly one spin in five. -
What is the maximum win on Lost Relics?
The maximum win is 900x the bet.
