Savanna King Slot – Free Demo

A Wild that only reaches reels 2, 3 and 4

Savanna King is a video slot by Genesis Gaming. I played 500 spins of it at a stake of 3.75. It has 5 reels, 1024 ways to win and a 96.21% RTP, and the theme is connected to the African savanna. Wins are counted from left to right on adjacent reels beginning with the leftmost one, and only the highest win for each symbol is paid.

The game features the Savanna Stampede Free Spins and Wild multipliers, and it seems to be Genesis Gaming's take on the traditional "ways" type of slots. The Wild is the only symbol that carries a multiplier, and in the base game it lands with a plain face and nothing printed on it.

The Wild appears only on reels 2, 3 and 4. That leaves reels 1 and 5 without one, and every way still has to start on reel 1. 3 or more Scatter symbols anywhere on the reels trigger the free spins. On one base-game spin at 3.75 I had Wilds on reels 2 and 4 and a single Scatter on reel 3, and the ways paid 11.70 with a "Good luck!" banner sitting under the reels.

Inside a Savanna Stampede round

Any 3 or more Scatter symbols trigger the Free Spins, and 3, 4 or 5 Scatters landing in any reel grant 8, 15 or 20 free spins respectively. Scatters pay from any position, so they do not have to line up from the left the way the other symbols do.

During the Free Spins every Wild reveals a x2, x3 or x4 multiplier. The Wild animates as it lands and turns its multiplier over then, still on reels 2, 3 and 4 only. It multiplies all wins. That includes wins the Wild took no part in. Any 2 or more Scatter symbols retrigger the Free Spins, and 2, 3, 4 or 5 of a kind grant 5, 8, 15 or 20 extra free spins. A retrigger therefore needs one Scatter fewer than the trigger did.

Multipliers from more than one Wild combine, up to x64, and the trigger stake is applied for the entire round. My second bonus, on spin 410, retriggered and paid 131.25, which is 35.0x the stake.

Minty’s Final Note: Three Wilds at x4 in the same free spin put x64 on a win the Wild never had to be part of, and the same symbol sits blank in the base game doing nothing but substituting on reels 2, 3 and 4.

Two Savanna Stampede rounds in 500 spins

In Savanna King, Genesis Gaming has actually combined the familiar parts of games of that type (combining wild multipliers). Genesis Gaming counts wins differently from title to title: Dragon's Scroll XL runs 100 fixed paylines and Gods of Giza 20. It employs 1024 ways instead of a fixed set of paylines as well. My first bonus round of the session, on spin 263, was 8 free spins with no retrigger and paid 12.75.

There is of course volatility in this game. My longest run without a win was 18 spins, ending on spin 447. Over 500 spins it was not concentrated in the bonus at all: the two Savanna Stampede rounds paid 144.00 between them, 8% of everything won. The balance moved from a peak of 1,012.46 on spin 263 to a low point of 380.96. The largest hit of the session arrived in the main game on spin 262 for 167.0x the stake. It paid 626.25, and the next largest, on spin 466, paid 285.00 for 76.0x. This game truly is not all or nothing. I wagered 1,875.00 across the session and got 1,784.10 back. With 131 of 500 spins paying something the main game does not turn sluggish, even if 83 of those paid less than the stake. Spin 97 returned 123.75 at 33.0x, and spin 474 another 56.25.

I came out of the session at 95.2%, a balance of 1,000.00 down to 909.10.