Book of Captain Silver: Slot Overview

Here’s a quick one to set the scene – what has eight eyes and eight legs? Answer: eight (stereotypical) pirates. Called Book of Captain Silver, this seafaring caper comes from Microgaming partner All41 Studios, who’ve taken a hugely popular mechanic, dressed it up with a doublet, breeches, and a cutlass, and launched a pirate-flavoured ‘book of’ slot. They haven’t simply delivered a swashbuckling ‘Ra’ clone, either. The studio has also made things more tempting by bolting on 4 fixed jackpots alongside the free spins expanding symbols feature that sits at the heart of this style of game.

Players are dropped into the bowels of Captain Silver’s ship as soon as the game loads. All41 has opted for a rougher, more realistic look, packing the scene with damp wooden planks, skulls, candles, and barrels stuffed with mystery goods; let’s assume it’s gold. It’s a noticeable shift away from the usual on-deck view with billowing sails and a ship cutting through the waves beneath a bright Caribbean sky. Another big difference is immediately visible on the left side of the screen. This is where 4 jackpots sit, shown as multiples of the total stake, while a chest beneath the reels waits to be filled when scatter symbols appear. Beyond that, the setup sticks to classic ‘book of’ standards: 5 reels, 3 rows, and 10 fixed paylines.

All41 has built Book of Captain Silver to work smoothly across devices, with stakes adjustable from 20 p/c to $/€25 per spin. The RTP is available in three variants, with the best option landing at a solid 96.40%, though players should be aware there’s also a 94.24% version, or even lower, depending on jurisdiction. Each version is highly volatile and produces a win roughly once every three spins, or 30.71% of the time to be precise.

Payouts are formed when at least two premium symbols or three low pays land from left to right starting on reel one. The lower-value set is made up of 10-A card royals, while compasses, pistols, ships, and Captain Silver represent the premium symbols. As an aside, while exploring the game we ran into a trivia note claiming compasses were invented in China around the 2nd century BC and were known as South Pointing Fish. Even more curious is that they supposedly weren’t first used for navigation, but for geomancy. Back to the slot: the pay values sit toward the higher end for the genre, with five-of-a-kind premium hits paying 75 to 500 times the stake.

Book of Captain Silver: Slot Features

Since it’s a ‘book of’ game, Book of Captain Silver naturally leans heavily on its free spins bonus where a selected symbol expands for the chance at sizeable returns. That said, it isn’t the only added element, as All41 has also introduced multiple jackpots, something you don’t often see in this particular slot format.

Pirates may not be famous for reading, but a hefty tome plays a central role here as both wild and scatter symbol. When acting as a wild, it substitutes for any paying symbol to help complete standard line wins. When acting as a scatter, landing 3, 4, or 5 anywhere triggers 10 free spins and awards a payout of 2, 20, or 200 times the stake, respectively.

Just before free spins begin, the book opens and randomly selects one symbol from either the high or low pay group. After the initial wins have been paid on a free spin, if the chosen symbol forms a win, it expands to fill all positions on its reel. Expanded symbols pay on all lines from any position, meaning they don’t need to start on reel one and don’t have to be next to each other. Wilds can’t be chosen as expanding symbols, and they also don’t substitute for expanded symbols.

Next up, whenever a wild symbol lands, it is collected into a chest positioned at the bottom of the screen. Gathering wild scatters provides a chance to trigger a spin of the jackpot wheel. When it activates, a jewel-studded ship’s wheel split into segments spins once. The colour of the jewel it stops on determines which jackpot is paid. The 4 jackpots are the Mini, Minor, Major, and Mega, worth 15x, 50x, 500x, and 10,000x the bet, respectively.

Book of Captain Silver: Slot Verdict

In many ways, Book of Captain Silver delivers exactly what you’d expect when you hit play, although it isn’t quite as plain as All41’s earlier genre effort Book of Atem. It’s a competent ‘book of’ release, swapping Pharaohs and Egyptian deities for pirates to drive the theme. Some players might feel the backdrop looks a little grimy. Its realistic take on life below deck probably wouldn’t be the best recruitment poster compared to something more sun-soaked and exotic. Still, it serves its purpose and feels a touch more distinctive.

After a while, the setting becomes easy to ignore anyway once the book symbols start dropping and the features begin firing. Well, the free spins do at least; the jackpot mechanic felt very difficult to set off, and it ended up being more of a background extra. There’s no real complaint with Book of Captain Silver’s free spins round, either, where a full-screen captain expansion can pay 5,000 times the bet if five expand. It’s also reassuring to have another potential route to a big hit, and the Mega Jackpot offers double what ‘book of’ slots usually top out at. That’s for the standard ones, not the outliers like Book of Shadows or Book of Muertitos.

Overall, Book of Captain Silver follows the familiar formula closely (apologies), so traditionalists shouldn’t be put off, while the extra additions provide a bit more reason to try it. If players are browsing for a fresh ‘book’ slot, the inclusion of four jackpots that most competitors don’t offer certainly won’t damage Book of Captain Silver’s appeal.