The Secret Of Ba Slot Review
A golden falcon-headed statue guards the left edge of the reels, a jackal-headed counterpart draped in striped gold stands opposite, and a sphinx lounges against the right-hand pillar as if it owns the place. The Secret Of Ba has the props of a dozen Egyptian clones, yet its best idea isn’t the free spins at all – it’s the four-step cascade running under the base game, and that’s a rarer thing in this genre than it should be.
It runs on five reels, three rows and 9 fixed winlines, with a 95.97% RTP and high volatility. Tom Horn Gaming knows this corner of the market well: Book of Cleo and Book of Aladdin both tread the same book-driven ground. This one puts its twist where you’ll spend most of your time: between triggers.
Symbols and Winlines
All nine winlines are fixed, and wins are evaluated from left to right. Winning symbols need to land consecutively on an active line starting from the leftmost reel, and only the highest combination on each line is paid. If two wins land on the same line, the bigger one is what reaches your balance.
Every win is multiplied by the total bet rather than a per-line stake, so the paytable reads as clean multiples of whatever you’re wagering across the whole spin. A 10x line win at a 1.00 stake is 10.00 back, no further arithmetic required.
There are ten symbols in total, led by the queen and the artefacts, with the royals propping up the bottom of the table. The queen leads the table, and she isn’t alone in paying from two of a kind: the Eye of Horus, Scarab and Ankh all start there too, while the royals begin at three.
- Woman figure (queen): 1x for two, 10x for three, 100x for four, 500x for five
- Eye of Horus: 0.5x for two, 4x for three, 40x for four, 200x for five
- Scarab: 0.5x for two, 3x for three, 10x for four, 75x for five
- Ankh: 0.5x for two, 3x for three, 10x for four, 75x for five
- A: 0.5x for three, 4x for four, 15x for five
- K: 0.5x for three, 4x for four, 15x for five
- Q, J and 10: 0.5x for three, 2.5x for four, 10x for five
Two mid-tier artefacts and three low royals means the middle of the table is crowded, and most spins that connect will connect through it. The queen’s 500x top line is where the real money sits, and she’s the symbol every free-spins round hopes to see chosen.
The Book does double duty as wild and scatter, substituting for every symbol. It only appears on reels one, three and five, a tight restriction for a substitute that effectively rules out full-reel Book coverage by design.
Shatter Mode
Shatter Mode is the base game’s own idea, and it’s a cascade with a firm leash. Every winning symbol explodes and new ones drop into the gaps, so a single spin can chain several wins together before the reels finally settle.
- Winning symbols shatter and new symbols drop in
- Maximum of four shatters in one spin
- Each shatter steps the win multiplier up by one
- Multiplier climbs from x1 through x2 and x3 to a maximum of x4
The sequence works like this. The first win pays at x1, then the winning symbols shatter and fresh ones drop in. If the new symbols form another win, it pays at x2, and the process repeats through x3 and x4.
A non-winning drop ends the chain immediately and the multiplier resets for the next spin. Nothing carries over, so every spin starts from the bottom of the ladder.
The cap is the interesting part. Four cascades at a maximum 4x multiplier is a modest ceiling by the standards of modern avalanche games, and it keeps the base game’s top end firmly in sight rather than dangling something enormous over it. What it does do is make ordinary spins livelier, since any win carries the chance of growing three times over before the reels settle.
Because the multiplier applies to whatever the reshuffled reels produce, the fourth shatter is the one worth chasing. A 4x multiply on a queen or Eye of Horus line is a base-game result most book slots simply can’t offer between bonuses.
Free Spins and the Special Expanding Symbol
Three Books are the trigger, and they award 10 free spins with a Special Expanding Symbol attached. Given that the Book only lands on three of the five reels, that trigger is a genuine event rather than a formality. The rules of the round are short:
- One symbol is chosen at random at the start of the round
- When it lands, it expands to cover its entire reel
- It doesn’t need to appear on neighbouring reels to expand
- It doesn’t need to form part of a consecutive winning line to expand
- Free Spins are retriggerable, with three more Books during the round retriggering the round
Those two lifted restrictions are the whole story. A standard expanding symbol waits for adjacent reels and a left-to-right line; this one pays attention to neither, so every landing is a live result rather than a near miss. A single chosen symbol on reel five expands and pays exactly as it would on reel one.
The choice of symbol is made once, at the start, and holds for the round. Land the queen as the expanding symbol and the stakes change completely. She pays 500x for a five-of-a-kind line, and a full reel of her on each of the five reels puts that top line within reach for the round’s duration. Land a royal instead and the round plays far smaller.
Retriggers keep the round alive without resetting the chosen symbol, so a lucky round extends on the same terms it started. That’s a structure that rewards patience, and with high volatility behind it, the patience needs to be genuine.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.2/10
Most of your time here goes to the reels rather than the bonus, and that’s precisely the case for it: the shatter chain keeps the base game interesting while you wait on a Book that only shows up on three of them. When the bonus does arrive, the strongest thing about it is the expanding symbol’s dropped requirements.
No adjacency and no line to satisfy, so every landing pays instead of teasing. The weakness is the ladder. Four shatters topping out at x4 is a small climb for a game this volatile, which leaves the queen-heavy free-spins round carrying nearly all of the ceiling on its own.
The statues and the hoard do their part to make the wait pleasant. Book-slot regulars get a base game that actually pays between triggers, which is more than most entries in this crowded corner can say, and Tom Horn’s own Cleo and Aladdin cover the same ground if the theme doesn’t take. Anyone chasing bigger numbers should look elsewhere, but the hoard here is real enough to enjoy while you dig.
The Secret Of Ba FAQs
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How do you trigger free spins in The Secret Of Ba?
Three Book symbols trigger 10 free spins. The Book only appears on reels one, three and five, so all three of those reels need to produce one on the same spin. -
What does the Special Expanding Symbol do?
One symbol is chosen at random at the start of free spins. When it lands, it expands to cover its entire reel, and it doesn’t need to appear on neighbouring reels or form part of a consecutive line to do so, which makes the expansion far more likely to pay. -
Can free spins be retriggered?
Yes, free spins are retriggerable. Landing three more Books during the round awards another ten spins, and the chosen expanding symbol stays the same. -
What is Shatter Mode?
Shatter Mode is the game’s cascade mechanic. Winning symbols explode and new symbols drop in, with a maximum of four shatters per spin. Each shatter increases the win multiplier by one step, from x1 up to x4. -
Where can the Book symbol appear?
The Book acts as both wild and scatter, substituting for every symbol, but it only appears on reels one, three and five. -
How many paylines does The Secret Of Ba have?
There are 9 fixed winlines, evaluated from left to right. All wins are multiplied by the total bet, and only the highest win on each line is paid. -
What is the RTP of The Secret Of Ba?
The RTP is 95.97%, slightly below the 96% that’s become the industry’s common benchmark. -
Who makes The Secret Of Ba?
The Secret Of Ba is made by Tom Horn Gaming, a studio whose catalogue also includes Book of Cleo and Book of Aladdin.
