Scroll of Dead

Scroll of Dead Slot Review

A papyrus scroll the height of the reel frame stands unfurled beside the reels, pinned by two crossed blue-and-gold staves with a scarab-shaped keyhole at their centre, its parchment covered in faint hieroglyph rows, pyramids and carved columns behind it. The game it decorates keeps a similar trick: a paytable whose richest pays are locked away, invisible and unreachable, until the bonus unlocks the reel that makes them possible. Play’n GO have built one good idea into a very familiar temple.

It runs on a 5×3 grid with 10 paylines, high volatility, a 96.28% RTP and a 7,500x ceiling, with bets from 0.10 to 100 per spin. The twist is a reel that only exists in the bonus, and it changes more than the view.

Symbols, Paylines and the Scarab

Wins pay left to right across the 10 lines, and only the highest combination on each line counts. That’s the whole of the base-game rulebook. There are no random modifiers, no collection meters, nothing to interrupt the wait for scatters.

The scarab does double duty. It’s the wild, substituting for any other symbol to form a winning combination, and it’s the scatter, paying anywhere on the reels rather than along a line. Scatter wins are multiplied by the total bet staked and added on top of any payline wins, so a scatter landing can pay even when it completes nothing else.

The paying symbols split into two clear tiers. Cleopatra, the Cobra, the Phoenix and the Ankh make up the premium end, and all four pay from two of a kind. The royals, A, K, Q, J and 10, need three. Every value below is a multiple of the total bet, and the six-of-a-kind pays only come into play once the extra reel arrives in free spins.

• Cleopatra: 2x for two, 20x for three, 200x for four, 1,000x for five, 1,500x for six
• Cobra: 0.8x for two, 5x for three, 50x for four, 300x for five, 600x for six
• Phoenix: 0.8x for two, 4x for three, 20x for four, 100x for five, 200x for six
• Ankh: 0.8x for two, 4x for three, 20x for four, 100x for five, 200x for six
• A: 0.8x for three, 5x for four, 25x for five, 40x for six
• K: 0.8x for three, 5x for four, 25x for five, 40x for six
• Q, J and 10: 0.8x for three, 3x for four, 20x for five, 30x for six
• Scarab wild and scatter: 0.4x for three, 4x for four, 40x for five, 100x for six

It’s a deliberately thin feature set for the base game. The paytable does the talking until the scatters arrive. With Cleopatra worth 1,000x for a five-of-a-kind line and 1,500x for six, the base game isn’t without teeth, but those teeth only fully show in the bonus.

Free Spins and the Sixth Reel

Three or more scatters trigger eight free spins, and the grid grows for the duration. A sixth reel unlocks, turning the 5×3 layout into a 6×3 one. That’s the whole reason six-of-a-kind pays exist on the paytable.

The same 10 lines stay active, now stretched across the wider grid. Every one of them can carry a longer run of symbols than the base game allows. It’s a 20% wider grid carrying a 50% higher ceiling than the classic five-reel format this family grew out of, and the difference lands in the top pay tiers.

Retriggers work the same way as the entry. Three or more scatters during the round grant additional spins, and there’s no cap on how many times that can happen. A single bonus can run well past its opening eight spins if the scarabs keep landing.

• Trigger: three or more scarab scatters, anywhere on the reels
• Award: eight free spins
• Grid: expands from 5×3 to 6×3 for the duration of the round
• Retrigger: three or more scatters during the round grant additional spins, with no stated limit
• Lines: the same 10 paylines, carried across the wider grid

Expanding Symbols

Each free spins round begins with a roll of the dice. One symbol is selected at random to serve as the expanding symbol until the round ends, and every trigger rolls a fresh one. Land enough of it and it stretches to cover its entire reel.

Placement is generous. The chosen symbol doesn’t need to sit on adjacent positions to count, because symbols can appear anywhere along an active line to win. That single rule is what turns a modest eight-spin round into something with real reach.

The pairing with the sixth reel is where the potential lives. Six reels of a full Cleopatra expansion, or even a well-placed mid-tier symbol spread across the wider grid, is how the round pushes towards the game’s 7,500x ceiling. Two bonus rounds rarely play the same way, because the expanding symbol changes on every trigger.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 8/10

This is a long-wait game. You spin, the temple glows, nothing much happens, and then a bonus round arrives with six reels, a fresh expanding symbol and the only shot at the pays the base game can’t reach. The one reason to choose it over the dozens of other Egyptian slots on the shelf is that extra reel, because it puts the top of the paytable genuinely in play rather than on paper.

Its strength is the bonus round’s variety. Because the expanding symbol is re-rolled every trigger and retriggers are uncapped, no two rounds play alike, and eight modest spins can grow into something much bigger. Its weakness is everything around that round: the base game has nothing in it, no modifier, no meter, just spins and silence, and with no bonus buy there’s no way past the wait.

It suits players who liked Book Of Dead and want the same discipline with a bigger prize on the far side of the wait. Anyone after frequent features or steady small wins will find the gaps between bonuses long. For the patient kind, the temple rewards sitting with it.

Scroll of Dead FAQs

• What is the RTP of Scroll of Dead?

  Scroll of Dead runs at an RTP of 96.28%.
• How do you trigger free spins in Scroll of Dead?

  Three or more scatter symbols trigger eight free spins. During the round, three or more scatters grant additional spins, with no limit on how many times it can retrigger.
• What does the sixth reel do in Scroll of Dead?

  The free spins round adds an additional reel to the grid, expanding it from 5×3 to 6×3. This makes six-of-a-kind wins possible, including a 1,500x pay for six Cleopatra symbols.
• How does the expanding symbol get chosen in Scroll of Dead?

  A fresh expanding symbol is randomly selected at the start of every free spins round, so the choice differs on each trigger. Land enough of the chosen symbol and it expands to cover its whole reel, and the symbols can appear anywhere along an active line to count towards a win.
• What does the scarab symbol do in Scroll of Dead?

  The scarab is both the wild and the scatter. As a wild it substitutes for any other symbol to form winning combinations, and as a scatter it pays anywhere on the reels, with wins multiplied by the total bet.
• What is the maximum win on Scroll of Dead?

  The maximum win is 7,500x your bet, achievable in the free spins round where the sixth reel and expanding symbols are both active.
• What are the bet limits and paylines on Scroll of Dead?

  Bets run from 0.10 to 100 per spin, across a 5×3 grid with 10 fixed paylines. All wins pay left to right, except the scatter, which pays anywhere.
• Who makes Scroll of Dead?

  Scroll of Dead is a Play’n GO slot, part of the same Egyptian lineage as Book Of Dead. Its release date is 20 May 2021.