Golden Grimoire Slots
A grimoire is a magic book that can be described as a sorcerer's private journal. It can contain different kinds of occult knowledge, such as spells and other magic tips and tricks that magic folk might pick up on their enchanted adventures.
Will the Golden Grimoire summon only good spirits in our review of this NetEnt slot? Time to find out whether mystery symbol transformations and a free spins round could spell a lucky streak on the reels.
Enter the Sorcerer’s Chamber
On loading the Golden Grimoire slot game, our review team found themselves sitting at the desk of one such sorcerer by night. Putting the player in the sorcerer's seat is a nice touch, with reels and symbols appearing before the player as though they are summoning them from the depths of their magical knowledge.
Around the reels and symbols suspended in mid-air are ancient books, flickering candles, and occult artifacts. The main feature of the scenery is a giant rose window, which lets in a view of the stars and a touch of moonlight, lending the whole game a glimmer of magic and mystery.
This mysterious feel is further amplified by more impressive details in the artwork and animations. Among these are arcane symbols that appear on the walls of the chamber at various intervals, levitating items that signal teaser spins, and a spooky musical score.
The eight regular pay symbols are of a mundane nature but still have a slight magical appearance by being highlighted with a colored hue and appearing fully stacked at all times. At the low end, they are the card suits – diamonds, spades, clubs, and hearts.
The high-value symbols are more elaborate icons with a gem, held by a mystical critter. In ascending order of value, they are as follows: a purple gem held by a scarab, a blue gem held by a snake, a green gem held by a Kraken-like creature, and a red gem held by a spider. Hit five on a pay line to win 0.75x to 5x your bet, which seems extremely low given the maximum win in a single spin is a rather measly 200x the bet.
A grimoire with a question mark is the mystery symbol that is the main actor on this slot. In turn, the wild symbol is a golden skull, appearing only when revealed through the mystery symbol transformation that substitutes for all symbols except scatters. The scatter is an artistically designed mystical tile with a keyhole and the word itself across it.
Open the Magic Book to Discover the Numbers and Stats
The Golden Grimoire slot game has a number of appealing features for players to uncover on its five reels, four rows, and 20 fixed pay lines.
Among the slot game's features are the desirable wild symbols that substitute for other symbols on the reels, transforming mystery symbols, and a free spins round where mystery symbols also double as sticky symbols.
With an RTP of 96.44%, the Golden Grimoire slot is a low variance game. It offers minimum and maximum bets of 0.20 and 400 coins respectively, and the autoplay feature allows players to spin the reels without interruption between 10 and 500 times.
The maths model and paytable of the Golden Grimoire slot game reminded our review experts of other NetEnt creations such as Universal Monsters: The Phantom’s Curse™ and Witchcraft Academy, which have a similar win potential.
Like most of NetEnt's offerings, you can play the Golden Grimoire online slot game from the comfort of your mobile, tablet or desktop.
Mystery Symbol Transformations Give You More Wins
The base game on the Golden Grimoire slot is rather bland and will only come to life for brief spells when mystery symbols land on reels two, three, and four. Once the dust settles, all will transform into a random pay symbol or the wild symbol.
Here’s where the main pay mechanic on the game jumps into action. Should the unveiled symbol match the one present on the first reel, they will connect from the right-most transformed symbol to the front and turn all other symbols on the same rows into matching symbols. Should the wild appear after the transformation, all symbols up to reel two will change into the wild symbol.
To get a complete screen of the same pay symbol and a decent win, players need to hit a full stack of one symbol on reel one and a full stack of the magic books on reel five. Pays for full screens range from a mediocre 30x for the lowest pay symbol to a still measly 200x the bet for the top symbol.
Land Sticky Mystery Symbols in the Free Spins
The action and suspense will increase by a tick in the free spins round.
As our review team found out, it is the best opportunity to hit big wins on the Golden Grimoire online slot game. You will need to hit scatters anywhere on reel one, three, and five in one spin to trigger 8 free spins, which to our dismay cannot be retriggered.
The mystery books can now appear on reels two to five instead of just three to five. All mystery grimoires landing on a free spin will turn into a sticky mystery symbol and will stay locked in place until the end of the round. Any further mystery symbols landing on a free spin will also stay in position. All in view will transform using the same mechanic as in the base game.
Since the round cannot be re-triggered, our reviewers say it’s vital to hit sticky symbols early on to stand a chance to score a mega win in the free spins round of the Golden Grimoire slot game. However, it is not a given even with plenty of sticky mystery symbols, as they will need to unveil the matching symbols from reel one to create a win.
With no multipliers in the bonus round, the maximum win in a single spin is still just 200x your stake.
Try Other Mysterious Reels With Magic Books
Magic is a theme we always enjoy in a slot game. The selection of slot machines with variations of magic books is huge. Some of our Golden slot game review team's favorites are Book of Ra Deluxe from Novomatic and Book of Dead from Play’n GO.
A Magical Verdict
Our review of the Golden Grimoire online slot game has uncovered a well-designed game with superb graphics and an authentic theme, very much the high standard we know from the creative team at NetEnt. In the case of the Golden Grimoire slot game, however, that level of creativity has not been shown by the math people, who have produced yet another low-variance game that will hardly lift an eyebrow among the gaming community.
However, it is understandable as NetEnt is trying to cover all types of players by developing a mixture of low, medium, and high variance games. In the end, the Golden Grimoire slot game might turn out to be a good slot for bonus wagering.
If you think it's time to discover what this magic-themed slot game can do for you, try it here for free or play for real money at one of the best online casinos on our list.
