Serpent King: Slot Overview
The lion is usually known as the king of the jungle, but not this time. Around here, a frightening reptile has crawled its way to the top of the food chain to play the central figure in Red Tiger's online slot Serpent King. If this is ringing any bells, it's probably because the game is linked to earlier RT slots, Primate King and Primate King Megaways. Like those two, upgrading the wild symbol and unlocking a sixth reel are critical elements in Serpent King and are augmented by a handful of other extras.
Once again, players are dragged kicking and screaming to a dense jungle in Serpent King, where they can try their luck and avoid getting savaged by the creature's pointing bits. The serpent is not a snake, but more a fantastical beast with glowing blue eyes, clawed appendages, and a frilly mane. You wouldn't want to see it scurrying about the place while exploring the flaming torch-lit building of Serpent King's background, but it is potentially a full reel wild multiplier symbol, so the more of those that hit on the reels, the better.
As it was last time, the gaming grid technically utilises 6 reels, though initially, the rightmost reel is locked. When all 3 Serpent Wild upgrades have been achieved, the full 6 reels become active. Each reel holds 4 rows, and there are 30 paylines awarding wins from the leftmost side. Bet selection means choosing a stake of 10 c to $/€6 before nudging the medium-high volatile math model into action. The default RTP is a little bit higher than it was in Primate King at 95.7%.
Scaly clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades are Serpent King's low pays, awarding 0.6 to 1.5 times the bet for a 5 OAK winning line. Since premium symbols can land on the sixth reel when it is unlocked, the necklace, potion bottle, skull, and treasure chest symbols award 6 to 30 times the bet for a 6 OAK winning combination.
Serpent King: Slot Features
Serpent King keeps some of Primate King's features while adding or changing others, so it now includes Gold Coins, a Progress Bar, the Serpent Wild, a Multiplier Stone, and Serpent Respins.
Gold Coins & Progress Bar
Providing there are still Serpent Wild upgrades to be unlocked, Gold Coins may land on the bottom right corner of any symbol on the grid. If Gold Coins land on the same spin as a Serpent Wild, they are collected to contribute to the Serpent Wild progress bar. Collecting 30 Gold Coins unlocks Upgrade 1, 60 collected Gold Coins unlock Upgrade 2, and 90 collected Gold Coins unlock Upgrade 3. Until all 3 Serpent Wild upgrades have been unlocked, the Serpent Wild progress bar sits next to the 5 reels displaying the progress. Once all 3 Serpent WIld upgrades have been achieved, the Serpent Wild progress bar converts to a sixth reel. Card suit symbols cannot land on this reel.
Serpent Wild
The wild substitutes for all paying symbols and is upgraded as Gold Coins are collected:
- Upgrade 1 - turns the Serpent Wild into a 1x4 sized symbol.
- Upgrade 2 - adds a random multiplier to the Serpent Wild. Possible values are x2, x3, and x5.
- Upgrade 3 - turns the Serpent Wild into a Locked Wild. It will stay on the reels until it is part of at least 1 win, followed by a non-winning spin. For each consecutive win, it is part of, the win multiplier increases by 1. The Serpent Wild is unlocked after the first non-winning spin following at least 1 winning spin. While the Serpent WIld is locked, if it is on the fifth reel and has not been in a win, it may randomly move to 1 of the first 4 reels.
Multiplier Stone
When a Serpent Wild holding a multiplier is in view, but no win occurs, the wild may store its multiplier in the Multiplier Stone by the reels. The stored multiplier will be transferred back to the Serpent Wild the next time it lands, adding the value to its multiplier.
Serpent Respins
When the Serpent Wild lands and no win occurs, it may highlight one symbol type on the grid. All symbols of the chosen type are locked on the reels, and a respin is triggered. Respins continue as long as new symbols of the chosen kind land. Only winning lines of the chosen symbol type are awarded at the end of the feature.
Serpent King: Slot Verdict
When Serpent King first popped up, the assumption was that it would be a cloned version of Primate King. The two games arguably do have more in common than they don't, mechanically, but they also have their share of differences. The main event is still upgrading the wild by collecting Gold Coins, and the 3 possible upgrades are essentially the same as they were before - the wild shifts to 1x4, random multipliers may appear, and a sticky attribute is acquired. All are positive effects and are decent rewards for players willing to sit through the progression process to make it all the way to the end. Some users might have an issue with having to upgrade a game in the first place, fair enough. Red Tiger does like this sort of style, and it might not be to all tastes.
What's different about this game is the Multiplier Stone being able to store and release multiplier values and the removal of the Smash feature. The progress bar converts to a low-pay symbol-free sixth reel again, but this game packs a respin feature, which was not available in Primate King. Serpent King also boasts far greater winning potential, clocking in at 12,825x the bet, which is around 3 times more than PK could manage and is quite impressive considering the lack of bonus round or free spins feature.
The feature adjustments, as well as the stat modifications, do help put some distance between Serpent King and Primate King. Therefore, if you like slots that get better the longer you play them, provided features are upgrading (to a point), and reptiles, then Serpent King could be one to explore.
