5 Clans

5 Clans: Slot Overview

Strap up for some swords and sandals action in 5 Clans, a collaboration between Yggdrasil Gaming and partners Reflex Gaming. This online slot follows a decades-long war between a quintet of clans as they battle for supremacy on a patch of ground uninspiringly referred to as 'central lands.' Matching the five warring parties are five special symbols, four of them triggering bonus features, while the fifth ratchets up the battle pitch in a round of retriggerable free spins.

On a positive note, Reflex Gaming has ambitiously aimed high and gone all epic for 5 Clans. At least, they've tried to go epic, sometimes hitting the mark, sometimes falling a bit short. What works is the fantasy background displaying a Mount Doom-like erupting volcano on the left and a fecund valley on the right. This must be the 'central lands' of the fable, and they seem as good as any other to fight over, we suppose. A mention of the soundtrack should be made. Sure, the music has an epicness to it as well, but that's because it is very close to Game of Thrones in the base game. During free spins, there's a track change. Then the music sounds like the sort of thing accompanying 4K drone footage of a flight over a popular tourist destination like Venice. The audio-visuals are sort of there, but sort of not quite as well, much like 5 Clans as a whole.

The battling takes place on a 5-reel, 3-row game grid, zigzagged with 10 fixed paylines. Wins hit when matching symbols line up from left to right, starting at the first reel of the game panel. If you thought war was a volatile affair, prepare to think again as 5 Clans is driven by a low volatile math model, producing an RTP of 96%. Despite not seeming to have much gas in the tank, 5 Clans comes with a surprisingly high max win figure, maxing out at 27,471 times your stake.

Playable from 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin, the 5 clans of the tale are represented by five leaders who appear as the top paying symbols. These are Eira Frost for Ice, Dracomorgan for the Dragons, Lupa-left eye for the Wolves, Abbas for Lions, and Kai McDuff for fire. Land five of these mighty warriors across a payline to win 6 to 75 times your stake. Low pays are a bunch of sore thumb looking jewelled card suits – hearts, spades, clubs, and diamonds. All are worth 3x the bet for five of a kind. Wilds show up in a couple of different forms, covered below; all replace regular pay symbols to complete line wins.

5 Clans: Slot Features

Also representing the five clans are 5 bonus Shield symbols, each with its own modifying ability. These appear in either the base game or the bonus, each one triggering a different effect. Where respins are mentioned, only the respective Shield symbol appears on the reels. When the respins end a win evaluation is made.

• Red Shields – activate a super wild which cover its entire reel and awards a respin. If a Red Shield lands on a respin, it also locks and awards a respin. Up to four Super Wilds at the most may land.
• Green Shields – adds a random number of wilds to the reels and awards a respin. If more wilds land on the respin, they also lock and keep respins going. It is possible to add up to 13 wilds this way.
• Purple Shield – these are mystery symbols that lock and award respins until no new Purple Shields hit. Then they all turn into the same matching character symbol, up to 15 of them.
• Blue Shield – awards a multiplier to any win of up to x50.
• Orange Shield – if in view on the last reel, 9 free spins are awarded.

Free Spins

As mentioned, free spins are activated when the orange shield lands in view. During this bonus round, Shield Symbols land with greater regularity than they do in the base game. Landing an Orange Shield elongates the round by awarding +3 additional free spins.

Buy Feature

If you're not in the mood to wait around, then it may be possible to use the feature buy option to trigger 9 free spins for the cost of 100x your stake.

5 Clans: Slot Verdict

You can see what Reflex Gaming was aiming for with 5 Clans, and in some ways, they reach their destination, in others, the game misses its mark. There is a certain level of fantasy going on here; the graphics at times are decent, with a GOT undertone running throughout. If you really miss Westeros, maybe a spin or two on 5 Clans might help fill the void. It'll probably be quicker than waiting for The Winds of Winter to be released, seeing as the book's tentative release date keeps being pushed back.

For a slot with so many modifiers, 5 Clans' base game was surprisingly uneventful. The simple reason is they just didn't trigger very often. Since there is no official stat attached, if we eyeball the frequency, it came out to around one, maybe two modifiers per batch of 100 spins. The modifiers would trigger out of the blue, wake us from the grind, maybe produce something of interest, then it was back to the base game plod.

The pace picks up for free spins, where even the music starts to sound original. It's like 5 Clans holds back its arsenal of features for the bonus round, where modifiers trigger much more frequently, like every first or second spin at times. Even then, the action failed to work itself up into much of a frenzy. However, on paper at least, 5 Clans is quite the berserker, where Reflex claims a max win figure of 27,471x the bet. Couple what we experienced of the gameplay with the low volatility, and we are guessing an unprecedented frenzy of clannish violence on the reels would be required to reach that level.

5 Clans was a so-so ride while it lasted, but there are no plans to return. Some of what it does isn't bad. Aspects of the graphics might be good enough for certain fantasy fans to lose themselves in while rooting for whichever clan takes their fancy. There is massive paper potential, so who knows, 5 Clans might strike a nerve with some players. At other times, the whole enterprise came across as a little too cheesy. It didn't help that the base game drear mixed with tame maths made 5 Clans feel like homework most of the time.