Playtech and Ladbrokes Present Kingdom Rise Slots

Kingdoms Rise is a new series of fantasy themed progressive jackpot slot games by Playtech that’s now being presented on Ladbrokes online casino.  All of the games that have been released so far can be played from 10p.  The 9th game in the series, Kingdoms Rise: Shadow Queen, has now been released and more are on the way later in 2020.

How To Play Kingdoms Rise

Although there were three different games in the first batch of Kingdoms Rise games and further titles in the series are being released every couple of months, they are all linked via the Map and via the Kingdoms Rise shop as well as being connected to the same progressive jackpots.

The Jackpots

The games have three linked progressive jackpots, all of which can be won on any spin in any of the base games (the higher the stake, the more likely they are to drop).

• Epic Jackpot – a wide area progressive seeded at £100K and with no upper bound
• Power Strike Jackpot – guaranteed to drop before it reaches £2000
• Daily Strike Jackpot – guaranteed to drop at least once a day, before midnight

The Kingdoms Rise Shop

As you play, you collect Game Tokens from the reels (but only if playing with cash, not bonus).  These are pooled in the Kingdoms Rise shop regardless of which game you collect them on. You start with 50, and the cheapest thing in the shop costs 300.  Pending Game Tokens are also collected (one for every 2 Game Tokens) and are stored in the shop – they can be viewed by clicking on “info” just below the tokens total as in the screenshot, and are released all in one go when your total of pending tokens reaches 500 (some sites release them in smaller batches).

The shop, which can be accessed from any of the games, contains a selection of bonus features for all three games, most of which do not occur naturally in the games and can only be accessed with tokens.  Purchased bonus features are played at a stake level based on the player’s historical average stake across all Kingdoms Rise games.

Let’s say you like the Sands of Fury base game best but aren’t mad about the Sands of Fury shop bonus features – no problem, you can use the tokens you collected playing Sands of Fury to buy Wild Vortex for Guardians of the Abyss, The Night Owl for Forbidden Forest, Barbarian Respins for Reign of Ice or Golden Wild Respins for Captain’s Treasure instead.

Game Tokens are valid for 6 months so you may even wish to save them until further games in the series are released.

The Kingdoms Rise Games

1. Kingdoms Rise: Sands of Fury
2. Kingdoms Rise: Guardians of the Abyss
3. Kingdoms Rise: Forbidden Forest
4. Kingdoms Rise: Reign of Ice
5. Kingdoms Rise: Captain’s Treasure
6. Kingdoms Rise: Scorching Clouds
7. Kingdoms Rise: Legend of Elvenstone
8. Kingdoms Rise: Chasm of Fear
9. Kingdoms Rise: Shadow Queen

Kingdoms Rise: Sands of Fury

Kingdoms Rise Sands of Fury is a 20 line slot with a desert setting.  It has the best RTP of the initital three games by a small margin, coming in at 96.23% including the jackpot contribution and game tokens. Later games in the series have a better RTP.

Base Game Bonus Features

Wild Fury starts when a character wild lands on the reels.  There are five character wilds, one for each reel.  The feature reel, which is a single space immediately above each reel, becomes active and does one of 4 things:

• Swords & shield – locks all instances of that character wild in place for the next spin
• Character symbol – – turns all instances of that character into character wilds
• Respins – awards 5 respins with locked wild
• Chain – ends the feature, all wilds released in the next spin

Wild Fury can last a long time and produce big wins especially if other reels become involved as well (as in the screenshot where feature reels 1, 3 and 5 are all active).

Shop Bonus Features

The Queen’s Ritual – 300, 750 or 1500 tokens

This pick me round with cash prizes varies from a straightforward (and boring) three picks at the 300 price point, to five initial picks with multipliers, extra picks and “win all” added to the prizes at the 1500 price point.

The Wild Beast Respins – 500, 1000 or 2000 tokens

This awards 5 respins with locked wilds.  The difference between the price points is in the number of active positions – 1 on reel 4 or 5 at the 500 price point, 3-5 at the 2000 price point.

Kingdoms Rise: Guardians of the Abyss

Kingdoms Rise: Guardians of the Abyss is a 25 line slot with an underwater setting.  Its RTP is 96.09% including the progressive jackpot and game tokens.

Base Game Bonus features

The Guardians Bonus is a free spins bonus round which comes in three flavours; which one you get, how many free spins are awarded and the power level of the feature are all determined by means of a pick me with the shell scatters that trigger it.

Odeon: adds extra Odeon symbols (the highest scoring symbol) to the reels each spin.

Akali: adds extra wilds to the reels each spin

Jax: applies a random multiplier to all wilds

Shop Bonus Features

Wild Vortex – 300, 750 or 1500 tokens

The Wild Vortex lands somewhere on reels 2-5, spits out a number of wilds and triggers a respin.  After each respin each wild is pulled one position towards the vortex and the respins continue until all the wilds have been swallowed.  The difference between the price points is whether one, two or three wilds are spat out.

Kingdoms Rise: Forbidden Forest

Kingdoms Rise: Forbidden Forest is a 576 way slot played on a 5 reel array: the outer two reels have three spaces each and the rest four.  It has RTP of 95.99% including the jackpot contribution and assuming the use of Game Tokens.

Base Game Bonus Features

The bonus feature in this game is the Owl Respins.  One Owl awards 2 respins, two owls award 4 respins and 3 owls award 12 respins.  In each case the triggering owls change to roamings wild for the duration of the respins (but this is subject to the rule that neither a wild nor an owl can land on reel 1).  Extra respins can be triggered by the appearance of a feather on reel 3.

Shop Bonus Features

The Night Owl – 300, 750 or 1500 tokens

This feature awards 3 respins similar to the owl respins in the base game, but the owls are stacked not independent – one stack of 2 at the 300 price point, one stack of 3 at the 750 price point, and 2 stacks of 2 guaranteed to land on different reels at the 1500 price point.  The feather can appear to add more respins – 1 or 2 at the 300 price point and 1 – 4 at the other price points.

Kingdoms Rise: Reign of Ice

Kingdoms Rise: Reign of Ice is a 25 line slot with an icy setting, loosely based on Norse mythology.  It has RTP of 96.07% including the jackpot contribution and assuming use of game tokens.

Base Game Bonus Features

Reigh of Ice has the Hammer Respins feature. When the special Hammer wild symbol lands on reel 2, each Barbarian and Valkyrie symbol that lands on that spin has the chance to smash the ice and free the Hammer.  Up to 4 Hammers can be released in this way.  Each Hammer starts a respin session.  During the respins, any regular wilds that land (on reels 3, 4 and 5 only) become frozen in place for the rest of the respin session. Respins continue until a Hammer wild lands on reel 2 and recaptures the Hammer; any wins it is part of are multiplied by the value shown on the multiplier bar (unless more than one Hammer is freed this will be 1).  If there are any free Hammers left a fresh respin session starts, retaining one of the frozen wilds (if there were any) from the previous session.  Hammer Respins appears frequently but usually with only one Hammer and the results can be quite disappointing.

Shop Bonus Features

Hammer Respins – 400 or 1500 tokens

This is the same feature as in the base game.  The 400 price point awards 1 Hammer and the 1500 price point awards anything up to 4 Hammers (the number is set randomly)

Barbarian Respins – 800 tokens

This feature is played on reels containing only Ice Barbarians and empty spaces.  The counter starts at 3 spins; it is reduced by 1 if no Ice Barbarians land and reset to 3 if any do.  There’s also a multiplier meter; the active multiplier is applied to wins after every respin in which Ice Barbarians land.  The feature ends when the respin counter reaches 0 or the reels are completely full of Ice Barbarians.

Valkyrie Respins – 1000 tokens

This feature is similar to Barbarian Respins, but each symbol bears a cash prize and each reel has a 5x multiplier that is activated if all three spaces are filled with Ice Valkyries.  The win amount is calculated when the feature ends; again, this is when the respin counter reaches 0 or the reels are completely full.

Kingdoms Rise: Captain’s Treasure

The fifth game in the series is themed around the mercenary pirate captain Red Jack.  It is a 6×4 slot with 50 paylines and RTP of 96.05% (including the jackpot and the tokens).

Base Game Bonus Feature

The bonus feature in this game is Captain’s Treasure Respins.  It is much the same as the bonus feature as in the Age of the Gods title, Apollo Power.  When a Golden Wild lands on the reels, it moves one space per spin; respins continue until its path takes it back to its initial position.  Depending on where the Golden Wild lands in the first place, the results can be extremely variable (including winning nothing at all).

Shop Bonus Features

Golden Wild Respins – 500, 1000 or 1500 tokens

In a departure from the earlier games in the series, the shop feature at the 500 token price point is the same as the base game bonus feature.  1000 tokens buys two golden wilds and 1500 buys three; they are triggered in succession but may overlap.

Kingdoms Rise: Scorching Clouds

The 6th game in the series is set in a city in the clouds that is being attacked by dragons, and has a bit of a steampunk feel.  It is a cluster wins slot played on a 5 x 5 array with RTP of 97.06% (including the jackpot and the tokens).  Any group of 4 or more of the same symbol touching each other horizonally and/or vertically wins, and winning symbols disappear and more symbols cascade down with the potential to create further wins.

Base Game Bonus Features

Spreading Wilds  – Wild or dragon egg symbols landing in the highlighted area create 2 – 4 extra wilds anywhere on the reels.  Extra wilds can be created in the highlighted area, triggering another set of spreading wilds.

Dragon Egg Respins – Dragon Egg symbols which land on the reels are collected (and replaced with wilds) and stored at the top of the grid.  When all 6 spaces are full, 6 respins take place.  During the respins, a different type of cascade takes place with the non winning symbols disappearing and the winning symbols staying in place.

Free Games – The free spins bonus round is triggered by 3 or more scatters and players can choose between two free spins modes – the medium variance Knight Free Games (8, 10 or 12 free spins depending on the number of scatters) and the high variance Empress Free Games (5, 6 or 7 free spins depending on the number of scatters).  Each take place on special reels with the other character symbols removed.  In the Knight Free Games, hammer symbols which land adjacent to a Knight symbol change into Knight symbols.  In the Empress Free Games, hammer, wrench or telescope symbols which land adjacent to an Empress symbol change into Empress symbols.

Shop Bonus Features

As in Captain’s Treasure, the shop bonus features are essentially the same as the base game features, the only difference being in the number of free games you get.

Dragon Egg Respins – 750 tokens

Knight Free Games – 1000, 1500 or 2000 tokens awarding 4,6 and 8 free games respectively

Empress Free Games – 1500, 2250 or 3000 tokens awarding 4,6 and 8 free games respectively

Kingdoms Rise: Legend of Elvenstone

The 7th game has more of a high fantasy theme, featuring the Man, the Woman, the Rock Man and the Dragon as special symbols.  It is a 10 line slot played on a classic 5 reel, 3 row array with RTP of 96.84% (again, this is including the jackpot and tokens).

Base Game Bonus Features

Wild Drop – the Wild Drop symbol can appear anywhere and turns all symbols wild apart from the Dragon.  Wild Drop symbols move down one row per spin unless they are covering one of the other specials – the Man moves the Wild Drop up to the top row for the next spin, the Woman increases its multiplier by 1 and leaves the Wild Drop in place for the next spin, and the Rock Man spawns a new Wild Drop in the next reel and leaves the old one in place for the next spin.  If any of this causes two Wild Drops to occupy the same space, they combine into one with their multipliers added together.

Dragon Bonus – this is triggered by the appearance of the Dragon (which is 3 rows high) covering 4 or more positions on reels 1 and 5 and starts with the award for 3 respins.  Each symbol position on reels 2,3, and 4 spins independently and the aim is to collect Dragon Eye symbols; when one lands, it transforms into a coin, stays in place for the remainder of the bonus and resets the number of remaining respins back to 3.  The sum of all visible coins (including ones from earlier respins) is added to the prize pot after each respin when one or more Dragon Eyes land.  The bonus ends, and the prize pot pays out, when the player runs out of respins or all 9 positions are filled with Dragon Eyes.

Shop Bonus Features

The shop bonus features in Legend of Elvenstone don’t add anything new to the base game bonus features, but there’s a free spins bonus round on offer with Wild Drop included.

Wild Drop Free Games – 800 tokens for 6 free games starting with one wild or 1600 tokens for 8 free games starting with two wilds

Dragon Bonus – 2000 tokens for 3 Dragon Respins or 4000 for the same thing with bigger coin prizes

Kingdoms Rise: Chasm of Fear

In Chasm of Fear, a band of intrepid adventurers chase a golden serpent (the highest scoring symbol) into a sea chasm; in a nice touch, the reels appear projected on to the main sail of their ship.  Chasm of Fear is a 1024 way slot, expanding to 3456 ways during the bonus features, and has RTP of 97.06% (including the jackpot and tokens) which is one of the best yet seen in a Kingdoms Rise slot.  Wild symbols, which appear in the form of treasure chests on reels 2, 3 and 4, can bear a 1x, 2x or 3x multiplier and this means the occasional big win is possible in the base game.

Base Game Bonus Features

• When a Giant scatter symbol lands on row 2 of reel 5, a respin is triggered.
• A scatter symbol on row 3 of reel 5 triggers 3 free games and a scatter symbol on row 4 of reel 5 triggers 6 free games; they can be retriggered if another scatter lands during free games.

Both respins and free games take place on an expanded reel set with 2 additional rows of symbols above rows 2, 3 and 4 more than tripling the number of ways to win.

Shop Bonus Features

Chasm of Fear has 5 different shop items, all versions of the respin bonus feature with extra wilds (in some cases guaranteeing a win)

Giant Respins – 1 spin on the expanded reel set, priced at 300, 500, 750 or 1000 tokens depending on the number and location of added wilds above reels 2, 3 and/or 4

Kingdoms Rise: Shadow Queen

Shadow Queen is the first in the series by Playtech subsidiary Ash Gaming.  It’s a 25 line slot with RTP (including the jackpot and tokens) of 96.37% – 96.49% and a sword and sorcery theme.  The Wild symbol – the Shadow Queen herself – can by up to 3 symbols tall, increasing the potential for wins, but the real potential is in the relatively frequently occurring bonus round.

Base Game Bonus Features

Wheel Feature – triggered by three scatters, this consists of three concentric wheels.  Spin the outermost wheel to land on a number or an arrow to progress inwards, repeat till you land on a number or reach the number 10 at the centre.  The number you land on determines the number of Magic Wins you get – the minimum is one and the maximum 10.

Magic Wins are an intriguing concept; instead of being awarded a set number of free spins for the bonus round, you are awarded a set number of winning spins and you end up getting as many free spins as is necessary to get that many winning spins.  But here’s the twist – the multiplier increments by one on each spin whether you win or lose – so the more losing spins there are early on during the bonus round, the bigger the later wins have the potential to be.