Qin S Empire Celestial Guardians Slot Review
Mist sits over blue-green mountains, pine trees crowd the left of the frame, and a tiered golden-roofed pagoda rises half-hidden through the haze. Qin S Empire Celestial Guardians, a Playtech slot set in an ancient Chinese mountain kingdom, wears that painterly look well: lacquered crimson reels with gold trim, roof-like caps on the corners, a cascading stream in the lower right.
It’s a high volatility game on a 5×4 grid with 25 fixed paylines, and the build underneath the scenery is the argument: four unlockable collection screens, a jackpot ladder and a 2,000x top prize. It sits in the same corner of Playtech’s catalogue as Fire Blaze: Jinns Moon and Legend of Hydra, both of which pair a collection round with a jackpot ladder. Worth finding out whether these mountains are worth the climb.
The Base Game and Its Symbols
Wins form on 25 fixed paylines, left to right across adjacent reels starting from the leftmost. Only the highest combination on each line pays. Simultaneous wins on different lines add together.
Line wins are multiplied by your coin value, while scatter wins are multiplied by your total bet. It’s a conventional setup, and the game doesn’t bend it.
The paytable splits between three premium symbols and the royals. The Dragon leads it, followed by the Wolf and the Phoenix, with A, K, Q and J propping up the bottom. Values are per coin, at three, four and five of a kind:
- Dragon: 4x for three, 20x for four, 100x for five
- Wolf: 3x, 15x, 80x at five
- Phoenix: 2x, 10x, 60x at five
- A, K, Q, J: 1x, 2x, 10x at five
- Fortune (scatter): 3x, 15x, 100x, paid as a multiple of total bet from any position
The Yin Yang wild substitutes for every symbol except Fortune and the Cauldrons, so it completes line wins but has no hand in triggering either feature. That’s its whole job, and it does it without fuss. The Fortune scatter is the only symbol that pays from any position, which is why it carries the same top value as the Dragon despite never needing a line.
During any spin outside the Qin’s Empire Feature, a Gold Cauldron may land where a Jade one would have. Both cauldron types sit outside the paytable entirely – they pay nothing on a line, and their entire value lives in the collection round they trigger. The Gold version is the rarer of the two, and for good reason, as the feature section explains.
Free Games
Three or more Fortune symbols landing anywhere on the reels award 5 Free Games, played at the bet that triggered them. The round runs automatically, and it changes the reel set in one important way: 50 Jade Cauldron symbols are added, while A, K, Q and J are removed entirely.
Stripping the royals out shifts the symbol pool towards premiums and Cauldrons. Every spin of the round is Dragon, Wolf, Phoenix, wild, Fortune or Cauldron, and nothing else. That’s what makes it interesting: it feeds both the line wins and the Qin’s Empire Feature, which can still trigger inside Free Games.
Three or more Fortune symbols during the round add a further 5 Free Games on top of whatever remains. There’s no stated cap on retriggers, so a lucky run of scatters can keep the round going indefinitely. Between the added Cauldrons and the thinned reel set, this is where the feature you’re building towards is closest.
The Qin’s Empire Feature
Jade Cauldron: Collect and Unlock
Six or more Jade Cauldron symbols landing at once trigger the feature with one screen unlocked. From there it’s a collection ladder: eight or more Cauldrons gathered in the first screen unlocks a second, sixteen or more unlocks a third, and thirty-six or more opens the final fourth screen.
Each new screen means more room to collect. A Yin-Yang meter tracks progress across the four screens while the round plays out, and some symbols inside the unlocked screens carry an X2 label. The stakes climb with each screen you open – and the last one asks for a serious haul before it appears.
Gold Cauldron: All Four Screens
Six or more Gold Cauldrons trigger the same feature but skip the ladder entirely: all four screens start unlocked. The spin counter resets to three whenever any additional Cauldron lands, and at the end of the round every cauldron prize on the screens is added to the total win.
During any spin outside the feature, a Gold Cauldron may replace a Jade one, which is where the round’s real potential lives. The prizes attached to individual cauldrons step through the following ladder:
- Cauldron prizes: 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 10x or 15x total bet
- Mini: 20x total bet
- Minor: 100x total bet
- Major: 500x total bet
- Grand Bonus: 2,000x total bet
The Grand Bonus
Fifteen Cauldrons collected in any one unlocked screen wins the Grand Bonus. It can only be won once per Qin’s Empire Feature, so there’s no stacking it across screens.
Four jackpot tiers run along the top of the reels: Grand, Major, Minor and Mini. Each maps to the same multiple of total bet the cauldron ladder pays, so the bar is a running display of the feature’s prizes rather than a separate progressive pot. What you see above the reels is what the round can actually award.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7/10
This is a slot you play for one reason: the cauldrons. The base game in between is pleasant, misty, and largely a waiting room – a 100x Dragon at the top and a wild that can’t trigger anything – and the mountain kingdom is easy on the eyes while you sit in it.
What the game gets right is how the two rounds feed each other. Free Games delete the royals and pour Cauldrons onto the reels, so the feature you’re waiting for is never far from the round you’re in, and the unlock ladder gives the Jade version a genuine sense of occasion. The Gold Cauldron, opening all four screens at once, is the moment the whole game is angled towards.
The Grand Bonus is the top prize the feature names: 2,000x total bet, won only once per Qin’s Empire Feature, with the game printing no overall maximum-win figure beyond it. Players who like a knowable jackpot ladder and a slow build will feel at home in these mountains.
Qin S Empire Celestial Guardians FAQs
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What is the grid size of Qin S Empire Celestial Guardians?
The game runs on a 5×4 grid: five reels and four rows, with 25 fixed paylines. -
Is Qin S Empire Celestial Guardians high volatility?
Yes, it’s a high volatility slot, so wins tend to be less frequent but larger when they land. -
How many paylines does Qin S Empire Celestial Guardians have?
The game is played with 25 fixed paylines, with wins forming left to right across adjacent reels. -
When is Qin S Empire Celestial Guardians released?
Qin S Empire Celestial Guardians’ release date is 22 July 2022. -
Who makes Qin S Empire Celestial Guardians?
Playtech. -
How do you trigger the Free Games in Qin S Empire Celestial Guardians?
Three or more Fortune scatter symbols landing anywhere on the reels award 5 Free Games. During the round, 50 Jade Cauldron symbols are added to the reels and the A, K, Q and J symbols are removed. Landing three or more Fortune symbols again during the round adds a further 5 Free Games. -
What does the Gold Cauldron do in Qin S Empire Celestial Guardians?
Six or more Gold Cauldron symbols trigger the Qin’s Empire Feature with all four collection screens unlocked from the start, skipping the unlock ladder that Jade Cauldrons have to climb. The spin counter resets to three whenever a further Cauldron lands. -
What is the Grand Bonus in Qin S Empire Celestial Guardians?
Collecting 15 Cauldron symbols in any one unlocked screen wins the Grand Bonus, worth 2,000x your total bet. It can only be won once per Qin’s Empire Feature.
