Mystery Reels Megaways Slot Review
A chrome cabinet glowing alone in a dark room, marquee lit yellow with a purple lightning bolt overhead, fruit perched above the name like a promise. Most high volatility slots quietly shave the return to pay for their big ceilings; Mystery Reels Megaways goes the other way, running at 98.06% RTP while still swinging hard enough to empty a bankroll. Red Tiger have built it on a 6×7 grid with up to 117,649 ways to win and a 10,346x cap on a single spin, which makes the generous RTP less a gift than a design choice worth examining.
It sits in the Megaways corner of Red Tiger’s catalogue alongside Dragon’s Fire Megaways and Golden Leprechaun Megaways. Stakes run from 0.10 to 50.00 a spin, and the whole game turns on one question: whether the mystery reveal is worth the wait.
How the Base Game Pays
Wins are awarded for matching symbols landing left to right on adjacent reels, regardless of symbol size. The first symbol has to sit on the leftmost reel, and from there any adjacent reel carrying the same symbol extends the combination. Paylines in the traditional sense don’t exist here – every possible left-to-right path across the grid counts.
The number of ways shifts from spin to spin as the reels change height, which is the Megaways engine doing its usual work. The counter above the reels re-reads the total after every spin, and the swings are wide: consecutive spins can carry anywhere from a few thousand ways to well over twenty thousand, depending on how the reels land. The full 117,649 needs every reel at maximum height.
The paytable is classic fruit machine stock, topped by a lucky 7 that pays from just two symbols – the only symbol in the game that does. Values below are multiples of the stake:
- 7 – two pays 2x, three 5x, four 10x, five 25x, six 50x
- Star – three 1x, four 2x, five 2.5x, six 7.5x
- Bell – three 0.3x, four 1x, five 1.5x, six 2x
- Horseshoe – three 0.3x, four 0.5x, five 0.8x, six 2x
- Watermelon and Grapes – three 0.2x, four 0.4x, five 0.6x, six 1.8x
- Plum – three 0.2x, four 0.4x, five 0.6x, six 1x
- Orange – three 0.2x, four 0.3x, five 0.5x, six 1x
- Lemon – three 0.1x, four 0.3x, five 0.5x, six 0.9x
- Cherries – three 0.1x, four 0.2x, five 0.4x, six 0.8x
There’s a steep drop after the Star, and everything from the Bell down is change-making territory. The middle of the table is tightly packed – Bell, Horseshoe, Watermelon, Grapes and Plum all sit within a whisker of each other at the top end – so a six-of-a-kind on any of them lands in the same neighbourhood.
The hit frequency sits at 39.13%, so roughly two spins in five return something. With high volatility alongside it, that something is usually small: the lower fruits pay fractions of the stake, and the real money lives in the features.
The Mystery Symbol
The Mystery Symbol is the game’s signature mechanic, and it can land on any spin. It’s a cloning scatter, and what it does happens in three distinct stages.
First, the clone. A single Mystery Symbol copies itself a random number of times, and each copy can travel up, down, left or right across the reels from where it started. The pattern isn’t fixed – the same trigger can produce a tight cluster or a scatter of copies spread across half the grid.
Second, the wait. Once all the clones are in place they sit on the reels as a field of identical mystery icons, and nothing is decided yet. Third, the reveal: every copy flips to the same final paying symbol. If the clones have spread far enough and the symbol underneath is a good one, a single Mystery Symbol can assemble a six-of-a-kind win from nothing.
The reveal is where the outcome is settled, and it’s all-or-nothing by nature. A clone field that resolves to Cherries pays like Cherries, however impressive it looked mid-spread; the same field resolving to 7s is a different story entirely. Because every copy reveals the same symbol, the mechanic can’t produce a partial win – it either builds a combination worth having or it doesn’t.
It’s a simple idea done with showmanship. The clones travel, the reveal lands, and there’s no decision in it for anyone – just the wait while the screen fills up.
Free Spins
The bonus round needs three FREE SPINS scatters, and position doesn’t matter – any three, anywhere on the reels, award eight free spins. No line, no adjacency, just the count.
There’s a second layer before the round starts. Players can collect the eight spins as dealt, or hit GAMBLE to play for a bigger allocation instead. Whether to take the sure thing or hit GAMBLE and play for more is the choice the game puts in front of you.
The free spins round is where the Mystery Symbol and the high volatility do their most useful work together. Cluster reveals during free spins are the natural route towards the game’s bigger prizes, and a well-placed clone field landing on a high symbol is the closest thing this game has to a jackpot moment. With only eight spins in the default allocation, every one of them carries weight – there’s no long runway of bonus spins to absorb a slow start.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 8/10
You spend most of your time here watching a chrome cabinet quietly eat coins, waiting for the screen to fill with copies and the reveal to land. That’s the whole appeal: one elegant mechanic doing the suspense work most games spread across four features, wrapped in the best-dressed fruit machine going.
The strength is the RTP. At 98.06% it returns more than nearly any high volatility slot on the market, which means the long stretches between decent wins cost you measurably less than they do elsewhere. The weakness is the paytable underneath: from the Bell down it pays pocket change, so the game leans hard on that one reveal to deliver anything worth the session.
It’s for players who enjoy the build more than the payout and don’t mind an old-school theme dressed up in chrome. Anyone wanting regular, meaningful base game wins will go hungry between reveals. For the patient type, this cabinet pays its way.
Mystery Reels Megaways FAQs
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How does the Mystery Symbol work in Mystery Reels Megaways?
The Mystery Symbol is a cloning scatter that can land on any spin. It clones itself a random number of times across the reels, travelling up, down, left or right, and then every copy reveals the same paying symbol for a win. -
How do you trigger free spins in Mystery Reels Megaways?
Three FREE SPINS scatter symbols anywhere on the reels start the bonus round with eight free spins. The scatters don’t need to sit on a payline or on adjacent reels. -
What does the GAMBLE option do in the free spins round?
Before the round begins you can either take the eight free spins as dealt or press GAMBLE to try for a larger number. -
Does every Mystery Symbol copy reveal the same symbol?
Yes. Once the clones are in place, every copy flips to one single paying symbol, so the reveal either builds a full combination or pays as whatever low symbol it resolved to. -
What is the RTP of Mystery Reels Megaways?
The RTP is 98.06%, which is unusually high for a high volatility slot. -
What is the maximum win on Mystery Reels Megaways?
The maximum win is 10,346x your bet. -
Is Mystery Reels Megaways high volatility?
Yes. It’s a high volatility game with a hit frequency of 39.13%, so most wins are small and the bigger prizes come from the features. -
How many ways to win does Mystery Reels Megaways have?
The game uses the Megaways engine on a 6×7 grid, giving up to 117,649 ways to win as the reel heights change from spin to spin.
