Tales of Egypt

Tales of Egypt Slot Review

Down a torch-lit sandstone corridor, hieroglyphs picked out in amber that fades to shadow at the corners, the reels of Pragmatic Play’s Tales of Egypt sit in a gold-rod shrine case built into the tomb wall. For a game this plain, it hides one genuinely odd piece of design: a single pyramid symbol doing the work most slots spread across three. That idea carries a 5×3 grid with 20 paylines, a 94.11% RTP and a 1,200x ceiling.

Egypt has been mined by bigger and louder machines, among them John Hunter & the Tomb of the Scarab Queen and Might of Ra. Few of them, though, hand the pyramids two jobs at once, and that doubling is where this game keeps its interest.

Base Game & Features

Five reels, three rows, twenty fixed paylines. All symbols pay left to right across those lines, scatters pay anywhere, and every win is multiplied by the bet per line. Bets run from 0.20 to 240.00 per spin, a wider spread than most five-reel games bother with.

The bet menu works in the classic two-part way: a coins-per-line value and a coin value, which together set the total stake. The game shows both figures in coins and cash, and switching between the two views is a single click. Autoplay runs from a menu of fixed spin counts and can be stopped at any point, with an option to skip the introduction and end screens after a short pause.

Spins run at three speeds: normal, quick and turbo, cycled from a single button. Ambient sound and sound effects toggle separately, so the music can be muted while the win cues stay on. It’s a small set of controls for a small machine, and everything on it does one job.

Symbols and Paytable

The paytable splits between Egyptian icons and card royals. Values below are multiples of the total bet for three, four and five of a kind.

• Cat: 1.25x, 3.75x, 25x
• Blue Bird (Horus): 1x, 2.5x, 17.5x
• Scarab Beetle: 0.75x, 2x, 12.5x
• Anubis: 0.5x, 1.25x, 10x
• A: 0.35x, 1x, 6x
• K, Q, J, 10: 0.25x, 0.75x, 5x
• Archeologist (wild): 2.5x, 7.5x, 50x
• Great Pyramid (wild and scatter): 1x, 10x, 100x

It’s a flat, honest ladder with no hidden jump, and the drop from the character symbols to the royals is steep rather than gradual. Five royals pay just 5x the total bet, a fifth of what five Cats return, so the low end of the table exists to keep the balance ticking rather than to produce a memorable hit.

The Wilds

There are two, which is the quietly unusual part. The Archeologist is a wild that substitutes for all symbols except the scatter. The Great Pyramid is wild and scatter at once, substituting for all symbols, paying anywhere, and carrying the trigger for the bonus round on top.

One symbol doing three jobs is the most interesting mechanical idea in the game. Because the pyramid substitutes for all symbols rather than all-but-one, it can complete lines the Archeologist cannot, and its scatter pays land even when fewer than three arrive.

The stacked Archeologist is the base game’s own source of noise. A full stack on an early reel can turn several lines at once, and at 50x for five of a kind it’s also the second-richest symbol in the game. Between the stacks and the pyramid, the base game holds more variety than its single feature button suggests.

Tales of Egypt Free Spins & Bonus Features

Three or more Great Pyramid symbols anywhere on the reels set off Raiding the Pyramid, the game’s single bonus round, which awards up to 10 free spins. What happens next is decided before the first spin: one random character symbol is chosen, and that symbol behaves as a scatter for the whole round.

The chosen symbol pays in any position, at its ordinary paytable values, instead of waiting for a left-to-right line. A scatter-paying Cat or Blue Bird can stack up wins the base game’s line rules would never allow, which is where the 1,200x ceiling becomes reachable rather than theoretical.

Retriggers are unlimited. Three or more scatter symbols while raiding the pyramid grant additional free spins at the current multiplier, and the round keeps accepting them for as long as they land. There’s no cap on the total count a single round can reach, so a lucky run of pyramids keeps extending a round that was only meant to last 10 spins.

The round plays out step by step in a fixed order: pyramids land, the round is announced, a character symbol is picked, spins begin, and any three further scatters add more spins mid-round. Free spins winnings are added to the payline win, and everything inside the round is multiplied by the bet per line. Nothing changes on the reels between the base game and the round itself, so the chosen symbol is the only thing separating the two modes of play.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7/10

Playing Tales of Egypt is a quiet sit in a very well-drawn tomb: line up cats and scarabs, watch for pyramids, repeat. The one reason to choose it over the studio’s louder sandstone is that pyramid, which never stops working whether or not the bonus is anywhere near.

The bonus round is the best-built thing here. A random symbol quietly turning scatter for ten spins means every round plays differently, and the unlimited retrigger can turn a modest feature into a long one. The paytable is the problem: five royals at 5x makes most wins feel like loose change, and the 94.11% return means the maths gives little back.

It’s for players who like one clean bonus and artwork over feature menus, and who are content with a 1,200x peak. Anyone after modern returns or four-figure ceilings will find the same studio serving both elsewhere. As a low-fuss hour among the hieroglyphs, this tomb is still worth the torchlight.

Tales of Egypt FAQs

• What is the RTP of Tales of Egypt?

  Tales of Egypt runs at 94.11%. That’s a low figure by the standards of modern online slots, so it’s one to weigh before a longer session.
• How many paylines does Tales of Egypt have?

  There are 20 fixed paylines, and all symbols pay left to right across them. The scatter pays in any position.
• What is the grid size of Tales of Egypt?

  It’s a classic 5×3 grid, with five reels and three rows of symbols.
• What is the minimum and maximum bet on Tales of Egypt?

  Bets run from 0.20 to 240.00 per spin, which covers casual stakes and high stakes alike.
• When is Tales of Egypt released?

  Tales of Egypt’s release date is 12 August 2015.
• Who makes Tales of Egypt?

  Pragmatic Play. It’s one of the studio’s earlier Egyptian-themed titles.
• What is the maximum win on Tales of Egypt?

  The maximum win is 1,200x your bet.
• How does the chosen symbol work in the free spins round?

  Before Raiding the Pyramid starts, one random character symbol is picked, and for the whole round it pays as a scatter: anywhere on the reels, at its own paytable values, instead of only left to right. It’s the only thing that changes between the base game and the bonus round.
• Can the free spins round retrigger in Tales of Egypt?

  Yes, and there’s no limit on it. Three or more scatter symbols during Raiding the Pyramid grant additional free spins at the current multiplier, and a single round can keep extending for as long as the scatters keep landing.