Secrets of Atlantis Slot Review
Broken columns and a carved stone sea creature sit on the seabed, furred with kelp, while pale light slants down through blue water from a surface you never see. Secrets of Atlantis is a game that hides all of its money in the middle three reels – the edges are scenery, and a spin only really starts when the centre of the grid lights up.
That’s the argument of the whole design, and it’s a bolder one than it looks: NetEnt built this without a free spins round at all, betting that a single re-spin chain could carry a game on its own. The numbers back them up – a 5×4 grid, 40 fixed paylines, a 97.07% RTP, wins paid both ways and a 1,600x ceiling, with bets from 0.2 to 200 per spin. The same patience with light and water runs through Aloha and Starburst, and Butterfly Staxx shares the painted look.
Reels, Paylines and Win Both Ways
The game runs on five reels and four rows, with 40 fixed bet lines. You don’t adjust the number of lines; you set the bet level and coin value, and every spin plays all 40. Crabs, turtles, jellyfish and shells populate the reels, drawn in the same lush, murky-teal style as the ruins behind them.
The bet level is the number of coins wagered per two bet lines, and a line win in coins is the paytable value multiplied by that level. The currency win is the coin win multiplied by the coin value, so a single spin’s stake is spread across every line rather than chosen per line.
The twist is Win Both Ways. Bet line wins pay in succession from leftmost to right and from rightmost to left, so a run of matching symbols can land at either end of the grid and still count. Simultaneous wins on different lines add together, and all coin wins pay on bet lines only.
In practice the two-way structure fattens the hit rate: the game lands a winning spin around 23% of the time. A run of three matching symbols from either edge is a pay, where a one-way game would need it from the left.
Max Bet behaves slightly differently depending on where you start. At the highest bet level it plays the maximum lines at the current coin value; from any lower level, it needs a second click to run the round at the selected level. Autoplay can be configured with stop conditions – on any win, on a single win above a set amount, or when your balance moves by a chosen figure in either direction.
The wild substitutes for everything and pays the highest possible combination on each line. It’s the Nudge behaviour that makes it interesting, and that belongs to the re-spins below.
The Highlight Feature
On every spin, positions on reels 2, 3 and 4 light up at random. It costs nothing and pays nothing on its own. The Highlights are a fuse: if they completely cover those three reels when the spin settles, a Colossal symbols Re-Spin activates.
Partially covered reels do nothing. That all-or-nothing trigger is the whole game compressed into one visual – you’re watching the middle of the grid fill with light and waiting for the last position to catch.
Colossal Symbols Re-Spins
When the Highlights complete, reels 2, 3 and 4 merge into a single reel carrying Colossal symbols: blocks of 3×4 symbols that appear nowhere else in the game. Reels 1 and 5 re-spin with regular symbols only. The Colossal block may land fully or partially in view, though it always sits complete on the row.
The rules of the round are short:
- Re-spins play at the same bet level and coin value as the spin that triggered them
- If the Colossal reel comes back fully highlighted, another re-spin follows
- The sequence ends when the Colossal reel is not fully highlighted
- At the end, the total win from all re-spins is added to any win from the triggering spin
A round plays out in a fixed sequence. The triggering spin pays first, with any line wins counted both ways as usual. The three middle reels then lock together into the Colossal reel while reels 1 and 5 spin again. If the merged reel lands fully highlighted, the whole thing repeats.
That retrigger loop is where the money lives. Each additional re-spin stacks a fresh Colossal block into the middle of the grid with both-way pays still running, so a full block of high symbols across the centre can be counted from either side.
The chain can run as long as the highlights hold. There’s no fixed cap on the number of re-spins – the reel simply has to keep coming back lit.
Nudge Wilds
The Nudge Wild can land fully or partially on the reel, like the Colossal symbols. When only part of it shows on the active rows, it’s nudged up or down until it covers the entire reel. A partial wild becomes a full one, every time.
During a Colossal symbols Re-Spin there’s a bigger version: the Colossal Nudge Wild. Land it partially on the merged reel and it’s nudged to cover the whole of reels 2, 3 and 4. It’s the single most powerful thing the game can do, a stacked wild filling the centre of the grid while both-way pays are live.
Put together, the mechanics feed each other in a fixed order:
- Every spin highlights positions on reels 2, 3 and 4 at random
- Full coverage of all three reels triggers a Colossal symbols Re-Spin
- Reels 2, 3 and 4 merge into one Colossal reel; reels 1 and 5 re-spin with regular symbols
- A fully highlighted Colossal reel awards another re-spin
- Nudge Wilds complete themselves to cover a full reel, regular or Colossal
There’s nothing else to learn. That’s the entire feature set, and its honesty is part of the charm.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.8/10
Most of your time here is spent underwater in the calm sense: small pays drifting in from either edge, highlights gathering on the middle reels, a lot of watching. The reason to choose it is the moment that calm breaks – the centre reels lock into one Colossal block and the grid suddenly looks nothing like it did five seconds earlier.
The strength is the return. At 97.07% with a 23% hit rate, this pays back more than nearly anything else of its era, and it does so without ever feeling mean-spirited between features. The weakness is the ceiling. One re-spin chain is the entire game, and 1,600x is a modest summit for a build that asks this much patience on the way up.
It’s a comfortable pick for anyone who values steady return and doesn’t need a free spins round to feel entertained. Players hunting four-figure multipliers will find the water here too shallow.
Secrets of Atlantis FAQs
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What is the RTP of Secrets of Atlantis?
The RTP is 97.07%, which is well above the typical online slot. It’s one of the more generous figures you’ll find. -
What is the maximum win on Secrets of Atlantis?
The maximum win is 1,600x your bet. -
How do you trigger the Colossal symbols Re-Spin in Secrets of Atlantis?
Every spin randomly highlights positions on reels 2, 3 and 4. If the highlights completely cover all three reels at the end of a spin, the Colossal symbols Re-Spin activates. -
What does the Nudge Wild do in Secrets of Atlantis?
If the Nudge Wild lands only partially on the active rows, it’s nudged up or down to cover the entire reel. During a re-spin, the Colossal Nudge Wild is nudged to cover the whole merged reel. -
Can the Colossal symbols Re-Spin retrigger?
Yes. If the reel with the Colossal symbols comes back fully highlighted after a re-spin, another re-spin is awarded at the same bet level and coin value. The sequence ends when the highlight coverage breaks. -
What does Win Both Ways mean in Secrets of Atlantis?
Bet line wins pay in succession from left to right and from right to left. Only the highest win per line from both ways is paid, and wins on different lines are added together. -
What are the betting limits on Secrets of Atlantis?
Bets run from 0.2 to 200 per spin, played across 40 fixed paylines on a 5×4 grid. -
What is the hit frequency of Secrets of Atlantis?
Around 23% of spins land a win, helped by the Win Both Ways structure, which counts runs of matching symbols from either edge of the grid. -
Who makes Secrets of Atlantis?
NetEnt. Secrets of Atlantis’s release date is 24 August 2016.
