Merlin's Alchemy: Slot Overview

Forget David Copperfield, Harry Houdini, or the spoon-bending prowess of Uri Gellar for a moment. If you play online slots, the practitioner of magic who tends to appear around here is the wizard Merlin, he of the Arthurian Legends fame. Today, he's apparated into Bullshark Games' online slot Merlin's Alchemy, powered by Hacksaw Gaming. This is an alchemically minded scatter paying slot with numerous special symbols on the side, plus a persistent multiplier element during its Spellbook Free Spins round that may, if the stars align, turn a lump of lead bankroll into something more glistening.

Depending on the source of information, Merlin is traditionally placed next to King Arthur many hundreds of years ago. However, the Merlin in this game looks closer to a Victorian gent than someone who walked the Earth not long after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. In Merlin's Alchemy, Merlin is reminiscent of the League of Legends inventor Heimerdinger, here balancing a potion bottle in one hand containing a mysterious glowing substance. The alchemical concept of turning lead into gold is seen by some as a metaphor rather than a straight transformation of material substances, so there is no telling what this bespectacled chap might be up to then, and Merlin's Alchemy's eerie ambient sounds deepen the mystery.

On the mundane physical side of things, Merlin's Alchemy's gaming takes place on a 6-reel, 5-row area, which uses a scatter-paying system. When at least 8 identical pay symbols are in view, they create a win, then the winning symbols are removed and replaced by the cascade mechanism. Bullshark Gaming has rated the volatility at 4/5, or medium-high, and the default RTP value is 96.25%, with one lower return model also available. The hit frequency is 24.84%, and players may stake 10 c to $/€100 per spin.

When glancing over the paytable, we find 10 regular paying symbols. These are parchments with 10 to A printed on them for the low pays, then 5 lumps of metal in different colours as the high pays. When an 8 OAK scatter win hits, the payouts range from 0.1 to 2.5 times the bet, while the upper end tops out at 5 to 150 times the bet for hitting 15+ OAK.

Merlin's Alchemy: Slot Features

Mystery symbols are a prominent feature in Merlin's Alchemy, which can reveal various goodies from its bag, including special symbols such as multiplier boosts and so on. As well as spinning its alchemy in the base game, Merlin's Alchemy has a free spins round, as well as three feature buy choices.

Mystery Symbols

Mystery symbols appear in the base game and in free spins. When they hit, mystery symbols reveal a random paying symbol or special symbols. All revealed paying symbols are identical. The special symbols are:

• Wild – replaces any paying symbol. If only wilds are on the grid, they have the same value as the highest-paying symbol.
• Activator Wild – this symbol applies the Global Multiplier's value to the wins it is part of and substitutes any paying symbol. If more than 1 Activator Wild appears, each one applies the Global Multiplier value by adding the multipliers together.
• Sticky Activator Wild – only appears in free spins and remains in place until the round ends, acting like the Activator Wild.
• Green Potion Bottle – adds 1x to 100x to the Global Multiplier.
• Red Potion Bottle – multiplies the Global Multiplier by x2 to x10. Any additive values always apply first, followed by multiplicative values.

Spellbook Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 FS scatter symbols in the base game awards 8, 10, or 12 free spins. During free spins, the odds of landing mystery symbols are increased, and the Global Multiplier value is persistent till the round ends. The Global Multiplier starts on x1 unless otherwise stated.

Bonus Buy

The Bonus Buy gives the chance of activating these bonuses, all of which are highly volatile.

• BonusHunt FeatureSpins – 2x the bet where each spin is 3 times more likely to trigger Spellbook Free Spins. RTP 96.23%.
• Spellbook Free Spins – 100x the bet to trigger 8, 10, or 12 free spins. RTP 96.27%.
• Spellbook Free Spins – 200x the bet to buy 8, 10, or 12 free spins where the multiplier starts from x10. RTP 96.36%.

Merlin's Alchemy: Slot Verdict

Not so long ago, it seemed like designing a 'book of' slot was a casino game maker's rite of passage, a sort of must-have weapon in their arsenal to gain a certain level of acceptance, like owning a pair of white toe Converse Chuck Taylor All Star. These days, at the time of writing, the cool must-have piece of kit seems to be a scatter-paying slot of some description; so popular have they become, and so numerous the many options players have to choose from. The question in this instance is why choose Merlin's Alchemy over the multitude?

What's encouraging is that Merlin's Alchemy doesn't really put a foot wrong, so there are no blindingly obvious faults to get all worked up over. It inhabits an enjoyable alchemical world, though some of the smaller visual effects, the way win values are presented, for example, or the symbols themselves, aren't the most attention-grabbing and might have been done to better effect. A small thing perhaps, but details matter in a market as increasingly saturated as the scatter-paying one. Not that these details detract hugely from Merlin's Alchemy's positives, which include having a lot of wild symbol action for a scatter pays game, winning potential of 10,000x the bet, and a relatively clever way of pushing multipliers into the mix.

To wrap up, Merlin's Alchemy provided a nice scatter-paying experience, easily in possession of more pros than cons. It's unlikely to stick it to the likes of Gates of Olympus, and it may struggle to make itself heard above the tide of slots Pragmatic Play and others have unleashed, but it's competently done and worth a look see if this style is your thing.