Totem Guardians

Theme and Design

Strong Spiritual Vibes In This Slot With Epic Scenery 

Totem Guardians has a native American theme with a 6x7 game grid set in a small clearing on a mountain top with an epic view of snow-capped peaks, tall trees and wide skies. A tipee is pitched to the left of the grid whilst an ethereal soundtrack punctuated by wolf howls and singing birds completes the spiritual, natural feel of the production. It definitely grabs the attention and boast the usual high quality visual style we expect from Relax Gaming.

RTP and Variance

The two version of this game have separate RTP rates. The regular version runs at a solid 96.1% which is about average. The Dream Drop version runs at 94% to account for the jackpot contribution made with every spin. There are no other RTPs. If you are NOT interested in playing for the big money prize then don’t play at 94%, find a version of Totem Guardian’s without the Dream Drop to get the 96.1% RTP.

As with all Dream Drop games, the variance here is high, so it will be volatile, with an uneven win distribution.

Maximum Win

The maximum win outside of the progressive jackpot is just 5,000x. This is the lowest of any Dream Drop game. Most are around 10,000x, though there are a few at 20,000x including Neko Nights and Templar Tumble 2. Of course, if you are playing for the Dream Drop that is not an issue. However, if you are considering playing without it, you might think twice.

Symbols and Paytable

Totem Guardian plays out on a grid with 6 reels and up to 7 rows. The game starts with just 4 rows open, and for each new bonus symbol that lands, one more will open, to a maximum of 7.

The game also uses the Connected Ways mechanic for payouts. That means you need to land identical symbols on adjacent reels from left to right, starting at the left most reel, where the identical symbols are on the same row, or one above or below each other. This creates 466 connected ways when 4 rows are in play, 707 when 5 rows are in play, 950 when 6 rows are in play, and 1,193 when 7 rows are in play.

The paytable itself doesn’t show great value, but the wins in Totem Guardian are significantly boosted by multipliers as we will see. The low value symbols are the card suits, valued at from 0.1x for 3 diamonds up to 0.4x for 6 spades. Premiums are the 4 animal carvings – wolf, moose, bear and eagle. These are valued at from 0.4x for 3 moose up to 3x for 6 eagles.

There is also a wild symbol, represented by the carved ‘W’ and appearing only on reels 2 to 6. It will substitute for any pay symbol to complete wins but does NOT have a pay value of its own.

Features and Gameplay

At the heart of its gameplay is what is a very powerful multiplier mechanic where each symbol has its own multiplier. This gets more power in the free spins round due to persistent values as we find out here.

Tumble Wins and Totem Multipliers For EACH Symbol

The exciting part about this game is that each symbol has its own individual multiplier. These are displayed on the totem pole on the right side of the grid.

The tumble wins feature is standard. After each winning spin, the winning symbols are removed from the reels and new ones drop in to replace them. The difference is, for every one of each symbol type removed (those in the win way AND matching symbols) its multiplier value increases by 1x, up to a maximum of 100x. During the current spin and tumble sequence, ALL wins have the respective multiplier values applied. So, for example, a win with 4 eagles would have the eagle multiplier applied to it.

You’ll also see another multiplier value displayed at the top of the totem. This starts at 1x and increases every time a bonus symbol lands. This value shows how fast the individual symbol multipliers increase. So, if it’s 4x then your symbol multiplier increases by 4x with each symbol removed from the reels.

Remember, those bonus symbols also increase the number of rows in play to increase the potential connected ways. So they are powerful in the game!

Free Spins Round With Maximum Connected Ways and Persistent Multipliers 

The bonus symbols come into play again to trigger the free spins round. You need to land THREE simultaneously. Here is how the round looks:

• 5 spins are awarded
• The reels open up to full 7 row height for 1,193 connected ways on EVERY spin
• Multiplier values are carried over from the triggering spin
• Multiplier values are PERSISTENT – so they do not re-set between spins
• Every further bonus symbol that lands extends the round by 1 more spin

Dream Drop Jackpot Game

If you are playing the Dream Drop version of this game then watch out for this dropping randomly at the start of any spin. The game plays out on 5 reels. That is one for each of the jackpots – Rapid (seeded at £1), Midi (seeded at £5), Maxi (seeded at £100), Major (seeded at £25,000) and Mega (seeded at £500,000). The Rapid and Midi reels both have 4 rows, the Maxi has 3 rows, the Major has 4 rows and the Mega has 5 rows.

The game is simple. On each spin, either DD symbols or blank stone blocks land. If a DD drops then it stays in place. If a stone block drops then it is removed before the next spin. When one reel is filled with DD’s then its prize is awarded.