Magic Lab

Theme and Design

A Slot With Sorcery, Potions and Spell Books For Magic Fans

Magic slots can be fun when the right mix of potions is applied. And design is a big part of that. But in the case of Magic Lab NetEnt haven’t quite reached the creative levels of slots like Hacksaw’s dimension-twisting Time Spinners, or the epic fantasy, Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana from Play n Go. Instead, we’re stuck in the confines of a stuffy lab, albeit one stacked to the rafters with potions and spell books, one of which sits open in front of the reel set. There’s a quaintness to the whole scene that suggest it might be the realm of some benevolent wizard but for me the whole scene is a bit underwhelming. Where’s the neon lights and fireworks?!!!

RTP and Variance

Magic Lab from NetEnt has 3 possible RTP settings – 96.1%, 94.15% and 88.12%. Whilst most UK slot sites run NetEnt games at the optimum RTP, beware because there are a few who choose the lower rates, even down to 88%. I recommend playing at MrQ from Lindar Media who consistently run slots at the highest RTP. You can check for yourself by opening up the game info screen once you’ve loaded up Magic Lab, then scolling through until you see ‘Return to Player’.

The variance here is medium-high, so perhaps not as volatile as other scatter pays slots from NetEnt like Bee Hive Bonanza for example. But it will still be a bumpy ride at times and requires sensible bankroll management to absorb the tougher spells.

Maximum Win

With a relatively high variance you might be expecting a blockbuster max payout on Magic Lab, but in fact it’s a disappointing 5,999x. If that doesn’t do it for you then I recommend checking out our list of NetEnt slots with the highest maximum wins for a game to play, including Rome: The Golden Age (100,000x) and Starburst XXXtreme (200,000x).

Symbols and Paytable

With its scatter pays engine, Magic Lab has a 6 reel, 5 row game area where wins are triggered by landing 8 or more identical symbols ANYWHERE on a spin. The beauty of this format of course is that you can create some big, big wins by landing lots of identical symbols across the reels.

There are 10 pay symbols in all to help you. The low payers are made up from the cards, 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace. These come in at from 0.1x for 8 10s. The premiums are the potion bottles in yellows, greens, purples and blues. These are valued at up to 35x for 15 or more of the highest value bottles.

There are also Wild symbols that substitute for any pay symbol to help complete wins. Only one can appear on each spin, and when they form part of a win, they stick for the subsequent avalanches, with a multiplier that increases by 1x for each avalanche. At the end of the game phase, the wild disappears before the next spin.

Features and Gameplay

Magic Lab is a simple slot in the base game, relying solely on avalanche wins to elevate the gameplay. But it gets more interesting in the free spins round where three extras can be unlocked.

Avalanche Wins

Before we get to the main feature, a word on the avalanche wins. These are commonplace in scatters pays and cluster pays slots, and even some standard win ways games too. Here, after each win, winning symbols are removed from the reels. Existing symbols drop down to fill the spaces, and any remaining spaces are filled with new symbols dropping down from above the grid.

This process repeats until no more wins are formed. Then, all wins are paid out and the next spin phase begins.

Free Spins With Wilds and Multipliers

To be in with a chance of landing a big win you need to move into the free spins phase of Magic Lab. This is unlocked by landing 3 or more scatter symbols at which point you are awarded with 5 spins.

This is a powerful feature because it comes with three extras:

• A Guaranteed Wild is added somewhere on the bottom row of the grid. It stays in place until the round ends, increasing it’s multiplier value with each successive win.
• In the Remove Symbol feature, one pay symbol is removed from the reels to increase your odds of landing wins. The symbol remains removed until the round ends.
• The Double Wild Multiplier doubles the value of the multiplier on the wild at the bottom of the reels until the end of the round.

The interesting part is that the feature trigger in a specific order depending on how many scatters landed to unlock the free spins. It works like this:

• 3 scatters triggered free spins – Guaranteed Wild on spin 1; Remove Symbol on spin 2 and 3.
• 4 scatters triggered free spins – Guaranteed Wild on spin 1; Remove Symbol on spin 2, 3 and 4.
• 5 scatters triggered free spins – Guaranteed Wild on spin 1; Remove Symbol on spin 2, 3 and 4; Double Wild Mulitplier on spin 5.