Viking Runes

Travel to the Northern lands on a quest for hidden treasures on the slot from TrueLab powered by Yggdrasil Gaming’s YG Masters platform. Viking Runes is taking you on a highly volatile journey across a 9×9 grid with roaming Lightning Wilds, three random modifiers and a free spins round with progressive multipliers that can lead to wins of up to 25,000 times your bet.

Slot Details

Viking Runes is a 9×9 grid slot with cluster pays and cascading symbols. Wins are awarded for clusters of six or more matching symbols landing horizontally and/or vertically connected. You can join the mighty warriors on desktop, mobile or tablet from 0.40 to 40 credits per spin. The game has very high volatility with an RTP of 96.22%.

The visuals are all you can expect from a Viking-themed slot – a serene, snow-covered scenery with giant Norse statues, all mysteriously lit by the Aurora Borealis. Two more statues flank the stone grid while a Viking warrior is standing guard to the left, ready to unleash his powerful hammer and axe when you reach various thresholds throughout the gameplay.

The pay symbols start at the low end with a range of runes in different coloured shades without being highlighted – green, blue and brown – awarding 200x your bet for clusters of 41 or more symbols. The medium symbols are runes in highlighted colours – green, purple, red and orange – while the two premiums are two elaborate icons with red and blue gems respectively. Hit clusters of 41+ symbols to win 400 to 1,600 times your stake. A glowing rune is the wild with the standard icon having a blue hue. The other four are shown to the right of the grid (desktop) and are activated through scoring consecutive winning cascades. There are no scatters on the reels.

Viking Runes Slot Features

Neither Yggdrasil Gaming nor Truelab are really known to be a grid slot specialist, having to date only a handful such as Pirates 2: Mutiny in their portfolio. All the more surprising that they opted on this occasion to take inspiration from one of the most popular grid slots, namely Viking Runecraft from Play’n GO. The similarities stretch beyond the name and include some of the modifiers and pay symbols. What differentiates it clearly is the much higher win potential of 25,000x compared to 5,000x bet.

Core to the gameplay is the cascading symbol mechanic with cluster pays. At the start of every spin, a total of 81 symbols will drop down onto the grid and landing a cluster of six or more matching symbols horizontally and/or vertically connected will get you a win. All in the combo will be removed and new symbols cascade into the empty spaces, potentially leading to a chain of wins within the same spin sequence. It all ends if no more winning clusters occur after a cascade.

Coming to your aide in your reel quest are the Lightning Wilds that are held on the bar to the right of the grid (desktop). Every winning cascade will activate one moving Lightning Wild, up to four within a single spin sequence. Any activated wild will be placed onto a random reel position once no more winning clusters occur. They will stay on the grid for the duration of the spin and move to a new random position after a winning cascade. All roaming wilds will be removed once a spin sequence concludes.

And there is more. TrueLab included no less than three random modifiers that can trigger at various phases of a spin in the base game and bonus feature. Only one out of the three can trigger in a single cascade.

• Runic Shuffle: Can trigger on a losing spin and reshuffle all symbols to guarantee at least one winning cluster.
• Spell of Ancestor: Can trigger at any time when no new winning clusters occur, transforming all low-value symbols on the grid into the top-paying rune symbol with a red gem.
• Viking Sorcery: Can trigger at any time when no new winning clusters occur, placing 3 to 9 wilds on random grid positions.

Hitting five winning cascades in a row will trigger 6 Free Spins which cannot be retriggered. All four Lightning Wilds will be active throughout the feature and move to a random position on the grid after every winning cascade. Plus, they will carry a progressive multiplier which will start at x1 and increase by x1 every time they were part of a winning cluster, no limits.

Final Verdict

Slot connoisseurs will most probably have a similar reaction like I had after the first look at this creation from Yggdrasil Gaming’s partner Truelab. Viking Runes leans rather hard into the popularity of its competitor from Play’n GO. Not only is the name very similar but also some of the features are almost identical. Not inherently a negative, it just seems rather lazy. Nevertheless, the slot is very playable and has some elements that separate it, including a free spins feature and a vastly higher win potential.

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