Wildhalla

Wildhalla: Slot Overview

Vikings may have had a terrifying reputation back in the day, on account of the raiding and whatnot, but they certainly make for an excellent online slot theme. Yggdrasil has done a roaring trade in them with its Vikings Go lineup, and studios have plumbed the wider Norse culture repeatedly over the years, emerging with punchy releases like Thunderstruck II and Stormforged. Founded in Sweden, casino game maker Slotmill has once again drawn inspiration from its Nordic roots to design Wildhalla, a mix of the paradisiacal afterlife for elite Viking warriors and walking wild multipliers, in a slot that tones down complexity in order to just straight bash stuff with meaty features.

With a moored longship and battle detritus littered on the shore, it seems as if the Vikings in Wildhalla have been out pillaging. Where exactly on planet Earth is the mayhem taking place? It doesn't really seem to matter as long as wild-eyed Viking warriors of the game end up where the plunder is good. And anyway, the real mayhem in Wildhalla occurs during the Bonus Respins/Super Bonus Respins features, which swap the earthly realm for a cloudy, celestial setting, depicting the entrance to Valhalla at the foot of a gnarly tree, guarded by flame-mouthed Viking statues. Wildhalla might have been cartoonised to a degree, but it's all very hale and hearty Norse fare.

Hitting the plus and minus buttons sets a stake of $/€0.20 to $/€100, while Slotmill's Burst Mode may be activated to speed through the spins. Participants embark on a highly volatile voyage, where the theoretical RTP comes in at 96.05%. A 5x4 matrix is where the action unfolds, and 40 paylines evaluate winning combinations.

Pay symbols are wooden J-A ranks, a headless fish, a mug, a shield, axes, and a chest of coins. Their payout values range from 0.5x to 3x the bet for a 5-of-a-kind hit, which isn't a lot, but as well as substituting pay symbols, wild symbols can also have multipliers to improve values.

Wildhalla: Slot Features

Wildhalla lives up to its name by dropping wilds throughout Walking Wild Respins, Bonus Respins, and Super Bonus Respins features. All of which can be directly access using the feature buy menu.

Walking Wild Respins

Landing a Walking Wild anywhere on the grid triggers Walking Wild Respins. Walking Wilds may appear with a multiplier of up to x16, and if more than one Walking Wild multiplier takes part in the same win, their values are multiplied together. When a Walking Wild is part of a winning combination, its multiplier increases by +1 after wins have paid. After each respin, all Walking Wilds move one position to the left. Respins continue as long as at least one Walking Wild is on the reels, and new Walking Wilds may appear during respins. Respins end when the last wild walks off the leftmost reel.

Reset symbols may appear on the rightmost reel. After wins have paid, if a Silver Reset lands on the same row as a Walking Wild, the Walking Wild returns to the rightmost reel. If a Golden Reset lands, all Walking Wilds return to the rightmost reel.

Bonus Respins & Super Bonus Respins

Landing 3 scatters triggers the Bonus Respins feature, which begins with 4 Walking Wilds on the rightmost reel. The same rules as Walking Wild Respins apply. Landing 2 scatters and a super scatter triggers the Super Bonus Respins round. This feature follows the same rules as regular Bonus Respins, with the added benefit that Walking Wilds increase their multiplier by +1 each time they move left, whether they are part of a win or not.

Fast Track & Xtra-Bet

Wildhalla's Fast Track menu lists three feature buys. Here is where players may trigger Walking Wild Respins for 40x, the Bonus Respins for 100x or Super Bonus Respins for 300x the bet. When choosing to use the Xtra-Bet, the stake increases by 100%, making Bonus Respins 3.7x more likely to occur.

Wildhalla: Slot Verdict

Slotmill is a studio that has been out these ways before in Ragnarok/Ragnarok 40K, before tapping into its Norse heritage to forge another no-nonsense, heavy-hitting Viking experience. While the gambling market is already well served with a sizable host of Viking-themed slots, the studio has ensured that Wildhalla has enough muscle to carve out its own space, and while it doesn't have classic written all over it, there are more than enough positive components working together to deliver robust gaming, whether angry men in horned helmets are of personal interest or not.

On the gaming side, Wildhalla is firmly built around walking wilds with incremental multipliers. The base game offers hints of their power when respins kick off a wild march to the left. However, bonus rounds increase the effect by dropping four wilds on the rightmost reel before letting battle commence. Two things boost a respin sequence's longevity, thereby increasing the chance of linking as many wild multis in winning lines as possible. First is that new wilds can land on respins, which is a nice inclusion. The second is Reset symbols, which drag either individual or all wilds back to the rightmost positions. Wildhalla's icing on the cake is the fact that multiple wilds in the same win multiply their values rather than just add them, an effect further enhanced in the super bonus since multipliers increase on each step in that phase, so the more steps they make there, the better for those involved.

It all adds up to a fairly uncomplicated yet forceful system that builds nicely through bonus rounds, though what works well is also in some ways what holds Wildhalla back. It's not a release bulging with mechanical depth and a full buffet table of variety, so some may find the action a little repetitive after a while. However, Wildhalla succeeds in being a focused, highly volatile slot, with a 10,000x win cap, that knows exactly what it wants to be and stays true to its path. When the walking wild system aligns, it is capable of hammering out satisfying bursts of gameplay that feel rewarding to chase.