Scarab Slot – Free Demo

The Golden Frames decide when Scarab pays

The pharaoh references are hard to avoid when testing a game like Scarab from American studio IGT. I played 270 spins of it at 3.75 a spin and closed on 756.75 credits from a 1,000.00 start. IGT has gone to town with the gold and the appearance, and of course, with the audio associated with this well-liked corner of the slots world. Three Free Spins Bonus rounds landed in that run, and together they paid 363.75 credits, 47% of everything I won. Scarab is all about beetles, golden frames, locked wilds, and uncomplicated slots gaming.

As the title implies, this gold-plated slot presents a museum version of the ancient Egyptian lifestyle. Each reel carries large stacks of a single symbol, and before every spin the game selects a reel set built around one of them. The 5 reel, 4 row grid sits on a dig site, if you will, set on the sand at the foot of a pair of pyramids, and beyond the pillared frame stars and dunes make up the backdrop, accompanied by some rumbling percussion.

The paytable stops at the High Priestess

The paylines are fixed rather than adjustable, so players spin every line, which makes it a straightforward proposition for anyone who loads it up. My 270 spins wagered 1,012.50 credits and returned 769.25. IGT has elected to take the uncomplicated approach with Scarab. Players are rewarded for landing matching symbols on a payline from the far-left reel inward. The longest run I recorded without a win was 12 spins, ending on spin 153. The stated RTP is 95.00%, and like the tomb it borrows from, the game holds most of what it contains buried. My own return came in at 76.0% over those 270 spins. It does mean Scarab sessions can be fairly flat at moments, particularly since the biggest line wins arrive only once the frames have filled. Partnering with that figure is a fixed 75-coin spin, adjusted through the coin value alone. The frame I captured was running 75 coins at a coin value of 0.05, which is the 3.75 the session was played at. Bear in mind though that only the highest winner is paid on each payline. Bonus wins sit outside the line wins and are added to the total paid. Coinciding line wins on different paylines are added, which is something to keep an eye out for.

Nowhere is Scarab more ornamented than on its paytable, which holds twelve line symbols. The High Priestess leads it at 200 coins for five, against the 75 coins a spin costs. They are split into 5 royals and 7 above them, and the seven begin with four idols in purple, green, teal and gold, an Eye of Horus, an Ankh, and the High Priestess as the lead. The Ankh and the Eye of Horus take 75 coins for five, the four idols 60. Low pays aren’t so absorbing. The 10-A royals are still as gaudy as you’d like, done in a gleaming coloured stone. Two of a kind pays on the High Priestess alone, at 2 coins. Ranging from 30 to 200 coins against a spin that costs 75, five of a kind values across the board are modest. The wild substitutes for every symbol except the Scarab and the Bonus.

Pyramid scatters and the three-way choice

There isn’t a whole lot of depth to the extra features, like a lot of cabinet ports. Synchronised Reels and the frame counter both run in the base game, and only the Free Spins Bonus has to be triggered. However, their effectiveness resides in their simplicity, which can pay well when symbols align just so, and players get three extras to contend with – Synchronised Reels, Wild Stays Charges Then Pays and the Free Spins Bonus.

The Pyramid is the scatter. It might appear ordinary at first, but it is the only symbol that never shows up in the large stacks. Three triggers came in across my 270 spins. Scatters can land anywhere, and 3 in view are good for the Free Spins Bonus, where the player then picks one of three options. Which three are offered depends on how many Pyramids triggered the round. There might not be one fixed award. As the choice implies, every option trades free spins against random Wilds on each of them – three scatters present 15, 10 or 5 free spins against 5, 7 or 10 Wilds.

If your fortune is in, then the feature can be prolonged as well. None of my three rounds retriggered. Three or more Pyramid scatters during free spins award a fresh set, up to a limit of 4 retriggers. You’ll know when a trigger has been a big one too, because five Bonus symbols lift the top option to 45 free spins. That top option came in once, on spin 217, and it paid 41.25 credits, the smallest return of my three rounds.

What happens on Spin 10 of 10

For those that prefer to watch a counter, the second feature is the Wild Stays Charges Then Pays round, and the objective here is to collect Scarab symbols across a numbered run of ten spins. The counter sits above the reels and steps up by one on every paid spin. Every Scarab that lands takes a Golden Frame. The frames are remembered separately for each bet level. The frame is locked into place until Spin 10. After the reels halt on Spin 10 all framed positions turn into Wilds, and the reels are evaluated and every win is paid. The frame I captured is one of those tenth spins, with eight framed positions turned Wild across four reels for a 4.21 return. The counter then resets to Spin 1. Every Wild and Golden Frame is cleared from the reels at the same time.

Minty’s Expert Conclusion: Scarab pays on a schedule rather than on demand, since the Golden Frames only settle up on Spin 10 and the Free Spins Bonus arrived three times in 270 spins. My run came back at 76.0% against a stated 95.00%, with 42 of the 70 paying spins worth less than the 3.75 that bought them.

270 spins at 3.75 a spin

Scarab certainly isn’t an intricate slot with loads of elaborate rules to absorb; this is straight forward, patient gambling that may pay out when the frames fill or the Free Spins Bonus hits – preferably both at the same time. 70 of my 270 spins paid something, and 42 of those paid back less than the stake.

When it comes to prizes, players spin for a max win capped at 600000 on any transaction. Where that cap is reached inside a bonus, the round ends there even with free spins left to play. Enough to make the ten-spin counter worth sitting through? Across 270 spins it was not. My best spin was 130, which paid 232.50 credits at 62.0x the stake and lifted the balance to its peak of 1,007.55. The balance closed at 756.75 from 1,000.00.

IGT’s other Egyptian slots

IGT has since built Mistress of Egypt, which is just as gold-plated as Scarab is. That one arrived in 2022, three years after Scarab. This later slot works a different reel set to mash things up a bit more. There is also another stablemate to Scarab titled Pharaoh’s Fortune.