Rich Wilde and the Amulet of Dead

Theme and Design

Back In Ancient Egypt With Rich Wilde For His Latest Adventure

Rich Wilde is a celebrity in the world of slots, fronting a franchise of games that started with Book of Dead and now includes 6 other titles. In these circumstances you don’t mess too much with the formula. So, we are back in Ancient Egypt at the foot of a giant temple, with huge statues of Pharaohs either side of the reel set. The artworks is more polished than in the original Book of Dead as you would expect – that game was released in 2016 – but the overall audio-visual production is not too different.

Intricate hieroglyphs are portrayed all down the sides of the temple, golden pharaohs adorn the paytable and the whole picture is bathed in an orange-red light that looks really cool. And in the background, a cinematic orchestral soundtrack plays along with more than a hint of Indiana Jones about it.

RTP and Variance

The optimum RTP setting on Rich Wilde and the Amulet of Dead is 96.29%. However, there are four other settings – 94.28%, 91.22%, 87.28% and 84.24%. You may find the game running at one of these lower rates at some slot sites in the UK. It’s therefore worth checking the RTP on the game info screen when you load up to make sure you are playing at one of the higher rates and getting good value on your wagering.  In checks made for this review I found that the game runs at 96.29% at both Barz Casino and MrQ.

Regarding variance, Like other ‘Book of’ slots, Amulet of Dead is a volatile game so it can be unpredictable and holds back much of its RTP for the free spins round where expanding symbols are driving the payouts.

Maximum Win

The maximum payout in Amulet of Dead is unimpressive at 5,000x. This is the same as the original Book of Dead but falls well short of the kind of numbers we see in more recent variations on the format. Play n Go’s own Ghost of Dead (10,000x) and Scroll of Dead (7,500x) come in higher, as do Quickspin’s Book of Duat (32,760x) and Nolimit City’s Book of Shadows (30,761x).

Symbols and Paytable

Low Stakes, High Paytable Values And Interesting Wilds and Scatters

Amulet of Dead follows the classic ‘Book of’ format with 5 reels and 3 rows. As with the original, you can choose how many lines you want to bet on, from 1 to 10 which means you can actually set your bet level to just 1p per spin!

And like all good games in this series what is impressive is the value in the paytable which pays out a whopping 1,000x at the top end for 5 premiums.

At the bottom end are the low-value symbols which are represented by the standard playing card symbols 10 through Ace, all designed in an Egyptian style, awarding between 1x for 3 10s and 30x for 5 Aces. The premiums are depicted as Horus, Anubis, Tutankhamen and Rich Wilde himself. These are valued at from 1x for 3 Horus up to 1,000x for 5 Rich Wildes.

There are also several special symbols including Wilds and Scatters that are explained in the next section.

Features and Gameplay

The gameplay will be recognisable to anyone who is familiar with Book of games, though Play n Go have tweaked it a little to keep things interesting.

Thoth Wild Comes In Stacks With Multipliers

So, in this version, the Wild symbol which is a representation of Thoth, a terrifying deity which ruled the underworld. He substitutes for all symbols except the Scatter to form wins.

When appearing on reels 2, 3 or 4, he can also land as a stack, in doing so, activating a 2x, 3x or 5x multiplier, displayed centrally above the 3 middle reels. This is a VERY regular feature in Amulet of Dead, appearing numerous times in testing which produced lots of wins in the base game. Also, when appearing as a stack in free spins Thoth can substitute for the expanding symbol to help complete paylines so he has a powerful role to perform.

Pendant Wild Scatter Triggers Free Spins and Pays Out

But more powerful still is the Pendant which has a dual role as Wild Scatter. First, landing 3 or more anywhere on the reels will trigger 10 spins. This also earns you a payout of 2x, 20x or 200x when 3, 4 or 5 land on the triggering spin. But interestingly, the Pendant is a Wild too – so it can substitute for other symbols to complete paylines in both base game and bonus round. And it also pays out 2x, 20x, 200x or 1,000x when 2, 3, 4 or 5 land on a payline.

Free Spins With Expanding Symbol

The rest of the game offers nothing new at all. Before the round starts one symbol is chosen as the expanding one. When it lands, if by expanding to full reel height it can complete paylines, then it does.

And if you land 3 or more scatters again, you’ll trigger 10 more spins.

Double of Quaudruple Your Wins With The Gamble Feature

Like most Book of games, Amulet of Dead will give you the option to 2x or 4x your wins on every payout by betting on the turn of a card. You can bet on its color for 2x or suit for 4x. But remember, if you guess wrong then you will lose your win completely!