John Hunter and the Book of Tut Megaways: Slot Overview

With the kind of devotion to Tutankhamun that would likely have impressed Howard Carter, Pragmatic Play’s in-house Indiana Jones-style hero John Hunter returns for another expedition. This instalment is called John Hunter and the Book of Tut Megaways, and the title says it all: ‘book of’ mechanics paired with the Megaways system. There’s not much more setup required than that, so if you fancy an Egyptian-themed quest starring one of slots’ most recognisable adventurers, read on.

Anyone who’s tried earlier John Hunter and the Book of Tut releases will instantly recognise the look of John Hunter and the Book of Tut Megaways. Pragmatic Play has largely kept the same perspective, giving players the familiar, romanticised Ancient Egypt backdrop of pyramids, palms, a striking sky, sand, and river scenery. The main change is the larger play area featuring 6 reels, with 2 to 7 symbols landing on each reel and shifting from spin to spin. Whether that reliance on the established formula feels lazy or comfortably consistent is up to the player.

Because reel heights change, the number of ways to win changes too, with a peak of 117,649. Standard wins must start on the first reel and pay left to right, while expanding symbols can pay from any position. John Hunter and the Book of Tut Megaways comes in multiple RTP configurations, with the top version set at 96%, and the math model is highly volatile. Bets run from 20 p/c to $/€240. If you enable the Ante Bet, the stake increases by 25% and RTP adjusts to 96.01%. The upside of using Ante Bet is the chance of triggering free spins increases thanks to more scatter symbols appearing on the reels.

At the lower end of the paytable are 10-A card ranks, paying 0.4 to 0.5 times the bet for a 6 OAK winning way. Above those sit the premium symbols – scarab jewellery, a cat statue, a pharaoh, and John Hunter – which award 0.6 to 2 times the bet for six of a kind. A wild symbol appears on the three middle reels and substitutes for any regular paying symbol. The wild and the scatter are separate symbols.

John Hunter and the Book of Tut Megaways: Slot Features

John Hunter and the Book of Tut Megaways includes the familiar expanding special symbol mechanic seen in many games of this type, and here it can occur both in the base game and during free spins.

Special Expanding Symbol

On any base game spin, one pay symbol may randomly be chosen as the special expanding symbol. Once standard wins have been checked, the selected symbols expand to cover all positions on their reels. Expanded symbols pay from any position; however, they only expand when the expansion would result in a win.

Free Spins

You receive 10 free spins when at least 3 scatter symbols land on the screen. There’s also a scatter payout of 3x, 15x, 100x, or 500x the bet for landing 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatters, respectively. When the free spins feature begins, one pay symbol is randomly chosen to act as the special expanding symbol for the duration of the feature. Landing 3 or more scatters grants an extra 10 free spins.

Buy Free Spins

Free spins can be purchased for 100 times the bet. When you buy free spins, the RTP is 96.06%.

John Hunter and the Book of Tut Megaways: Slot Verdict

Speaking of commitment, Mr Hunter has done an impressive job of extracting pretty much everything possible from the Book of Tut concept at this point. From John Hunter and the Book of Tut to John Hunter and the Book of Tut Respins, and now John Hunter and the Book of Tut Megaways. What’s next—some kind of John Hunter and the Book of Tut/Gates of Olympus scatter-pay hybrid, or… heaven forbid, John Hunter and the Book of Tut taking up Big Bass Bonanza-style fishing on the Nile? Jokes aside, the John Tut series is generally dependable, and players clearly keep coming back, which explains why Pragmatic Play continues to roll out more JH titles.

John Hunter and the Book of Tut Megaways is another solid entry that delivers exactly what it promises: ‘book of’ gameplay on a Megaways reel set, with John Hunter bringing his rough-edged, seasoned-adventurer vibe. It’s also not the first time ‘book of’ has been combined with Megaways—Blueprint Gaming did it earlier with Legacy of Ra Megaways, and Skywind followed with Book of Gems Megaways, featuring its unusual Tom Hardy-in-a-Fedora lookalike.

As noted, John Hunter and the Book of Tut Megaways is very much a “what you see is what you get” release—no more and no less. It gives fans of expanding special symbols a much larger grid to work with than usual and backs that up with strong overall stats, including a respectable 10,000x max win potential. It wouldn’t have hurt if Pragmatic Play had added a fresh technical twist—something genuinely new—to mark the occasion. Maybe next time, as there’s a good chance John Hunter will be back digging up relics again in the future.