Da Vinci's Vault Slot – Free Demo

Da Vinci’s notebooks and a Cryptex lock

Today's journey carries us far back to the start of the 16th Century. It was a period which witnessed groups of civilisations leaving weighty imprints across the planet, as throngs of Empires vied to ascend above the remainder.

In the core of Italy, whilst the planet's crude technology started to witness kinds of progressions, Leonardo da Vinci flourished, hidden away far in the core of his journals. Not entirely artist, not entirely inventor, he was a marvellous intellect regardless.

Grand canvases were produced. Devices were drafted and journals crammed through exceedingly rudimentary techniques, and Da Vinci was highly modest-living. Yet he carried a wallop with all he owned. The same painter also gives his name to Da Vinci Diamonds and Double Da Vinci Diamonds, two other slots on this site.

And that carries us neatly to today's events. They see "forceful" being the central word as the crew over at Playtech reveal the following release to append to their ever-expanding armoury of slots. It is in the shape of Da Vinci's Vault: a 5 reel 3 row journey that brings punters directly into the core of activity within Da Vinci's Vault. I played it for 390 spins at a stake of 2.00 credits, starting from a balance of 1,000.

A high volatility maths framework may not seem too reassuring. Of those 390 spins, 67 paid anything, and 20 of the paying ones returned less than the stake.

It's moment to venture into the strongroom before the Cryptex is broken, as I scope out all of those central mechanics and regulations...

Twenty lines, a compass and a Mona Lisa worth 500x

Across any of the release's 20 static paylines, paying spins are created by joining symbols from left to right. Wins start on the leftmost reel and need 3 or more matching symbols on adjacent reels, while the compass Scatter pays from 2 in any position on top of line wins.

Standard paying symbols are featured during gameplay. They comprise of low-paying card royals valued between 10x to 15x, and of high-paying Model, Chalice, Vitruvian Man and Mona Lisa, which pay between 75x and 500x for 5 identical symbols. For 3 of a kind, the royals pay 0.5x the total bet, the Model and Chalice 3x, the Vitruvian Man 4x and the Mona Lisa 10x.

A Wild symbol deputises for everything except the compass Scatter and the Cryptex. The Wild also pays on its own, at the same 10x, 100x and 500x the total bet as the Mona Lisa for 3, 4 and 5.

Three lives spent on Skulls

The release's Free Spins feature triggers when 3 Cryptex symbols drop on reels 1, 3 and 5. The round has no fixed number of spins and runs on 3 lives instead.

Each Da Vinci Skull dropping on the central reel consumes 1 of 3 lives. It converts a random symbol into a Wild for the remainder of the feature.

Until the 3rd Skull drops, the Free Spins procedure persists. Each of the four rounds in my session ran until that 3rd Skull.

What 10x the stake buys at the Hi-Roller button

The Hi-Roller feature may be triggered for 10x the stake from the Hi-Roller button. At the 2.00 stake of my session, that comes to 20.00 per purchase.

Upon triggering, 5 Hi-Roller spins are performed. Those spins can also trigger Free Spins directly, with 3 Cryptex on reels 1, 3 and 5. Seals are collected. They come in Bronze, Silver and Gold, and each colour unlocks its own vault wheel.

Should 3 Bronze Seals be collected, the Bronze Wheel spins for a cash prize. 4 Silver spin the Silver Wheel for a cash prize or Free Spins. And 5 Gold spin the Gold Wheel for a cash prize, Free Spins or the inner golden ring with bigger cash prizes and extra Free Spins.

Four Cryptex trios in 390 spins

Base game action is about as simple as matters can become. Identical symbols are needed across 20 pay lines. My longest run without a win lasted 34 spins, ending on spin 90, and the balance bottomed out at 756.00.

3 Cryptex symbols dropped 4 occasions across my 390 spins. They landed on spins 145, 189, 370 and 384, with a 181-spin wait between the second and the third.

This feature converts a random symbol Wild with every Skull. Those Wilds stay until the 3rd Skull concludes the sequence... The round on spin 145 paid 206.00, 103x the stake, and the balance peaked at 1,041.00 five spins later.

Final Minty Score: This feature is Playtech's "prize exhibit" within Da Vinci's Vault. The other three rounds paid 22x, 51x and 18x the stake, bringing Free Spins to 388.00 across all four. With Free Spins paying 55% of everything won in my session, it's not hard to observe where some of that hidden potential is hiding. The session finished at 923 credits from the starting 1,000, a return of 90.1% on 780.00 wagered.

Model, Chalice and Wilds that stay

Even dropping 5 of the release's 3rd highest symbol yields the opening payout of 75x. The Model and the Chalice share that 75x figure, and 4 of either pays 10x the total bet. Append Wilds that remain for the remainder of the feature, and there is the release revealing its hand. This is more so when you reckon the Hi-Roller feature provides another route to activate Free Spins in the first place.