Valley of the Kings Slot Review
Three skull-faced pharaohs stand watch over a ruined necropolis, a dull red sun burning through the dust behind toppled columns and half-buried skeletons. That’s the welcome in Valley of the Kings, and it oversells what’s underneath: the base game here is a formality, and Toucan Royale has hung almost everything on a single hold-and-respin Bonus Game. The art promises a tomb full of treasure. The reels pay out a good deal less, most of the time.
The argument here is that the artwork does more work than the base game beneath it. It’s a 5×3 reel set with a modest paytable and a free spins round, and the real weight sits in a hold-and-respin Bonus Game with a four-tier jackpot ladder that climbs to 1,000x the bet. What the art promises, the bonus round has to deliver.
Base Game & Features
The reels sit in a cast-gold frame with horned skull ornaments at the corners, Anubis glaring from one side and a crumbling carved doorway on the other. It’s a 5×3 grid, and the symbol run goes from Egyptian icons down to card royals.
The paytable is short and honest about its shape:
- Pharaoh (red/blue): 1.50 for three, 6.00 for four, 15.00 for five
- Mummy (green): 0.80, 3.20, 8.00
- Scarab: 0.60, 2.40, 6.00
- Ankh (red): 0.40, 1.60, 4.00
- A and K: 0.30, 1.20, 3.00
- Q, J and 10: 0.20, 0.80, 2.00
The drop-off from the top of the paytable is steep, with the royals paying as little as 0.20 for three. This is a paytable that keeps the base game ticking over rather than one that threatens anything big on its own.
There’s a gap of a factor of nearly two between each rung of the Egyptian symbols: the Pharaoh’s five-of-a-kind pays 15.00 where the Mummy’s pays 8.00, and the Mummy’s pays 8.00 where the Scarab’s pays 6.00. The card royals then halve again in two steps, with A and K sharing a tier above Q, J and 10. Two royal symbols at the same value means the bottom half of the paytable is effectively four ranks, not five.
The wild is a red snake that substitutes for everything except the Scatter, Bonus and Feature symbols, and it comes with a 3x multiplier during Free Spins. The Scatter is a pyramid, and it only appears on reels 1, 3 and 5. Because those three reels are the only places a Scatter can land, every pyramid that shows is one third of the way to the free spins round.
Valley of the Kings Bonus Game & Free Spins
Free Spins
3 Scatter pyramids anywhere on reels 1, 3 and 5 award 8 free spins. The round runs with wilds carrying a 3x multiplier, which triples every win the snake helps to complete. It’s a simple, familiar package: no retrigger rules beyond the scatters, no pick’em layers, just multiplied wilds.
The multiplier is where the round’s entire upside lives. Whatever the base game pays a wild-assisted line, free spins pay three times over. The paytable’s shapes and gaps all carry across unchanged; only the totals move, and they move in one direction.
The Bonus Game
Six Bonus symbols are the entry price, and Feature symbols count towards that threshold too. Only Bonus and Feature symbols land during the round, and every one that lands sticks to the reels. Each carries its payment in currency on its face.
3 respins are granted at the start, and every new symbol that lands resets the count to 3. The round runs until the respins are exhausted or all 15 cells fill with Bonus and Feature symbols. At the end, every locked value is tallied and the total is paid.
Which Feature symbols triggered the round determines which Feature is in play, and the trio arched beneath the pharaohs on the title screen tells you what they do:
- Boost Feature: each Boost symbol doubles the value of every Bonus and Feature symbol locked on the reels, then reveals a value of its own
- Mystery Feature: each Mystery symbol reveals a random value or a jackpot, excluding the Grand
- Collect Feature: each Collect symbol gathers up all the values locked on the reels
The order of operations matters more than it first appears. A Collect symbol sweeps the board as it stands, so a Boost landing first and a Collect landing second doubles everything before the sweep. The Boost’s own value is revealed only after the doubling is done, and Mystery symbols resolve into whatever they hold the moment they land. A round that opens with the right Feature combination compounds; one that draws them the wrong way round pays the flatter total.
Jackpots
Mystery symbols can bring in the tiered Bonus Game Prizes, which step up as follows:
- Mini: 15x the bet
- Minor: 50x the bet
- Major: 200x the bet
- Grand: 1,000x the bet
The Grand sits apart from the ladder. It can’t be won through a Mystery reveal; the only route is to fill all 15 cells with Bonus and Feature symbols before the respins run out. With 3 respins resetting on every new symbol, a full board means the symbols keep arriving, and the round doesn’t stop until they don’t.
There’s no overall maximum win figure for this one, so the 1,000x Grand is the biggest number the game commits to. Filling every cell with locked values on top of the Grand payout is the practical ceiling, and it’s a demanding one to reach.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7/10
Playing this one is mostly a wait. The pharaohs glower, the reels tick over, and the whole point of the exercise is the six-symbol door into the Bonus Game. That’s the one reason to sit down here: the respin round, when it opens, is properly tense.
Its strength is that the round isn’t one round. Which Feature symbols set it off changes what the respins are worth, and a Boost landing before a Collect can double a board before it’s swept. Few games make the draw of a single symbol matter that much.
The weakness is everything either side of it. The base game pays table-stakes, free spins are the plainest version of that round going, and the Grand tops out at 1,000x, which the art makes feel grander than it is. Collect-and-respin players will be happy in this valley. Anyone after a big ceiling or a base game with a pulse will find the tomb quieter than the blood-red sky suggests.
Valley of the Kings FAQs
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What is the grid size of Valley of the Kings?
Valley of the Kings runs on a 5×3 grid, framed in gold with the necropolis scene behind the reels. -
Who makes Valley of the Kings?
Valley of the Kings is made by Toucan Royale. -
How do you trigger Free Spins in Valley of the Kings?
Land 3 Scatter pyramid symbols on reels 1, 3 and 5 in the base game to trigger 8 free spins. During the round, wild symbols carry a 3x multiplier. -
How is the Bonus Game triggered?
6 or more Bonus symbols, or a combination of Bonus and Feature symbols, trigger the Bonus Game. The type of Feature symbols that activated it determines which Feature is awarded during the round. -
How do respins work in the Bonus Game?
You start with 3 respins, and every new Bonus or Feature symbol that lands resets the count to 3. The round ends when the respins run out or all 15 cells fill with symbols, at which point every locked value is tallied and paid. -
What does the Boost Feature do?
Each Boost Feature symbol doubles the values of all Bonus and Feature symbols locked on the reels. Once it has doubled them, the Boost symbol reveals a value of its own. -
What jackpots are available in Valley of the Kings?
The Bonus Game carries a four-tier prize ladder: Mini at 15x the bet, Minor at 50x, Major at 200x, and a Grand Bonus Prize at 1,000x. Mystery symbols can reveal any tier except the Grand. -
How do you win the Grand Bonus Prize?
Fill all 15 cells on the reels with Bonus and Feature symbols during the Bonus Game. It can’t be won through Mystery reveals, so a full board is the only route.
