Elysian Gold

Elysian Gold: Slot Overview

Not content leaping from various hotspot to hotspot across the globe, ELK Studios' intrepid adventurer Kane has also been hopping from one cultural belief system to another. What's that you say, Kane is back? Yep, apparently so, and where Valhall Gold (2023) was meant to be his final resting spot, the itchy-footed explorer has traded in Old Norse for Ancient Greek. His comeback slot is Elysian Gold, and it has as a central innovative feature a mysterious Pandora's box that can rain down mayhem and, hopefully, coins when it opens to reveal its secrets.

According to Wiktionary, the word Elysium means 'the home of the blessed after death', and Elysian Gold puts on a rather blissful-looking scene. Sunbeams, marble, mountains, golden plants, water features, the works; it would be an agreeable place to spend an eternity in. From the sensorial to the mechanical, avalanches adding rows and ways, interlocking features, it feels good having Kane up on the screen in a gloried return to the reels moment.

A medium-high volatile slot, Elysian Gold starts each base game spin by dropping symbols into a 6x4 gaming space where there are 4,096 ways to win. This is nothing, however, since due to adding rows and splitting symbols, the game sheet mentions 'up to millions of ways to win.' That's a lot of ways. There are also several different ways to gamble, thanks to X-iter feature buys, while base bets range from 20 c to $/€100. The one downer is an RTP of 94%, which is lower than it used to be back in Kane's earlier days.

Symbols arrive in the form of J-A card ranks, tridents, wreaths, lighting, helms, birds, owls, bulls, and Kanes. Winning symbols of 6 OAK in size pay 0.3x for the royals, 0.8x-1x for the mids, and 2x-5x for the four high pays. Wilds substitute for any paying symbols, also possessing the same value as the highest paying symbol. All paying and wild symbols may appear in 1x1 and big 2x2, 3x3, or 4x4 sizes, counting as the number of 1x1 symbols they contain. Empty spaces below big symbols fill with symbols of the same type as the big symbol.

Elysian Gold: Slot Features

Gold fans will be on solid ground here as they bump into a set of features that includes Avalanches, Icarus, Pandora's box, split symbols, Wild Forge, free spins, and X-iter bonus buys.

Avalanches

Winning symbols explode after they pay, and gravity fills in the empty spaces with a symbol drop, repeating if a new win appears. After an Avalanche, an extra row of symbols is added to the grid, up to 8 rows high. A ninth row can be unlocked by landing an overflowing symbol. Rows reset in the base game between spins.

Icarus & Pandora's Box

Having 2 or more Icarus symbols in view triggers a replacement of symbols when there are no more wins. The Icarus symbol and all symbols directly above it (not scatters, wilds, or Pandora's box) are replaced with individual instances of paying symbols. Passing through a big symbol replaces the entire big symbol. Icarus symbols can be 1x1 or 2x2 in size. Symbols below a big Icarus fill with wild symbols. If Icarus activates on the eighth row, a ninth row is added.

The Pandora's box symbol collects all symbols part of a win - big symbols are broken down into 1x1 symbols for this. When no more wins occur, Pandora's box opens, creating an explosion and refilling the grid with its contents, starting with the most collected symbol type. Where there is the same number of collected instances, the higher value symbol has priority. Pandora's box remains open till all its contents have been revealed, after which it is removed when emptied.

Split & Wild Forge

If a pay symbol lands with a split marker, all symbols in view of that type are split, so they count as two symbols. Big symbols are broken down before being split. The blocking Wild Forge symbol, meanwhile, locks into position when it lands and fills empty spaces below it with wild symbols after avalanche explosions.

Bonus Game

Hitting 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatters triggers 10, 15, 20, or 25 free spins, respectively. In the bonus game, a safety level increases by one row on each winning spin. The next free spin drops symbols up to the current active safety level. The round can be retriggered by landing 3 or more scatters, awarding the same number of free spins as if won during the base game. Wild Forges are persistent through a free spins session, and wild symbols are sticky in bonus mode.

X-iter

Bonus Modes can be activated from the X-iter at set costs. Bonus Hunt is 2.5x the bet and triples the chance of triggering the bonus game, whereas guaranteeing a Wild Forge hits costs 10x the bet. Max Split buys a game round with 8 rows and a Split symbol costing 25x, or players may buy the bonus game for 100x or the super bonus at 500x. In the super bonus, Pandora's box lands on the first spin and only releases symbols after the last drop is dead.

Elysian Gold: Slot Verdict

Guess you really never can say never. After Kane had supposedly hung up his boots, all Uhtred style in Valhall Gold, ELK Studios has seen fit to recall him for active service. Why? Who can answer these things outside of ELK HQ? So, speculation it is going to have to be. One possible explanation is that an ELK exec, while bathing in that warm, cosy, hazy zone between full wakefulness and sleep, had a vision of a golden Elysium, Kane, and Pandora's box, but instead of forgetting the dream moments after getting up, they raced to the studio to birth Elysian Gold. Hey, it might've happened.

Whatever the origin story, Elysian Gold is another playable Gold slot which returns familiar features such as growing reels, Big symbols, and Wild Forges. On top of the bones, ELK Studios has layered extras such as Icarus symbols, which are a nice add-on, and splits, which might be more strongly associated with Nolimit City but can be just as useful here for stuffing a lot of symbols onto the reels, thereby generating oodles of ways to win. The star of the review was Pandora's box, though, as it has the technical capabilities of being a real ride. Super bonus rounds, in particular, benefit from the box storing all winning symbols from the start of the round till the very end of the very last spin before spewing them back onto the reels till its contents have been spent.

Squeeze the game for all its worth, and Elysian Gold can theoretically cough up wins to a max level of 25,000x the bet. This is much higher than earlier Gold slots could boast, but it is on par with the previous Valhall Gold release. To sum up, a nice mix of familiar gaming elements, a recognisable main character, and a couple of sweet extras combine to make Elysian Gold an unmissable homecoming event for gamblers who enjoyed previous Gold slots and had been hoping ELK Studios would cut Kane's retirement plan short to ship him out in something new.