Second Thunder

Second Thunder: Slot Overview

When looking at various world belief systems, it's interesting to note how many of them describe some sort of catastrophic end-of-everything event, though, on a positive note, rebirth often follows. One of the most popular destruction and rebirth events to populate online slots is the famous battle Ragnarök from Norse mythology, which provides the backdrop for software provider Thunderkick's release Second Thunder, where catastrophic ruin or redemption awaits willing participants depending on the way chance is blowing.

The game depicts an army heading somewhere, to war, presumably, on a dark and stormy night. Trigger the bonus round, and the game vocally confirms that 'Ragnarök has arrived', so players are indeed marching to a titanic tussle between the forces of order and chaos, leading to the destruction of the earth and the rebirth of a new one. Second Thunder provides a glimpse of cataclysm through its distinctive art style, martial music, and a big, shadowy hammer-wielding warrior, Thor, flashing in the background. It might have been even more titanic, but Second Thunder delivers a taste of Old Norse end-of-the-world action.

Second Thunder goes to war on a 6x5 grid where there are 50 paylines evaluating winning combinations. The game is stacked with betting options and comes with a base stake range of $/€0.10 to $/€100. It possesses a highly volatile math model and produces a theoretical RTP of 94.2%.

Regular pay symbols are helms, axes, horns, shields, birds, serpents, warthogs, wolves, and a character symbol. Landing 6 matching symbols in a winning combination pays from 0.6x to 10x the stake. The wild replaces all symbols except scatters. They appear singly on the reels or as 2-3 high stacks when appearing from the Feature Row. Wilds are present on all reels, and pay 10x the stake when six of them create a win.

Second Thunder: Slot Features

Second Thunder's features are a wild transformation modifier, a Feature Row injecting various goodies, a free spins bonus round, Bet+, and feature buys.

The Wild Feature

The Wild Feature activates when wilds land on 2 or more reels. They create a rectangular shape that converts all symbols to wilds within it. The field can expand up to 6 reels. The bonus game can trigger when a Wild Field is present.

Feature Row

The Feature Row sits above the reels and may randomly activate in the base game or remain active when using Bet+. When active, it displays at least 1 wild or scatter and may also have multipliers of x2 to x10. If more than one multiplier appears on the same reel, the values are added together before being applied.

Bonus Game

Landing 3 scatters triggers 5 free spins, plus 2 extra free spins are granted for each extra scatter. The Feature Row is active on every free spin in the bonus game. Hitting 3 or more scatter awards a full retrigger.

Bet+ & Feature Buys

The Bonus Boost and Bonus Boost Plus cost 1.5x and 3x to make each spin 2 and 5 times more likely to trigger free spins, respectively. Presence of Thor costs 15x to guarantee the Feature Row is active on the initial spin, while 15x also buys Thunderstorm, a guaranteed Wild Field on the initial spin. Finally, for 75x the stake, players can buy entrance to the free spins round.

Second Thunder: Slot Verdict

A final all-out battle between order and chaos featuring gods, monsters, and giants is tricky to recreate in an online slot, but Thunderkick has had a decent shot at it. God of War this is not, yet players get a sense of the dark days of battle with everything on the line. Some say normal people fight in Ragnarök, but why they would want to take part in a war that includes Odin, Fenrir, Thor, Jörmungandr, Freyr, and Surtr is anyone's guess. Maybe humanity wouldn't have a choice if the time ever came. Anyway, gamblers do have the choice of whether to give Second Thunder a spin or not, and there are reasons for flying into the fray or sitting the battle out.

On the positive side, Second Thunder doesn't have a huge amount of features, but they're able to tie into each other. The Wild Field returns, as seen previously in Archie O'Loggins and the Enchanted Masks, where it was quite well suited to the cluster pays mechanic. What boosts the Wild Field in Second Thunder is that, should a multiplier be injected from the Feature Row, it applies to all wins on that reel, and multiple multipliers on the same reel are added. That's the game's peak moment, really, hunting for fields, and injecting multipliers onto them, or just on regular wins. Outside this effect, the action was a bit slow, and despite a 12,500x max win, it proved tricky to make major headway, not saying it can't happen.

To sum up, Second Thunder's thematic visuals and dramatic music create an engagingly dark atmosphere, helping give the game a somewhat epic sense. Heavy visuals are backed by potentially rewarding mechanics, making it an entertaining choice for those ready and willing to brave the storm of a pretend Ragnarök on the reels. There is a sense Thunderkick could have squeezed the theme a bit harder, but Second Thunder should please the legion of Norse-themed enthusiasts.